I wish I'd just stayed away from watching the news. I avoided it for the first couple of days, because I knew what would happen, I knew I'd become overwhelmed with grief and anger and a feeling of helplessness, but yesterday the stories I'd skimmed past were becoming just too unbelievable to ignore anymore, so I dove in, I began reading all about the destruction and chaos down in the Gulf and now, sure enough, I am so pissed off and upset I can't really even think about anything else.
I should interject into this that I do realize that me sitting here comfortably in the West Village of Manhattan in an air-conditioned office and whining all sorts of "woe is me" sentiments could be construed as a wee bit self-involved. I just don't have anything else I can do. Hence the feeling of helplessness. It's empathy pains, anyway; I just need to vent them a little bit.
It's just... so overwhelming, the scope of this. An entire American city is being abandoned, possibly for months, possibly longer. New Orleans is gone, at least as it stood as little as a week ago. There are a million American refugees. There aren't words that come close to fathoming that sort of thing, at least in this day and age. This sort of thing isn't supposed to happen, you know?
And the people there are in a really bad situation that's getting worse by the minute, there are still many people trapped and without clean water or food. The hospitals are collapsing into chaos, there are armed gangs wandering the streets... and our President (you knew it was coming) spent Tuesday strumming a guitar, and then yesterday popped up with his Automated Platitude Relayer set on high, with nothing of any real importance to say... but WHAT CAN HE SAY, he diverted the funds for keeping the levees strong to his Iraqi Mission O' Funtime, and hey whoops all the National Guard troops are there too, but hey, what's it matter Georgie, they're all black and poor anyway, right? As long as your golfing buddies are safe!
FUCK! That fucking bastard! Fuck him, God, it makes me soooo angry. I don't see how anyone can look at him and say he's "doing the best he can", because while it's a true statement it's true because THE BEST THAT MAN CAN DO IS DESTROY THIS COUNTRY. It's infuriating.
His reaction to this disaster has been tepid, too slow, horribly mismanaged... hmm, everything that's become synonomous with the Bush Administration, what a fucking shock.
And then there are the batshit bonkers preachers crawling out of the woodwork, blaming the destruction on gays and abortions. NOLA was, after all, the lone bastion of liberalism in a big red state! It's God's judgement! It's for making the Jews leave Gaza! It's because lil' Jimmy read The Catcher In The Rye in English class!
Or, um, it's because there was a storm system swirling about with some really strong winds and rain, MAYBE??? Last time I was in my Pentecostal church I don't remember looking over to another pew and seeing Hurricane Katrina sitting there with her nose in a hymnal saying "Praise Jesus" to the sermon.
But then, these are the same people who think that Intelligent Design is a viable educational tool that should be taught in schools. And there was that poll released yesterday saying that something like 40% of Americans think human beings have been the same since the beginning of time, no evolution needed.
I'm rethinking Canada pretty strongly these days. Toronto's a lovely, if cold, city.
I don't imagine I'm going to post much else today, since I'm obviously preoccupied. I can't really concentrate on anything else. My office is most likely going to be closed tomorrow, so it's a four day weekend for me. I plan on going to the park and reading, a lot. Trying to clear my brain. Stop the parade of vitriol, since it's pointless frustration that doesn't accomplish anything, besides flaring up my acidic stomach issues.
And if you're going to donate money for relief, I offer the suggestion that you donate to one of the many other capable organizations besides the Red Cross. Until the Red Cross discontinues their homophobic practices of denying gay men and women the right to donate blood, I refuse to support them in any way.
I should interject into this that I do realize that me sitting here comfortably in the West Village of Manhattan in an air-conditioned office and whining all sorts of "woe is me" sentiments could be construed as a wee bit self-involved. I just don't have anything else I can do. Hence the feeling of helplessness. It's empathy pains, anyway; I just need to vent them a little bit.
It's just... so overwhelming, the scope of this. An entire American city is being abandoned, possibly for months, possibly longer. New Orleans is gone, at least as it stood as little as a week ago. There are a million American refugees. There aren't words that come close to fathoming that sort of thing, at least in this day and age. This sort of thing isn't supposed to happen, you know?
And the people there are in a really bad situation that's getting worse by the minute, there are still many people trapped and without clean water or food. The hospitals are collapsing into chaos, there are armed gangs wandering the streets... and our President (you knew it was coming) spent Tuesday strumming a guitar, and then yesterday popped up with his Automated Platitude Relayer set on high, with nothing of any real importance to say... but WHAT CAN HE SAY, he diverted the funds for keeping the levees strong to his Iraqi Mission O' Funtime, and hey whoops all the National Guard troops are there too, but hey, what's it matter Georgie, they're all black and poor anyway, right? As long as your golfing buddies are safe!
FUCK! That fucking bastard! Fuck him, God, it makes me soooo angry. I don't see how anyone can look at him and say he's "doing the best he can", because while it's a true statement it's true because THE BEST THAT MAN CAN DO IS DESTROY THIS COUNTRY. It's infuriating.
His reaction to this disaster has been tepid, too slow, horribly mismanaged... hmm, everything that's become synonomous with the Bush Administration, what a fucking shock.
And then there are the batshit bonkers preachers crawling out of the woodwork, blaming the destruction on gays and abortions. NOLA was, after all, the lone bastion of liberalism in a big red state! It's God's judgement! It's for making the Jews leave Gaza! It's because lil' Jimmy read The Catcher In The Rye in English class!
Or, um, it's because there was a storm system swirling about with some really strong winds and rain, MAYBE??? Last time I was in my Pentecostal church I don't remember looking over to another pew and seeing Hurricane Katrina sitting there with her nose in a hymnal saying "Praise Jesus" to the sermon.
But then, these are the same people who think that Intelligent Design is a viable educational tool that should be taught in schools. And there was that poll released yesterday saying that something like 40% of Americans think human beings have been the same since the beginning of time, no evolution needed.
I'm rethinking Canada pretty strongly these days. Toronto's a lovely, if cold, city.
I don't imagine I'm going to post much else today, since I'm obviously preoccupied. I can't really concentrate on anything else. My office is most likely going to be closed tomorrow, so it's a four day weekend for me. I plan on going to the park and reading, a lot. Trying to clear my brain. Stop the parade of vitriol, since it's pointless frustration that doesn't accomplish anything, besides flaring up my acidic stomach issues.
And if you're going to donate money for relief, I offer the suggestion that you donate to one of the many other capable organizations besides the Red Cross. Until the Red Cross discontinues their homophobic practices of denying gay men and women the right to donate blood, I refuse to support them in any way.
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