It's horrible. Terrible. Devastating. I hope and pray for these people. If you haven't yet: Give money. If you haven't yet, write your congressman. Here's my letter:
Dear. Congressman Gutierrez:
I am writing to express my outrage at the way the Administration is handling the rescue operation and evacuation of the refugees in the Gulf Coast.
I am mortified at the lack of compassion a governing body has shown to its loyal constituency. When I see footage of families suffering for days on end, in the most technologically and wealthy country in the world, I am embarrassed to be an American. As a Democrat, I have long found fault with the many missteps of the past few Administrations, but continuing to ignore your citizenry is not only appalling, it undermines any future trust you put in that nation to manage its infrastructure in the face of future catastrophes.
As a mother I have a simple choice. This country has to get better, or I will leave. And I don't want to put it all on you guys, I will help. I will continue to vote and volunteer. I will continue to speak out for what I believe. And life with a balance of compassion, equality and justice.
Right now I just pray you do what's right and pressure your colleagues to divert as much money as possible to these folks and work on solutions for this people as individuals.
And there are ways of approaching problems other than running/hiding or treating people like cattle. There are a lot of smart people out there who care about solving problems. You can find them in small businesses, in online communities, in parenting groups, at schools ... what I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of networked groups of intelligence that can be utilized to create rich and productive plans for these people who have been misplaced and lost everything. It's an idea to consider, once they are bathed and fed.
Would that I could.
Robin Kurzer
