I cannot believe how furious I am at this moment. After seeing this morning that the Astrodome is full, I wanted to find out what my city was doing to help these people. I realize that Greensboro, NC is 10 hours away but we should ALL be doing something no matter how far away we are.
I called the mayor's office (Keith Holliday) and the woman who answered the phone had no clue how to answer my question and put me on hold for 10 minutes, eventually cutting me off. I called back and she gave me the number for the public relations department, who didn't answer the phone.
So I called my city council representative.
I told him I wanted to know what the City of Greensboro was doing to help the people in New Orleans. He said that anything that the city decided would have to be approved by the council and next council meeting was next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, people are dying.
He said that there really wasn't much that Greensboro could do. We have the coliseum but it has bookings and it wasn't "practical" to cancel those bookings just to help the people of New Orleans.
He kept using the word practical and I swear every time he did I wanted to scream.
He said that we could donate to the red cross or donate toilet paper and other stuff like they are on Wendover (not sure what he meant by that). But it wasn't practical at this point for us to do anything.
I almost lost it at his next statement. He said that while we feel for the people of New Orleans, we have our own issues. It would be more practical of us to take care of these issues before trying to help these other people. He said we were too far away to help them.
How can people be so cruel? Have we turned into so much of a us-or-them society that we just don't try anymore? I've seen so many diaries complaining about the response from the federal government. The mayor of NO sent out a plea for help from anyone. Has anyone helped?
Please help me restore my faith in mankind! Please tell me what your cities are doing to help the victims of Katrina.