Cape Karen
This has been a long week. Probably the longest week I've ever experienced ~ along with our millions of sisters and brothers awaiting rescue in the deep south. As I have watched and listened to their cries, my heart and mind have been churning with a variety of emotions. From shock, to sorrow, to anger, to disgust, to frustration, and then back to more sorrow.
It's so easy to play the blame game - so easy to say what could or should have been done or not done. Sitting in my warm, comfortable home, I can't comprehend this situation, in full.
Who wants to watch helplessly as so many suffer? Our donation to the Red Cross hasn't eased my mind. It may have helped my conscience, but it hasn't eased my mind one bit.
The fact that gun-toting looters and a minority of desperate thugs disrupted what was already a tragic event was, in my mind, a small ripple in the grand scheme of this catastrophe. In other times, without the devastation surrounding them, it would have been a big deal. But, in light of more pressing matters, like seeing dead bodies sitting in wheelchairs, and babies dying in their mother's arms, it became but a ripple of angry disgust to me.
This event has shown us all how vulnerable we really are. It has been a shocking, loud, 'wake-up call' to our government and to every citizen of the USA. The United States is the only G8 country that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Bush has said the protocol, which aims to slash greenhouse gas emissions, would severely damage the U.S. economy.
Global warming was a factor in this event. I believe that we all need to press our government to address that reality. Katrina's strength and unprecedented destruction, to one of the most vulnerable spots of geography in our country, should not have been such a surprise. We could have been better prepared for it.
I hope we are all awake now.
Posted by Karen at September 3, 2005 12:47 PM