Knit 1, Crochet 2

Furious

When I started this blog, I fully intended it to only be about my little corner of the world. My family, my knitting, my crochet. I wasn’t going to get into politics or world issues or go blabbering on incessantly about the way I think things should be. But, a post has come out of me here and there that skirted around my little rules. Well today, I’m pitching the rules out the window.

I’ve been glued to CNN since Sunday. I sit there and cry as images portrayed on my screen are just too horrible to comprehend. I read cnn.com at work, trying to see if something…anything…has gotten at least a little better. But it doesn’t. It just gets worse as the hours go on. I lie in bed and cry thinking about the families stuck in their attics trying to hold their children above the water. Knowing that so many failed. And thousands are dead.

Growing up in Florida, we were always told “the big one is coming someday”. Season after season we would get ready, perhaps have a few warnings and then go back to our regular lives. Does it make you feel a little too safe? Yes. My parents got their huge hurricane kit ready every year, without fail. Quite elaborate, too. Ask my parents how much good that kit did them when Charlie hit their house last year. You should see what they pack now. They were lucky. Yes, half the house was destroyed. But there was no flooding. They are also well off. Not so with most of the people affected where Katrina hit.

My dad says the response by FEMA and the Red Cross was astounding. Sure the lines were long. But they had food, water and ice. Someone tell me, where is FEMA and the Red Cross now? Where is the help these people are desperate for? Why is it taking so freaking long to get help? By the time help arrives, it is going to be too late. On Saturday, Katrina was predicted to hit New Orleans as a Cat. 5. The worst hurricane to ever hit the US. Why didn’t the ships that were just sent out YESTERDAY (that will take a week to get there) start out on Saturday? Did they think the damn hurricane would change it’s mind and go somewhere else? Evaporate? I had heard that FEMA and the Red Cross were staged and ready on Sunday. Really? Well where the hell are they now? Why are their people sitting on the highways waiting? At the Domes? Do we have no extra troops to send down there? Oh, yea, they are in Iraq. How about we bring them home to help our own damn country?

And special thanks to you, Mr. Bush, for your little fly-by at 10,000+ feet as you were coming home 2 days early (awww, so sorry) from your 5-week vacation. Why bother? You could have seen better pictures on CNN. I sure have.

Yes, I realize that the looters and rioters are not making it easy and I’m not excusing their behavior. But you know what? If my kids were starving and on the verge of dying from dehydration, you can bet your ass I’d be at Wal-Mart, too, stealing food and water right along with them. Now a freaking TV and some jewelry, inexcusable. Shooting at rescuers? No. But can you imagine the raw desperation???

No, I’m not going to sit here and just bitch. I’ll be joining thousands of Americans (hopefully) in making a donation to the Red Cross. And try to block out thoughts of little babies drowning in attics because their parents were too poor (or yes, too stupid in some cases, I know) to get out.

Posted by Heather at 12:48 PM