not guilty

I've been following the New Orleans/Katrina disaster situation online but have avoided seeing any video coverage at all, so far -- and I intend to keep on avoiding it.

We've donated to charity already, and we'll most likely do so again.

I am disheartened by the situation in NO, but am almost equally disheartened by the harping and carping of all finger-pointers. It takes time to mobilize and organize a relief effort, and the situation in the Katrina-devastated area is horrendous because the infrastructure has been so totally destroyed. People have this idea that we can just snap our fingers and be there -- well, we can't.

I'm not sure where I read it, but I think this idea is just about right: local authorities have to hold the fort, so to speak, for a day or two while federal/national resources gear up and get moving. It's obvious that the local NO/LA forces are overwhelmed (and blame can be assigned there later.) There are laws that require a certain chain of events before federal relief can come in, and from what I know, the President did what he needed to do before Katrina even made landfall. The LA authorities AFAIK dragged their feet on calling for help, and in taking a tough stance on looting. But now that call has been made and we just have to let it play out. The relief effort will be undoubtedly the largest we've ever seen in this country. The work of coordinating it is incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't worked in logistics.

Yes, it's terrible that so many poor people were not evacuated. Between the lack of facilities and the rise of violence, the people still in NO are enduring something that we never thought would happen in America. But is it President Bush's fault that these neighborhoods were not evacuated before the storm? Is it the Republicans' fault that the levee broke -- it was a newly repaired section that gave out, remember. There is a lot of blame to go around but I've read enough, for now -- it is counter-productive.

I give myself about an hour a day of keeping up with this stuff. It's all I can handle. I have to keep going on with my own little secure life, feeding the kids, washing the dishes, helping with homework. I've read/heard other people comment that they feel guilty because they are outside of the catastrophe. I don't. I'm grateful for what I have, and I can't let it all fall down around my ears because something horrible happened a thousand miles away. We'll give cash and offer prayers but realistically, the best thing for us to do is stay out of the way.