Crimson Butterfly

I have been watching and reading of the devastation that has taken place this week in the southern part of our country that was hit by hurricane Katrina, and have been appalled and utterly disheartened by what has happened in the aftermath.

Now I do not presume to have any idea how things actually are being handled, but from what I have seen, it amounts to very poor execution of getting people out alive from this disaster.

I have been sitting here in tears today watching reports of people stuck on the broken freeways around New Orleans...stuck without food and water for 3 days now...and nobody has helped them. Right now, in this country that bends over backwards to aid other countries in need, there are Americans dieing on I-10 in Louisiana because there are not enough resources to rescue them! How is this possible??!! What is going on?? I just watched video from the news of a man lying dead on the side of one of these bridges...just lying there like so much garbage that people throw out their windows driving along.

Fuck. Just. Fuck.

How can we possibly justify the death of one person in the aftermath of this because of limited resources? We can send hundreds of thousands of troops overseas to fight a shitty war...and to "rebuild democracy" in other countries. We can spend billions putting shuttles and unmanned space craft in space and onto other planets. Yet we can't save the lives of a little under 100,000 of our own citizens in desparate need of rescue!!??

And how can the lawless that are running rampant in the unsupervised streets of New Orleans be shooting and hindering the very people that are trying to help them?? Why has martial law not been declared there...and the thugs just been incapacitated by our military?? How is all of this happening in our country, in 2005??

If I was a religious person, I would be praying my ass off right now for some kind of help for these people. But since I am not, I can only hope in my heart that better decisions are made and quickly so that my fellow American citizens can be taken to safety...and they can start on their path to reclaiming their lives.