angry

i am not a southerner. i've never been farther south than virginia. i make comments about the hypocritical, parasitic ways of red states a lot. but you know what? i am really fucking pissed off on behalf of the people of new orleans. why, you ask? i'll tell you why-a lot of the human misery there right now was 100% preventable. why in the name of all that's holy was there not an evacuation plan for EVERYONE? why were those without cars (ie, the poor) left to fend for themselves? why was there no plan for the aftermath? and why is the news focusing on the looting rather than asking the obvious question-why was there no plan? and why is there no plan? it's not as if the threat of a direct hurricane strike on new orleans just came up this year. it's been bloody obvious since the time of the french that it is not an ideal location for a city. with modern meteorology and storm tracking, it's not like katrina was a surprise. there was plenty of time to evacuate, if there had been a realistic plan. but there wasn't. and i am angry. angry that thousands of my fellow citizens were deserted by their government in a massive and ongoing dereliction of duty. this is america, not some third-world country lacking in resources. we can do better. we should have done better. there should be a reckoning, but i'm guessing a lot of the dead are poor, so there won't be. there will be no soul-searching or recognition that many, many government officials from both parties over many years failed to act and set the scene for this disaster, from local all the way up to federal level.

aw, bless

stuff like this makes me wish i had kids. or knew kids young enough to be given a book like this as a present. but i think my little cousins may be too old for it.

actually, kid's books in general are cool. i think picture books have gotten much cooler since i was little. i remember picture books being sort of kiddy paperbacks, with slightly more durable covers. like the berenstein bears. now? the colors! the textures! the prettiness! i mean, look at this one. (which, by the way, i actually have, because it was too cool not to get.)

ugh

just ugh.
the words have run out.
it's a mix of sad and angry and disgusted right now.
this is america, people. we're supposed to be better than this.
instead, we're watching new orleans do lord of the flies cajun style.

the only bright side i see to any of this is that ordinary people are once again proving that on some level, it is a basic human urge to want to help, whether it's donating to the red cross or offering a room to refugees.

eta i will talk tomorrow about the bullshit bomber video. i saw the story on al jazeera this afternoon, before it broke in the british/american media. look for the entry titled 'al qaeda is full of (pig) shit'