I used to have a bumper sticker on my car that said "Plan to Improvise." I thought it was funny and it seemed to be the way I lived my life--no matter how much planning I did, something strange would happen and I'd have to improvise anyway. Well it looks like the Bush Administration and Congress have told the American people, not in so many words, that we're on our own. We should just plan to improvise, because they can't be bothered with planning for natural disaster relief. No, we need to pray to God to keep from sending hurricanes our way like Pat Robertson does. That seems to be the extent of this administration's disaster relief planning.
But Katrina more than made a statement. She made a mockery. Katrina to Bush: "Who's the bitch now?!?!"
A few years ago I was telling anyone who would listen that it would be a huge mistake to spend the surplus on tax cuts. If there is one thing I've learned in all my planning to improvise, it's that you can't be prepared enough for unexpected events. All it would take is a natural disaster or terrorist attack and we'd be screwed.
It sickens me to know that I was right. It hurts me to think about the nightmare I had in 1999 coming true. I was actually thinking to myself last week how the current State of the Union seemed hopeless, and I remembered that it felt the same way when Bush 41 was in office. I actually thought it couldn't get much worse, could it? Then along comes Katrina and tells me oh hell yes it can.
I had a bad feeling about this storm all weekend. I grew up in Alabama where everybody knows the name "Camille." I watched the computer models from LSU--the ones that showed the levees being breached as the storm pushed Lake Ponchartrain higher and higher. And those researchers at LSU were right on the money. But did those in charge pay any attention? Hell no.
I've watched in horror at the reports of anarchy at the Convention Center. I was there in November--on Election Day, even. I can picture the place vividly in my mind. And I can picture it, sadly, full of hopeless people. Sadness and death everywhere you turn. It's mind-boggling, this scene of total chaos. It didn't have to happen and there were plenty of opportunities to mitigate damage along the way. But nobody bothered to fix what needed fixing.
The people who keep saying they (the refugees) got what they deserved for staying in the path of the storm by choice are really pissing me off right now. My sister lived in New Orleans for several years and she never had a car while she lived there. Same goes for my ex. If they'd still been down there, they'd have needed to hitch a ride out of town. Look what happened to so many tourists: Stuck in hell with no way out and no relief in sight.
So now I'm wondering (with my tinfoil hat firmly in place) if the lack of response is some sort of psychotic sociology experiment? It's like one of my favorite movies, "Trading Places" with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Lives ruined on a dollar bet. I keep waiting to hear echoes of that old Sanka commercial: We've secretly replaced FEMA with a barrel of monkeys. Watch what happens....
Now with the Gulf Coast ruined, We The People are being asked again to cough up our spare change. I don't have a problem with this on principle. I think we need to donate whatever we can to help these people. But I'm wondering where the hell my tax dollars went? Why is it that we're always asked to donate money, even as the administration sits on its ass in meetings, trying to figure out how to profit from the latest disaster? We have to cough up $3 or more per gallon of gasoline now, and for many of us, that's seriously dented our budgets, and I figure our generosity will only go so far, you know?
I just found out today that my brother's National Guard Unit has been mobilized and sent to Gulfport. And I'm proud that he's there helping out, because they need all the help they can get. In fact, I wish I could go with him. But now it's made me question whether or not this leaves his unit vulnerable to service in Iraq after the Katrina clean up? They'd not been called up yet. Just one more heavy thought weighing on my mind.
Here's a special shout out to all the Pharisee Republicans who invoke the name of Jesus every chance they get, have a little lesson on Karma from The Bible:
"For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not." Then shall they also answer him, saying, "Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?" Then shall he answer them, saying, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
[Matt. 25:42-46 (KJV)]
I just thank God that, as far as I know, none of my friends or relatives were in the path of the storm. And I pray this will all be over soon for those unfortunate souls who were.