I try not to watch. It's not that I don't care…just the opposite. I care and I look at the news and I get angry and frustrated. There's nothing I can do and the people who can do something, who are supposed to do something, are just kinda getting around to it. Soon, we will hear two different death totals from Hurricane Katrina — the number of people killed by it and the number killed by slow response time.
I do not believe, or at least I choose not to believe, that there is anything racist in the choices being made of who receives assistance first. I am less sure that being poor does not enter into it, because poor people get the short end of just about everything. Why should being rescued from starvation and disease be any different? I think what we're seeing is simple ineptness coupled with the fact that someone thought that disaster preparation, like that war we're fighting overseas, could be done on the cheap. Especially disturbing are the reports that FEMA not only had its budget slashed but that unqualified cronies were appointed to high-level jobs there. If ever there was a job where you shouldn't install your old drinking buddy, just to do him a favor, that's it.
Newspeople who reported on the Iraq War with prim emotional detachment are breaking down and getting angry. Some have gone so far as to ask non-softball questions of the folks in charge, and Geraldo Rivera was even crying on Fox News, holding up babies and begging someone — anyone — to do something for them. This link will take you to a remarkable video clip over at crooksandliars.com. It has Shepard Smith along with Geraldo reporting from on the scene about how bad things are for Hannity and Colmes, and refusing to allow the hosts to minimize the crisis. I never thought much of either Smith or Rivera but they're stoking public anger, and that anger seems to be the main thing getting officials to do official things. So for once, those guys are actually useful.
As I said earlier, I quickly got sick (physically and emotionally) of seeing people crying and dying…then I got sick of politicians praising one another for doing something, especially when they weren't doing anything. Mostly though, I'm just sick of seeing how bad we are at something this important. If you want to know who the real incompetents are, there's an easy way to tell. They're the ones Bush will be giving medals to over the next few months.