Hurricane Katrina

I'd been going out of my skull all week long because one of my close friends live(d) in New Orleans (he's a freelance writer for GameSpot Mobile). Ironically enough, he was supposed to move to Southern California in the middle of September. I tried calling him and emailing him to no avail (understandably so). Then last night he contacted me. He and some of his friends had gotten out just at the start of the storm and he was doing ok.

Then he started telling me stories. Some of his friends had gotten out later than him and showed up at the house where he was staying a day or two after he did... and they inevitably came with horrific stories detailing the decline of human behavior in the region. 80% of the city was under water. Corpses were floating past rooftops. The details he gave me were so much worse than anything I'd envisioned that I can't even repeat them.

I put up a bulletin in the 4th Wall about what you can do to help if you want to. If you have three weeks of your life to give, the Red Cross is offering two days intensive training followed by three week deployment in New Orleans. If I could, I would be there in a second. But there are other ways to help and the first place to start is to contact your local Red Cross or a local church group. I'm an atheist, but this transcends my feelings about God.

The whole week, I've been sitting here in relative ignorance of what's going on down there. I'm pissed off at myself because I didn't fully understand the magnitude and the depth of things going on down there. The news reports are obviously disturbing, but it's a layer of abstraction that allowed me to not be as concerned about it about as I now am. I mean, outside of my own friends, I wasn't too concerned because I was under the mistaken impression that our disaster response would be adequate enough to handle it.

Now I'm less upset with myself, but I'm definitely more upset at what I see as a lack-luster response by the federal government. The media has done a (surprisingly) excellent job of keeping us up to date on the happenings. But the federal government took four days to appropriate funds for disaster relief; they took five days to get the National Guard there in any significant numbers; they took five days to get the airlines to start offering flights to affected residents to places where they could get help; and all Bush can do is go on TV and say something to effect of "it looks bad now, but we'll be stronger after it's over."

I'm telling you, I was not a lover of our President before this disaster. But his lackluster response to a disaster of this magnitude on American soil doesn't have me pissed off at him any more; it just has me completely and utterly disappointed. I disagreed with him on Iraq. But if there was one thing I never doubted it's that somewhere in his warped mind, a part of him thought he was doing the best thing for the country. Emotionally, I was in sync with him when 9/11 happened and in the days surrounding 9/11 he was nothing if not Presidential. During the immediate weeks following 9/11, I was actually proud to have him as our President. I thought about what it would have been like if Gore were in office and I was actually happy that Gore lost the election because I couldn't see Gore speaking to the American people on the emotional level that Bush was.

But now I'm just completely disappointed almost to the point of feeling broken. I was hoping I would have the opportunity to get that feeling back again; that feeling of American pride that was so obviously present in this country post-9/11. It was a feeling that stemmed directly from the leadership of the federal government. But I've been unable to find that feeling during thie crisis because our national leaders are dropping the ball. I listened to the Mayor of New Orleans address the nation on the radio and I've never heard a politician more... I used the word "raw" when speaking with WedgeWu earlier, but I think the word I was searching for was "real". I've never heard a politician more real. And he's nothing if not upset.

Two buildings fall down in New York, thousands dead, and the federal government's response was swift, sure, and decisive. A whole city sinks under the sea like Atlantis and it takes four days, an upset mayor, and corpses floating in between rooftops before the federal government gets the National Guard mobilized in any seriousness.

Before, I just strongly disagreed with Bush; now I'm just fed-up. I'm done with this administration. If you guys see me mouth off about Bush and his policies again remind me I said "I'm done with this administration". I'm done writing about them and I'm done caring about them. I'm just done. My tirade is over.