WHERE IS THE ARMY, NAVY, & MARINES?
I kept asking where is the Army, where are the Marines, the Navy, when I saw pictures of all those Americans stranded in New Orleans. They had lived through a nightmare few of us ever have to live through (believe me I know I live in Florida). Then they were left stranded, surrounded by water for days. The people in Mississippi and Alabama surrounded by the rubble of their towns. We have airlifted aid into foreign countries faster. Maybe the Gulf coast isn't on the maps used by our government.
When the west coast of Florida was hit so hard down in Punta Gorda, we heard about the plight of the animals and went to the schools and got the children to bring in dog and cat food.
Then we delivered it. After driving for three hours from northern Florida, we found the shelter. They were operating with no running water, no roof, no electricity. All the food they had on hand before the storm, except the cans, was ruined. They were very happy to see us arrive. Yes, we are animal lovers.
I remember when I was a child, a house in the neighborhood burned in the middle of the night. The family was immediately taken in by neighbors and a neighborhood meeting was held. The next weekend the whole neighborhood came together, cleared the debris away, and framed out a house. The materials came from donations taken up around the town. The women rounded up furniture they could spare from their own homes to furnish the home enough so the family could move into their new home. The children were assigned to carry burned debris and lumber for the rebuilding. I will never forget the smell of that charred wood. Can you imagine someone today letting their child wade into the remains of a burned out building? Can you imagine a neighborhood doing that today? Today, we will make a donation, maybe, but will we give of our time, of ourselves? The mothers then carried a clean handkerchief to wipe off any scrapes and if they were bad enough you got Iodine. Ooh whew, blow on it!
The Red Cross, forget about it. I can give you some real life experiences regarding them.
(1) When I was a kid living in Kansas, water was rising near our home and we were told to evacuate. A family of six with nowhere to go for the night, Dad was told the Red Cross had rented all the available rooms in the area. He then contacted the Red Cross and was told we could have a room if he signed a note for the rent. We spent the night in our car. Luckily the railway tracks, which were built up, kept the water from reaching our neighborhood.
(2) When my husband was in the service during WWII traveling across country on a military train, he was offered coffee and donuts by the Red Cross at one of the stops - cost 25 cents.
(3) When his mother became ill while he was in the service during WWII, he got emergency leave to go home. The Red Cross supplied the train ticket. They considered the price of the ticket a loan and it was deducted from his monthly service pay of $21.00 when he returned to duty.
(3) I was working in a restaurant as a teenager in South Carolina. A serviceman came in and got a cup of coffee then told me he was trying to get back to base in North Carolina and would be considered AWOL if he wasn't there by the next night. I called the restaurant owner's wife, who worked with the Red Cross. She sent someone from their office to the restaurant to talk to the young soldier. They told him they would provide him with a bus ticket if he had something to leave as collateral. The only thing he had was his watch, which he started to give to them. I told him not to do it, that I would buy his ticket if there was no other way. I then called the Salvation Army who came over, with a ticket, and drove the soldier to the bus station.
When the owner's wife heard the story the next day, she quit donating her time to the Red Cross.
I have never, nor will I ever, donate one penny to them. Just knowing their director gets hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay should be a clue to what they are really interested in. The Salvation Army gets my help.
Today, almost everyone has insurance to cover their homes. But what if the insurance companies illegally refuse to pay? Who is going to make them? What if it's almost the whole town that is gone, not a single home? The people of the Gulf coast are Americans. They pay their taxes just like the rest of us but they were abandoned by America. Not only were they left to suffer in the heat with no food or water but they are still so many months later being left to suffer at the hands of the bureaucracy and our government.
The government is using the misery of these people to rip off the American taxpayer. If as many as 500,000 people were displaced, we could have written each family a check for $500,000.00 and have saved money. Of course, then there wouldn't have been any "no bid" contracts for the favored.
I am sick to my stomach of four words "conservative," "liberal," and "family values." What is wrong with "Right" and "Wrong?" That is the best "moral value" we can adopt.
Therefore, I am once again suggesting that we let our flag fly. Put it everywhere. But at the same time, let us put a black wreath on our doors, a black ribbon on our lapel and cars. Let us show the sadness that we feel for the loss of our American soul.
THEN LET'S TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!
Visit http://www.restorecommonsense.org to learn how.