Hurricane Katrina—Some Thoughts from Patch Adams

Patch's Diary Diary Entry September 2005 May 2005 August 2004 April 2004 September 2003 June 2003 March 2003

My heart and mind go out to all who suffer as a result of the hurricane Katrina. Nature is a humbling mother. I ache especially for the poor and disabled already living the disasters of inequality of wealth and power. I salute every lifted hand and dollar lent in care and compassion.

I see that there is a tragedy of the damage done by nature—the hurricane and flooding.

And I see there is a tragedy even more vast than that—the tragedies of the 'social' system we live in, which has failed its people miserably.

Right now, as of Tuesday September 6, we in Gesundheit are in the process of making a commitment to take clowns, aid, and relief to places in the south. As a very poor organization, we need your help. If you can send a financial donation, please mail it to:

Patch Adams, Katrina Donation 6855 Washington Boulevard Arlington, Virginia 22213

If you are willing to be part of the team to bring relief, write me at the same address, including your contact information, and how you could help.

1. We condemn the racism inherent in the Katrina tragedy. All who are poor or middle class of this country can see what little regard our government has for their care and should support those who are the people's servants, not the corporations' police. 2. We consider the environmental disasters of draining the wetlands, and of our government’s refusal to be concerned for global warming, as part of the Katrina tragedy. This must be addressed. 3. We deplore how the President and his regime (with the help of the mass media), are trying to shift attention away from their failures in this situation, to the incidents of lawlessness and looting. The shame of Bush's announcement to "shoot to kill" all looters fits in well with the fake Christianity displayed by Pat Robertson's call the week before to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (who has been elected democratically 7 times by his people). 4. We indict a mass media that is now withdrawing its (and our?) attention away from the Katrina tragedy, considering it 'old news'. Beware of the fickle attention the mass media will now pay to the Katrina tragedy. What about the sufferings of the displaced people—not 'sensational' enough? What about making significant changes in FEMA, to insure such a social tragedy never happens again? What about addressing racism, systemic poverty? Let us all keep paying attention as a political act. 5. We feel this is an ideal time for all of us to become outspoken about two of the criminal examples of our government's service to wealth—the war in Iraq, and the 1.7 trillion dollar tax cut to the rich. If we stopped the war, and stopped granting privileges to the rich, we could easily rebuild the effects of the hurricane and flooding, and take a step to correct the disaster of a loss of the government of the people and by the people.

The first article is a brief report of an offer made by Fidel Castro, to help with the aftermath of Katrina. I thank President Castro for his generous offer to send 1100 Cuban physicians to the United States, especially given that the US has been trying to crush his country for over 40 years. (We at Gesundheit tried to go on another clown mission to Cuba this last spring, but were stopped by the fact that the US govt. threatens up to $250,000 in fines to any American traveling there).

The second article, by Michael Parenti, frames the Katrina tragedy in such a way that makes a lot of sense to me: how the grossly inefficient US emergency response to Katrina is actually privatization in action—every person for herself, given the means she has. Michael Parenti also tells of how the Cuban government successfully evacuated 1.2 million Cuban people from a recent hurricane, with no deaths.

P.S. We went to Sri Lanka in March of 2005 for Tsunami relief, thanks to the generosity of an Italian family. We found that almost none of the money sent for relief had gotten to the people. I wish I knew how to correct this. Large sums of money corrupt, as we know so well from our government. So consider planning a 'vacation' to the affected areas for cleanup and construction when this begins. Find out where your donations go. Help us, by sending donations, or by coming with our teams of people. And get proactive to make a government that would have cared for its people.

Large sums of money corrupt, as we know so well from our government. So consider planning a 'vacation' to the affected areas for cleanup and construction when this begins. Find out where your donations go. Help us, by sending donations, or by coming with our teams of people. And get proactive to make a government that would have cared for its people.

This part I like. I hear the La officials will be in charge of the reconstruction. I wonder what would happen if we'd send some volunteers to monitor where or 62Bn in donations are going. Think they's show us the books?

22 posted on 09/16/2005 5:06:13 PM PDT by nothingnew (I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)

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