broken-hearted

I have spent most of this week following reports from New Orleans and the Gulf coast. An old friend of mine from Philadelphia, who since relocated to New Orleans, was stranded there in the thick of the chaos. He is now safe in Baton Rouge, but he sadly had to leave behind his two Siamese kitties. His family and friends back in the Philadelphia area are now busy contacting animal rescue groups with the hope that perhaps they can be saved. But I am so, so sad---and angry---that the situation there has become so dire. That people are still sitting on rooftops waiting for food and water, that the federal government has been so slow to react and organize, and that people are dying because of this inaction---I just can't get my head around it. I am sick of survivors being vilified for simply trying to find food, water, medicine, diapers for their babies. The vast majority of "looters" are not criminals---they are simply trying to survive. How can we judge them. Reports are now coming out as well that many of the armed groups of "marauders" are people so desperate to get the attention of rescuers because they have friends and family still trapped in attics, people who are now dying from lack of water and medical attention. It is an absolute disgrace. Call me a cynic, but there is a part of me that wonders what the response would have been had Katrina hit the uber-rich Hamptons or say Nantucket, rather than poor and mostly black southern Louisiana and Mississippi. Would the response have been so slow? Or would Martha Stewart-esque gourmet picnic baskets been dropped, would Davies-Gate toiletry kits been quickly distributed, would luxury hotel chains have opened empty rooms to these refugees? Please do what you can to help. Network for Good http://www.networkforgood.org Red Cross http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate2/ For many links and much info: http://www.airamericaradio.com/katrina With every sip of water and bite of food I take, for every cuddle I have with the pets, I cannot help but be immensely grateful. These are everyday things that we all take for granted. But today I cannot. Hasta pronto, mylifeinspain Postscript: In case you were wondering, Cheney is still on vacation in Wyoming. Condie spent Wednesday seeing "Spamalot" on Broadway and buying shoes at Ferragamo's 5th Avenue store. When confronted by another customer as to how she could be shoe shopping at such a crisis moment, Condie had her security people remove the woman from the store.