 |
|
Amuse
Blogs
Food
Life
Links
News
Pictures
Rants
Site
Tech
Words
Blog-friend "Kate" at Cider Press Hill has posted about her son's recent trip to do some volunteer work in New Orleans following his high school graduations.
His report echoes things you read and hear at other blogs, though almost never in the "MSM": New Orleans is still a wasteland. While they've officially stopped counting the dead, claiming about 1,700 people lost their lives, unofficially they are still finding dead bodies at a steady rate. Bodies which are unidentified or unclaimed are not added to the final tally, as if those people simply never existed.
The groups of volunteers who continue to work in the city are beginning to flag out, demoralized by the conditions and by the enormity of the task which remains. They still arrive to do their bit, but it is becoming clear that the work may simply be beyond the ability of even the most dedicated volunteers.
Meanwhile, the media focuses on stories about hurricane refugees squandering their paltry assistance on frivolous and inappropriate spending, continuing to reinforce the public perception that somehow these people "deserved" what happened to them and aren't worthy of the efforts being made. And, as Kate points out, thousands of refugees (oops, we're supposed to call them "victims") are about to be thrown out of the temporary housing trailers given to them by FEMA...heckuva job there, don't ya think?
© BrianKaneOnline.com 2000-2007