I know I mentioned the Hurricane (cap H intended) a few days ago, and that it is probably already on your mind, but I have to get a few more thoughts out there.<\/p>\n
I have accomplished very little at work today because I’m addicted to checking cnn.com, msn.com, both local papers, and any other news source I can find with information on what is happening in New Orleans. I was emailing with BFE yesterday and I made a comment about how I’m pissed at the people who had a chance to leave on Sunday but didn’t. The gritty old guys who said things to reporters like, “I’ve survived worse than hurricane. I’ll ride this out, too.” The families who wanted to be there to pick up around the house when it was all over. Those types of people. But now, I feel for them all and I REFUSE to believe we are doing all we can for them.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, when I was a little more conservative than I am now (a.k.a. before I moved to Seattle), I was watching post-hurricane coverage on the news and some woman was pissed at “the government” for not helping her rebuild her house, which, naturally, had been destroyed. At the time, I thought, “Why in the hell should the government help you? Don’t you have some personal responsibility here?” And she did, and so did the people on the Gulf Coast who could have left but didn’t.<\/p>\n
But it’s different now. The ones who could have left are now struggling for life alongside the ones who had no choice but to stay. We’ve left them there to fend for their lives like wild dogs, and that’s what they are turning into. Looting is rampant, armed men are roaming the streets at night shooting at cops, people are firing on helicopters as they try to evacuate HOSPITALS. You put a guy in a situation where he is starving, dying of thirst, and resourceless to do anything about it and you’re god damn right he’s going to lose his mind. Factor in the fact that he’s probably watching his family suffer and\/or die too and you might as well be watching Mad Max. And, go ahead and hate me for this if you want to, it’s the government’s fault. Bush has been about as consoling, competent, and creative about fixing this as my cat. But Niles doesn’t have the resources GW does.<\/p>\n
I bought gas on my way to work this morning, not because I needed it yet, but because I know it’s about to be $5 a gallon. As I looked at the guy next to me, shook my head, and said “Two ninety-five!” and then heard him say, “Three seventeen!” (because he was filling up his Beamer, which apparently requires a higher octane than my VW) I realized that I’d pay $10 a gallon if it meant every person in the Superdome could get on a bus to a place not run by post-apocalyptic madmen, and be holding a bottle of drinkable water on their way.<\/p>\n
Fucking Bush.<\/p>\n
UPDATE: I just found this site <\/a>via What Do I Know <\/a>via Pop Astronaut<\/a>. Unbelievable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I know I mentioned the Hurricane (cap H intended) a few days ago, and that it is probably already on your mind, but I have to get a few more thoughts out there. I have accomplished very little at work today because I’m addicted to checking cnn.com, msn.com, both local papers, and any other news […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}