A Nation of Grief

It's hard for me to put into words the feelings, the emotions that I have felt this past week as I watched the drama play out in the storm tossed area's of our country.

 I feel the vast majority of moral minded Americans felt sickened, betrayed and humbled by what they were viewing.  There is no worse feeling in this world than to want to be able to physically help someone and not be able to.

Sitting here, shouting at the T.V. "Get them off the roofs!" "Get more boats!" For the love of God...do something. 

Ok, I know that all cities are supposed to have an emergency plan for evacuating in case of a dire event.  Well, I personally think a lot of different things came in to play.

1) It was the 29th of the month, a lot of the residents are on either Social Security or benefits that come in on the first of the month...they had no money to leave.

2) A certain percentage could possibly of left, but wanted to stay to protect their "stuff"... I've seen it happen here in Florida too..people consider their "stuff" more important than their lives.

3) Absolutely no concern from the city or state government as to how the poor would leave other than head to the Super Dome.

4) Super Dome was understaffed, and not set up for 30,000 people they truly believed it would be about maximum 10,000.

5) There should of been buses commandeered from Grey Lines to travel tour buses to get the people out of the inner city.

6) It all comes down to preparation. They were not prepared for this at all.

7) The Federal government's response was slower than thick molasses poured on a winter's day...it was shameful.  The greatest nation in the world could not respond within hours? It took five to seven days? Someone's head should roll.

8) If they couldn't be reached by the roads, Paratroopers could of been dropped into the parking lot at the Dome to )believe me) instantly restore civilization within. That could of been done within hours of the storm's end. Then the food/water etc...heavy drops kept coming.  Chaos would not of reigned, some people would not of died...it just took planning.

9) Heaven Above...New Orleans sits on water, in water...send boats...little boats, big boats.  The Cruise liners to house people that was a no brainer but it took six days to do it. Hell, my folks made it to Alaska on a cruise in less than six days.  Hello?

10) Well, I have a thought, maybe some people won't like it too much but here goes....

The Federal government owns all kinds of houses that are being foreclosed, are in foreclosure....why not take those and offer the houses to people who lost their houses? These houses of course are all over the United States..it would mean that people would move permanently into a new area. It would spread the displaced people out and not concentrate them into one state...like Texas so they would not become a burden.

I know this would only take care of a percentage of the people, but it would be like the old time "Land rushes" that they used to have...remember the land giveaways of the old west?

I think it could work. I also think it would give these people something to look forward to in the future.

I've read a couple of blogs from abroad and people are shaking their heads over our response and I can't blame them one bit. I wanted an instant Hollywood ending to the story, John Wayne comes riding in and saves the day.  Harrison Fords conquers all. Mel Gibson finds a way to stop it.  Even Johnny does good, don't even get me started on Patrick Swayze....I need a Hero...