Regards to all, Mike B)
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I feel like writing. Words fail me, almost. I burn, I seethe, with anger. Red hot. Nat'l. Guard and most of its equipment, off in Iraq. Fema, post-Andrew and pre-2000, was very good. Certainly in Fla. for hurricane response they were. Bloated? Who the hell knows, but they mobilized effectively and coordinated with the state and got shit done. Now? We're being exhorted to give to Operation Blessing by FEMA, listed as one of the top 3 org.'s to whom we should donate cash. Operation who? That's right, Pat Robertson and gang will be helping lead the Gulf Coast to recovery. Yeah,words, almost, fail me. They've drowned the federal gov't., and now the gulf coast poor have drowned. The lucky ones? Here, have a little more racial hatred, for aring to act desperate and all.
I'm bitter. I pulled an all-nighter last night at our cajundome civic center volunteering to help the refugees housed here. A mass of humanity sleeping/ living temporarily in every nook and cranny of the place. Probably the same scene in a hundred cities. Poor and black, left with little to nothing and betrayed to the end. But there is no depair, at least not yet. I can't tell you how the majority were almost overly polite. And not from being shell-shocked.
It really doesn't take much for the better part of our human spirit to prevail. (Though it could have been due to the barbecue and jambalaya that Halliburton was cooking for all the refugees.... Yes, that Halliburton (big employer here). No one was complaining about the food; I didn't bother pointing out the irony.)
Yet another call to get involved with politics. And not just local. On Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, 1,000 people from here around Lafayette with 500 boats left at 4 a.m. for New Orleans, having been summoned "officially" to help with the crisis. Avid hunters and fishermen who know, among other things, how to run boats in shallow waters. They had a state trooper escort all the way in. Waved on through, all the way to the crucial areas, by the various state officials until they reached their launch spot. They returned home by mid-afternoon same day. Zero rescues, Zero attempts. FEMA steadfastly refused to allow their help, citing blah blah blah wrong boats and blah blah blah safety. Damnit to hell. Its like a team of all-white 15 year-olds who shit their pants when they have that first big away game against the all-black team. And let's see, if the policy is to whittle the federal gov't. in favor of local communities helping themselves, .... Whatever. Courtesy of local emergency mgt. director:
--"We had WalMart deliver 3 trucks of water--trailer trucks of water--FEMA turned 'em back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago."
--"...we had a hundred-we had a thousand gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said "Come get fuel right away." We got there with our trucks, then they got word: FEMA says don't give you the fuel."
--"Yesterday FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communications lines. They cut them, without notice. Our Sherriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line, he posts armed guards on our line, and says "No one is getting near these lines."
I kid you not, this was all part of FEMA's decision disallowing Red Cross to enter with food and water or any other entity to bring in supplies, because people would then not want to evacuate! Apparently, if you give poor black people bottled water and some chips, they'll happily live right there in their own stinking shit.
Don't know how to say this other than straight: FEMA Director Brown's last job was as Judges and Stewards Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association. With apologies to Susan, uh, ~~Word. I can't even type an exclamation point.
But yesterday though, La. Governor Blanco hired James Lee Witt, FEMA director under Clinton who reworked FEMA post- Hurricane Andrew, to direct Louisiana's recovery.
Erin, Halliburton has a contract to rebuild some military base damage (obviously no way in hell there was time to fake bid it; they must be wrapping it under an existing contract...).
Helicopter food drops were suspended the entire time Bush was in N.O.. Bush faked two photo-ops in New Orleans, one at levee repair thingamacrap and the second at a feeding/ water station. Both were dismantled five minutes later.
Back at the Cajundome, a large group of us have been denied the chance to play music by Red Cross, citing liability issues. In defense of Red Cross, they've bewildered and have the largest task they've ever faced. No doubt. Anyway, it's probably not much of a cajun music crowd, and my zydeco is pretty weak.... I just walk in, slap on my own tag, and do my own thing just giving people some personal attention, generally trying to find the same families each day and then helping them and people they recommend.
peace - keith
****************************************************************** Whoever wishes to experience the truth of immediate life, must investigate its alienated form, the objective powers, which determine the individual existence into its innermost recesses.
Adorno, MINIMA MORALIA
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