Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.
- Pueblo Blessing
Thursday, Sept. 01, 2005 - 1:58 p.m.
WARNING!!!! if you know me personally, you may read my diary, but if you do, you take the chance of hearing things you don't want to know, misunderstanding what I've written and being hurt by it. If you are unsure if it is ok to read, save yourself and me the grief and heartache, and ask first!!! Please note that this is a DIARY, ie my subjective feelings, hearsay, suppositions, and outpourings of ranting of the moment. It does not represent objective news, the whole of what I think of a topic or someone, or even a thought-out representation of any of the above. Keep that in mind. Thanks. * Here is a Diary Etiquette Read Me.
Pinheads with Rights to Rifles
Krikey.
Ok, given the poverty (and I take back some of my words from yesterday... apparently some of the people who didn't leave New Orleans on the evacuation orders simply didn't have the $$... and it is true. If you are broke, have no car, four or five kids, how exactly are you supposed to leave?)... some of the looting there can be um, sort of forgiven. Though I don't think that breaking store windows and setting fire to sports shops counts as helping yourself in dire need....
But really. How bout a few of these quotes from Reuters UK:
"A National Guard official said as many as 60,000 people had gathered at the Superdome stadium for evacuation. But the evacuation was suspended when someone fired at a military helicopter sent to ferry out survivors.New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered police to drop rescue operations to fight looting and other crime that gripped the city. A National Guard soldier was shot and wounded on Wednesday in the Superdome arena housing thousands of refugees in increasingly squalid conditions."
...."The first refugees began arriving early on Thursday at the Houston stadium, where Red Cross workers set out thousands of cots and "comfort kits" that included toiletries and a meal.
But the operation was put on hold when shots were fired at the helicopter, said a local official in Texas involved in the evacuation."
....."Elsewhere in New Orleans, gunshots repeatedly rang out and fires flared as looters broke into stores, houses, hospitals and office buildings -- some in search of food, others looking for anything of value."
From Timesonline:
"But security problems were clearly preventing police, fire officers and other rescue workers from getting to people in need as the Deep South came to resemble the Wild West.Just outside New Orleans, gunmen held up a supply truck carrying food, water, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, prompting officials to ask police and the US Coast Guard to help evacuate a working 203-bed hospital."
From the Guardian Unlimited:
``There are physical threats to safety from roving bands of armed individuals with weapons who are threatening the safety of the hospital,'' said spokesman Steven Campanini. He estimated there were about 350 employees in the hospital and between 125 to 150 patients.Looters used garbage cans and inflatable mattresses to float away with food, clothes, TV sets - even guns. Outside one pharmacy, thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break through the glass. The driver of a nursing-home bus surrendered the vehicle to thugs after being threatened.
It isn't guns that kill people. Just idiots with guns who keep people from being rescued, or shoot National Guard soldiers doing disaster relief.
As a Canadian, sentences like this are boggling.
I think perhaps the NRA should be responsible for evacuating stressedout idiots with guns.
The right to um, protect yourself. Yah. Let's see, I'm much more likely to save someone who'll shoot me dead if I come too close.
Sometimes you just wish you could squish the little cranial cavities of gunslingin outlaws between your thumb and index finger, and then get on with helpin the Red Cross actually save lives.
Back to work.
wenchie
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previous meanderings - future past
Goodbye Michael. May your next life be kinder to you. - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Taking Care of Your Cows - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Saint Joseph robs the cradle and eats spaghetti - Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009
sticky notes and broken irises - Friday, Jun. 12, 2009
The FOODCOMMANDER - Monday, Jun. 08, 2009
