September 1, 2005

Please, go here. Do what you can. "We are gravel…

Please, go here. Do what you can.

“We are gravely concerned about the potential for cholera, typhoid and dehydrating diseases that could come as a result of the stagnant water and other conditions.” (New York Times, 1 September 2005)

And it just gets worse and worse.

”I don’t treat my dog like that,” 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the [dead] woman in the wheelchair. ”I buried my dog.” He added: ”You can do everything for other countries but you can’t do nothing for your own people. You can go overseas with the military but you can’t get them down here.” (New York Times, 1 September 2005)

I just need to say this, and then I will get back to the regular mayhem and hilarity that is Friday Playdate. I am overwhelmed by what I am reading and seeing about Hurricane Katrina, not so much because of the individual stories of loss, which are themselves overwhelming, but because it is like reading about a catastrophe in the Third World, not in the US. And it reminds me, in the way the 9/11 attacks did, of how, as Americans, we take our safety and our ‘way of life’ for granted, and how ill-prepared we are, as a society, for ANY kind of massive devastation.

And I wish I were a prayerful person, because that might give me an outlet for my sadness, but I am a reading person, and today my reading is making me more sad. So I am going to stop reading and stop writing about what I have read and play with my children. Or read to them. But not about hurricanes.

Posted by Susan @ 7:16 am • Uncategorized