As the sharks begin to circle....

Well, the hurricane has come and gone and most of the evacuees are safely out of the area and housed in other states. Now the sharks begin to circle as the various public officials point fingers at one another and an outraged public wants to be appeased for the many, many mistakes made before, during, and after the hurricane hit New Orleans.

City officials didn't follow the in-place emergeny plan, state officials didn't ask for help soon enough, federal officials are trying to help but too little, too late.
Of all of the mistakes that various people are going to have to 'pay' for I wish that everyone would keep in mind that it won't matter to the people that died in the hurricane, it won't matter to the people who died afterwards from lack of water and food while waiting to be rescued from rooftops, and it doesn't matter to the people who are still dying from the disease ridden water that they had to come in contact with.

People are crying out in outrage over the various nursing home patients that were left behind to die. I won't judge the motives of the workers who had to make the choice of who to save and who to leave. Most of the people in this country don't understand the huge responsibility of emergency workers, and other people, who have to make a choice like that. Do you save four people that you know for sure that you can get to safety or do you risk everyone by trying to save all eight? It's a hard choice and one that I would not want to have to make. But that's what we are faced with, people had to make hard and fast choices that resulted in life for some and death for others. It's easy to look at the facts of the matter, afterwards, and judge but try to put yourself in their shoes, under those existing circumstances and with the limited knowledge that they had and try to make life and death decisions. Hindsight is 20/20 and everyone forgets that during such an event the foresight is limited to tunnel vision at best.

And the sharks in the press and from the various federal agencies circle still, looking for blood in the water from the public sacrifices that will be made to appease the public outrage over the disaster. The clamouring for blood is no different than the crys of the lynch mob of the 19th century, or the mobs that stood around the guillotine after the French Revolution, or even the throngs of good and proper Roman citizens at the various circuses that the Emporer hosted.

The american public can't pay for, and don't want to pay for the type of on constant standby emergency forces that it would take to ensure that this type of disaster doesn't happen again. How much do you want your taxes to go up? How much comfort and safety do you want to pay for? Which social programs do we want to do without? There's only so much money to go around and decisions will have to be made that will, again, determine the life and death of various programs - unless it directly affects you or someone you love. Let's try to think before we scream for action and insist on blood. Once the wound is opened it's very hard to stop the flow.

Their time in hell

Their time in hell.....Someone, several years ago someone said to me "You know that your place in heaven is secure, you've served your time in hell...." The man who said that was a Chaplin with the Fire Department of New York. We were standing just a few feet away from "the pile" at Ground Zero a short time after the 9/11 tragedy. I never thought that anything worse could happen, short of war. Well, it has and it's name is 'the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina'. The hurricane itself was deadly and horrific. Now imagine this, you've survived the 170 MPH winds and the 30 foot tall storm surge that hit the city. It's the next morning and you find yourself either sitting on top of your roof or wading through waist deep, to chest deep, water that reeks of raw sewage and lots of other pollution trying to get to anywhere but where you were. People wait, for help, for clean water and food, they wait for anyone outside of New Orleans to help them. Day One passes and the severally ill start to die due to lack of water and medicine and trauma. Day Two passes and those who made it to higher ground are stuck there still. Babies suffer from lack of hydration and food. Day Three passes and more people die and the bodies of those who drowned in the water are starting to 'pop-up' due to the natural decomposition rate of drowning victims/dead bodies in the water. This adds to the toxic mix of pollution that people are having to wade through. Oh, and don't forget about the alligators and poisonous snakes that have been displaced as well - they're probably pretty pissed off also. Day Four and more people die due to lack of food and, especially, water. How frustrating would it be for a normal person to survive a hurricane and make it to higher ground but to be stuck there with no water, no food, no way of communicating with anyone, and no way of knowing whether or not help was on the way. All you see and hear and feel is the people around you in anguish and the local authorities can't help, they just drive on by.Society breaks down and people take matters into their own hands by robbing and looting. Horrible you say? I ask you this, if that was your only means of getting water and food to survive on and it had been days since you'd had either and it looked like no one was coming to help - I'm willing to bet a large amount of money that just about everyone would do whatever they felt necessary to survive. Unfortunately, in that mix is the criminal element that also sought to survive and from what I've seen on CNN, the air of lawlessness took hold very quickly. How many people died after the hurricane due to lack of water and food? How many people died as a result of lawless activity (i.e. being shot)? How many people carry with them the scenes of all of the above and are angry with the world that help didn't come sooner? So, yes, these survivors of Hurricane Katrina have their place in heaven secured, they've been through a worse hell than anyone can ever imagine or want to have as a nightmare. Now we as an American Society are trying to find shelter, food, clothing, etc... for the evacuees but please don't forget that they carry with them a shredded heart and wounds on their souls. Let's try to help them heal on that level as well.