The Hard Stuff

Since Hurricane Katrina devastated 90,000 miles of the Southern Coast, stretching over four states, I've thought about posting here every day. The enormity of the devastation has been too much for words.

At every level -- from top to bottom -- efforts to alleviate the suffering were woefully inadequate.

I can't help but look at a picture of hundreds of school buses in New Orleans that have been sitting under water and wonder why they weren't used to evacuate those people with neither the means nor the ability to get themselves out of town. This was, in my estimation, a failure.

I can't help but wonder why the Governor of Louisiana didn't call out the National Guard before the storm to aid in a mandatory evacuation. That, too, was a failure.

I am furious over the molasses slow response of FEMA, and the federal government's role in making their usual modes of operation more difficult now that they fall under the guise of Homeland Security. Big failure that, as well.

But underneath all this is an awareness that there were logisitical issues that exacerbated the problems, none of which human beings had the power to control.

Others may be tearing their hair out in anger over the administration. It is totally understandable, but I'm trying to use my energies to help in the here and now.

This is a luxury I have, though, since I live relatively close to where all this happened. I CAN get my butt off the sofa and load things up and take them to the shelters here where there are evacuees. I can take supplies to drop off points and literally put them on the trucks myself, knowing that the next hands that touch them will be hands of a survivor.

Those who are not geographically near can do little more than give money -- and as wonderful as that is, I know it just doesn't have the same "feel".

If I couldn't actually DO something, maybe I'd be spending more time being angry.

Now is not the time to be calling for an investigation of exactly how all this went terribly wrong for so long -- one will surely come, and if it doesn't I'll be first in line screaming for it.

Now is the time to focus all the frustration into doing what we can now as private citizens.

Give money. Give blood. Help your local relief agencies restock supplies they may have sent to the current efforts. Buy phone cards, gas cards, meal cards -- and send them to someone in an area who can get them to evacuees. If you don't have a friend in one of these areas, Google churches in cities where you know there are evacuees. Enclose these things with a note requesting that they be given to people who need them.

Do something that will make a difference to people who are hurting right now -- the other things will be sorted out, and no matter how justified the anger is, it won't put food in a hungry belly.