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I am personally embarrassed by all of this.

This crap we tell about how "great" the American people are has totally been shown to be a lie. True, it's not a lie everywhere, but it is certainly a lie in Louisiana.

In Mississippi there was a story about a man, standing in front of his totally wiped out house. He'd come there from Vietnam. He said "I came here thirty years ago with nothing, and now I have nothing again. But I will rebuild it."

But in New Orleans, we see masses of able-bodied people sitting around waiting to be spoon-fed.

A whole city full of able-bodied people, and yet precious little activity with participation in their own survival.

A city full of people that might have helped to pass supplies to those that need them. A whole city full of people that might have worked together to fill sandbags, or help the infirm, or get the children out.

But no... what we have is a city full of people that are fully unable to think, or act. What we have is a place where medical units cannot go in without military escort.

We should'nt HAVE TO "secure" the ground in order to provide help. But we do. In New Orleans.

Maybe we should just back off from support. Drop leaflets with a phone number on them, saying... "Look... call us when you want some help. But until then... have a nice day."

There was a shot on WWL...of the Miss. coast, one of those towns that was gone....and a guy and his wife were standing on what looked like giant matchsticks with nothing recognizeable. He turned to the helicopter, and just extended his arms and held out his American flag.

"In Mississippi there was a story about a man, standing in front of his totally wiped out house. He'd come there from Vietnam. He said "I came here thirty years ago with nothing, and now I have nothing again. But I will rebuild it."

But in New Orleans, we see masses of able-bodied people sitting around waiting to be spoon-fed."

You nailed it good.

---"But in New Orleans, we see masses of able-bodied people sitting around waiting to be spoon-fed."----

I think for a lot of these people there is no leadership (along with no supplies). But with leadership (even "home grown") they perhaps could do something more to better their situation than what we've seen. Some of that WAS visible, they showed guys getting water and drinks and passing them out. But it looked pretty limited.

And then of course there are people like the gal at the Superdome saying how "yeah - they gave us food, but it was cold and you could barely eat it. No hot food for three days. Just water, water, water."

i know it's late and i'm cranky, but i'm wondering why we are going to be forced to rebuild the place that should by all common sense be underwater?....

I know we will, it's the American way and all, but I can just see this turning into a massive boondoggle, a Marshall Plan for New Orleans, fake sincerity concerts, donation scams/drives, slick attorney fueled lawsuit bonanzas, dim-bulb celebs "feeling" peoples pain on Oprah, The MSM tracing the cause of the problem to George W. Bush, the whole friggin mess.....
and it will all end up a movie of the week and we will be back to that Aruban kid....or the "Next Big Story"

Also, the thuggery has soured me on the whole mess, and thats sad because the vast majority of folks down work hard and play by the rules and they have lost everything.

they are victims twice over, once by the hurricane, secondly by the thug elements in our midsts.
And I have no doubt that similar devestation visited on any other major US city would likely produce the same results....hell, a certain segment of society wants to burn the city down when the "team" wins the "big game", so why am I so suprised at all of this?

sorry, venting, simply disgusted...man i'm getting cranky