I was wrong.

Up until now, it has been very hard for me to restrain the rage that I have felt since tv cameras started to show the stranded, dying, and desperate in New Orleans. In private, that anger has been matched by guilt. I feel guilty for not mourning the death and devastation that Hurricane Katrina has caused. For the million plus people who were evacuated and have been rescued the nightmare of the past week and a half is over, but they have awakened to a life without their family, their home, their possessions or their job (those who held one). People from throughout the Country have come forward with help. For some that aid has been monetary. Others have sent food, clothing, diapers, toys, and other necessities. Cities are “adopting” cities and towns. People are opening up their homes to perfect strangers.

This is a National crisis of unprecedented proportion, and should be treated as such, by those in Our government and those of us who like to talk about Our government.

As they continue to rescue and recover Americans, the immediate focus should be on the quest to find “new lives” for the refugees of this storm. There may be towns in the US that have lost a lot of their workforce due to factory closings or other residential flight. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to set up housing where jobs exist, and get these people started as soon as possible. The feeling of abandonment must weigh heavy on those who waited for days for help, without any communication with or from the outside world. Taking these people to a place where they may have a “real” future may begin to reinstall a faith that Our government cares for Our people and does everything in its power to protect and support them. Once New Orleans is drained and decontaminated, perhaps refugees can be offered jobs in its reconstruction. Maybe this could happen in Mississippi even sooner, because there is no standing liquid there. This, too, is well off in the distance. Though, planning it certainly is not.

My only defense, and it really is not much of one, is the fear that things will be forgotten and/or covered up. There is a fear that web sites will be scrubbed of pages concerning the five days following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall and the three days before it. Such activity has occurred before. The scale and the cost of the failures that took place in response to this storm are far too large to be forgotten. An independent investigation will put together a timeline much more complete than anything we have seen as of yet. That investigation should be conducted sooner rather than later, but now is not the time.

I know this email/blog will attract negative responses, as the last one did. I am not writing it in an attempt to kowtow to any opinion, except that now is not the time. It is hard for me to contain my bile when I see Americans suffer, as these Americans did, on their/Our own land. Sympathy and support is what they need right now, not the angry focus on what went wrong or who should be held accountable. Those who are responsible for the safety of the American public failed. But first, we must figure out how to help those citizens who have survived, identify and count those that have not, and resurrect New Orleans, Biloxi, and the rest of the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi.

I apologize if my early politicizing detracted from what the people of this region of Our Country have endured and continue to endure. My anger would not have been as uncontrollable had things in the immediate wake of Hurricane Katrina gone differently.