The Morning After

The Morning After...........................The last eight days have been a convoluted roiling mass of light and dark. Heroism, selflessness, sacrifice are words that come to mind time and time again. But so do stupidity, ineptitude and evil. Out government (NOTE; don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for the asshole). Disaster response and preparedness, are separate and different animals. Preparedness starts at the bottom or local level, and works up. And there is little people outside N.O. and the state of LA can do about the government that did prepare to get the people without transport out of the city. But the disgraceful and disturbing cluster-fuck that was and is the response of Homeland Security and FEMA has to be addressed. It was put succinctly this morning; put people before procedure.

Things are Begining to Spin

What a perfect storm of politicizing, posturing and spinning. On the tremendous upside; the calvary has arrived, things are excruciatingly slowly slipping into place. There’s a momentum and rhythm and routine to the relief efforts setting in that means somehow, someway, sometime soon things will be on the path to whatever the new reality that is New Orleans will be. There’s more and more pictures coming out of the zone showing calm, professional behavior and simple human compassion. I’m going to believe it’s genuine but at the same time I’m cynical enough to know that the cameras are in tow as much as possible. Regardless it’s heartening to see and means the world to the victims of this catastrophe. What’s going to happen, I’m afraid, is that the fucking politicians are going to wade in a fuck this thing all over. The Democrats have to be careful not to over play this, the Conservatives are a defensive bunch as it is and the well cry like little girls that the Demo’s are playing politics. If that’s not playing politics I don’t know what is.

It's Getting Worse

It's Getting Worse.......................Things are literally falling apart in NO. Civil unrest is rising and hampering rescue efforts. National Guard and even military are well on their way and we can only hope they get in place and impose civility before the unrest becomes massive and gains momentum and horrible things begin to happen.

N.O., oh, no

Life Imitates Art................................... The apocalyptic situation in New Orleans is as disturbing a scenario as can ever be imagined. So many of the scenes playing out have been anticipated for years. Computer models and common sense predicted just this sort of thing. Not that there was much anybody could. I mean, N.O. has been there forever and over the years painted (or built) itself in to this corner. I don’t understand the long term systemic denial. The lack of an overriding generational like minded thinking that allowed for some sort of progressive, evolutionary moving not just away from the water but to higher ground. As infrastructure was rebuilt and replaced, factor in the inevitability of a direct hit from a strongest possible storm. Which, it should be noted, that as strongest possible storms go, Katrina was a weak one and N.O. was missed but a cat’s whisker by the very worst of the very worst. Only adding to the virtual scope of this catastrophe is the societal nature of N.O. It is a fully realized and functioning urban environment with a full cross section of 21st century America unlike the more residential nature of a lot of coastal regions.

Speaking of societal phenomenon; looting. What the fuck?!?!?? OK, people are hot. People are hungry, people are thirsty. People are scared shitless. Their world looks like a disaster movie, their world feels real. Taking food, water, even OTC medications is really understandable in a world that appears to have come to an end. But when you’re waist deep in slug and it’s only getting deeper and there is no electricity within 50 miles why the fuck do you need a bag full of fucking sneakers or a flat screen?!?? Guess what. You fucking don’t. Looting has to be one of the most repugnant and fascinating of human behavior.