TIM ON THE NEW ORLEANS CRISIS

Everyone else is talking about it. I may as well throw in my own fiftieth of a dollar.

To put it shortly: I'm disappointed. Wholly disappointed.

I'm disappointed by my federal government's complete unpreparedness for something they knew could happen a week beforehand. This is the same federal government I planned on and still plan on serving, and they just pointed out to the rest of the entire world that they can't find their ass with both hands even with the aid of a trained Sherpa guide and a neurosurgeon whose only purpose in this analogy is to permanently affix said hands to said ass with cyanoacrylate glue. There really is no excuse, short of the devestation of the region, for coordinated aid to have taken the better part of a week to get somewhere on our own home soil. They had a week beforehand of thinking 'hey, the Gulf States are going to get creamed' and they made quite a few public statements to that extent. So, even knowing that a problem is on its way, they didn't do anything to prepare? Didn't place forces at an appropriate alert status so they could go in once the storm was over, even if it was worse than expected?

I'm an engineer. I'm not going to hold the failure of the emergency levee-blocking plan against them; it was a desperation move that didn't have much chance of working and it didn't. I am in heart (and still want to be in profession) a soldier. I'm not going to hold it against the National Guard for wanting to reassert order in force before letting civilian relief workers in... but still, what about those relief workers? You're getting sniped while trying to evacuate a hospital? Keep evacuating the hospital as best you can! Yeah, it's unsafe. New Orleans was, to put it mildly, the asscrack of the Gulf Coast when it came to crime and drugs anyway. Of course it's dangerous, but we can't let danger prevent us from doing what we can to help our countrymen! I have no argument against the people working day in and day out to relieve the massive amounts of human suffering taking place down there. I am, however, disappointed in the overcaution which is costing lives, while fully understanding that if they weren't so cautious people would still die and they'd be blamed for that, too.

I'm disappointed by the state officials that also sat on their hands and essentially waited not only for the storm to come but also for the federal government to come save them. Yes, I know they were overwhelmed... but they weren't all dead, no? They could have done something, even if the fancy-smancy command-control-communications we value so much in this country was shot to hell. Instead, they have a monkey/football clusterfuck that simply makes them, and by extension the rest of us, look absolutely moronic (of course, the same goes to the federal government). That's right, tell everyone to leave two days before the oncoming storm when you have a week. That's right, tell people to go to stadiums and convention centers that you know you haven't stocked as best you could, much less appropriately, for the demand. That's right, don't take emergency efforts to shore up your own levees and waterstations. There will always be someone else to blame.

I'm disappointed by the victims. That's right, the victims. The Southeast Asians, for all their faults, still have a sense of community that got them back on their feet and helping each other get out when there was nothing left. People helping others to survive--that's what we should expect from ourselves; it's only right. Instead, we have wolves and sheep--wolves who grab guns and steal TVs when there is no electrictity, steal shoes when they can't walk on water, who shoot at relief workers and cops and NatGuard only wanting to help; and sheep who go exactly where the government tells them to and complain when they can't get anything--if the government can get buses in, the victims can walk out, can make the effort to survive like human beings instead of dying like animals. This sort of selfish me-first attitude makes them, and the rest of us by extension, look like savages. As a tsunami survivor in Southeast Asia was heard to remark, "I guess we know where the civilized people really are."

I'm disappointed by the media. Yes, they did their job to report on the disaster and they did their best to goad the government into action... but did they themselves do anything? They're moving news vans and reporters in and interviewing victims... but do they feed the victims? Do they give them a ride out? Or do they do as they always do and merely watch, washing their hands of their moral obligation to actually help in-situ? To the American Media: You may imagine yourselves as the eyes and ears of the American people, but you also have hands. USE THEM.

I'm disappointed by the pundits... but I always am, so this is no surprise. Blaming Bush for global warming causing the hurricane in the first place. Blaming Democrats for not individually airlifting every single person who refused to leave to safety. My message to them: "Get over yourselves, assholes. This is weather, this is the result of an elephant farting in Africa. There will be time to blame the person you despise based on blind adherence to short-sighted, egotistical, zealous ideology later. Right now you should turn up your sleeves, grit your teeth, shoulder up to said person you despise and help along with them. You bastards are the ones who exemplify divisiveness in this country, the primary reason why nothing ever gets done. Once again, you do yourselves and your countrymen a disservice by blindly bleating slogans when people are dying. You make the suffering of our brothers and sisters a rallying cry to your own soundbyte, be it 'Unity with the President' or 'Bring Home Our Troops' or any other--you sickening curs--and wash your hands of your duty to help in every way you can. Turn off your microphones, get off your asses, and see how you can help."

I'm disappointed by the rest of the world for approximately the same reason. "This is God's punishment for attacking Iraq"--good job; France is now agreeing with the master fucktard himself, Fred Phelps. "This is Bush's fault for X reason." See above paragraph. "The Americans don't need aid because they pissed us off." This requires another direct address: "Okay, fine, our country offended you--that was the act of a government, I bet, not the citizenry, and it's the citizenry who needs help. Be as angry and anti-American as you want; you can belittle us and let us know just how much you despise us to your black hearts' content. But HELP. You want the moral high ground? You have to work for it. Take a page from your countrymen who are actually turned by proper human pity and commisseration to helping and get off your own lazy, whining ass--be good for something better than just playing the unadmitted nationalist to boost your deficient national esteem."

I'm disappointed in my own countrymen. A city, more than one, has been effectively wiped out... and life remains the same. People joke, laugh, and play with the occasional burst of pity for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast but with little to no effort. A chance for unity, a chance to do the right thing as we ought and get together to do what needs be done... and we waste it in our divisiveness, in our sloth, in our lives of ease and complacency where people complain and worry more about the economic impact, the result of imaginary wealths being traded, rather than the very real human suffering occuring no more than a few hours' drive away. If this is the best we can do... well... China can't become the world superpower fast enough after we attend to a few things, which is a rant for later.

Finally, I'm disappointed in myself for not being able to do as much as I'd like. That much, at least, I can have a direct effect on.

The rest of you, get off your asses and find some way to assist. If you claim to believe in things like human dignity and civilization, then it's your duty to at least make an effort... so get on the bounce.

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