Not severe enough for the Pit, but I can't handle dealing with reality any more.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Easy does it folks. Things have been this bad before. You should have been in any city in the US during the years 1931-34,35. The whole country was going down the drain economically. Those conditions passed and this too will pass.

My main worry isn’t that things are going to hell in a handbasket but that the American experiment in self government is in serious trouble from what I see as a gradual erosion of liberty. People seem to be willing to give the police function of the executive department excessive power in the name of national security. My expectation, and maybe it is just a hope, is that when the executive finally goes way too far, and it will, the proper balance between liberty and national security will return. That is, you can’t have perfect safety and so in return for liberty you have to take some risks from things like terrorism.

22

Tracy Lord, I felt very much the same way when September 11th happened. I happened to be home that day and saw everything from about 5-10 minutes before the second airplane hit. I was glued to my television the rest of that day (it didn’t help that I was recovering from a minor surgery and was supposed to be doing nothing…) and the next and the next. I felt so helpless. I wanted to get on a plane to NYC to help - but I wasn’t even supposed to be walking. I wanted to give blood, but I’m not allowed. I wanted to do something but all I could do was watch helplessly, hoping and praying that they would find survivors, that I would wake up from a terrible dream.

My reaction to that event was very strong. Weeks later, my boyfriend and I tried to go out for a few hours and ended up sitting at a little neighborhood bar where we hung out sometimes when they had karaoke or a good band. There were people there - laughing! Having a good time, enjoying theirselves! I had a hard time even smiling at things that people said that I normally would have found quite amusing. Sometimes it is overwhelming.

This time around I’m more isolated. I don’t have cable right now so I only see internet coverage or coverage when I’m at my mother’s house. I can limit myself.

What you are feeling is normal. I think we all can understand it to one degree or another. Things will get better, but it will likely take time. Just try to stop watching when you feel overwhelmed. :slight_smile: Do something else…read a book, go to a movie…get away from the coverage for a while. I’m sure it’s not going away anytime soon.

23

One of the reasons. Not a great reason, not a large one, but one of the reasons some New Yorkers hung together during 9/11 is that we have a memory. Of a time that nobody would care.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/kitty_genovese/1.html
Her name was Catherine Genovese, and she was killed in front of 26 people. And nobody cared or raised a finger. Never again, you know?

I know New York had a reputation for not caring, for being an impersonal city, but…
I hope, not anymore.

24

Tracy Lord, having just moved away from New Orleans at the end of July, this has hurt me beyond belief and so after a couple of days of crying, I’ve been trying to do what I can from half a country away. I do have a lot of friends who have been affected, directly and indirectly, so that’s where I’m most useful – making connections.

Look around your community. Someone may well be collecting goods to send a truckload down to somewhere things are needed. Today I saw another group here in town that had taken over 1/4 of the Sam’s parking lot sorting and boxing donations and loading them onto trucks to deliver to Texas and Mississippi, and I’m in the process of connecting them up with contacts in Louisiana to send a truckload or three there, too. I dropped off some donations today, and will be taking more for their next packing day.

I’ve also been putting individuals who want to help in touch with people who need help; I have friends just far enough outside New Orleans that they’ve got services, but also have shelters in desperate need of supplies, and schools with extra kids arriving. So I’ve connected up folks who want to donate, say, children’s clothing or school supplies with people they can mail the supplies directly to to distribute to the folks who need them. No intermediate group involved.

I’ve been collecting things to send directly to my displaced friends – clothing, toiletries, anything they might need that can help them. In some cases, they have insurance funds paying their living expenses, but they still need information, so I’ve been scouring the New Orleans press online, primarily, for information that could be useful to them – everything from locating their houses on satellite photos and letting them know whether they’re underwater or not to letting them know their cable internet provider has suspended billing but keeping accounts open for the duration. I’ve collected important phone numbers, information from local authorities, and anything else they might find useful. It’s been much appreciated.

I want to go down there and knock a hole in the levee and pump the water out myself. I want to go start cooking for people. I want to do so much. But I can’t. I’m just doing what I can, and as I look around I see millions of people doing the same thing. Together, we are making up for the clusterfuck that is FEMA.

Hang in there, and just find a way to get busy and help. You’ll feel a lot better for it.

25

This thread is not about how devastated people are about the economics of Katrina.

Were you not watching the coverage? Did you not watch as people cried for help, and those who promised it–in fact, those whose jobs were to provide that help–failed to do so?

Were you watching when we learned that people from other services who were there to provide help were turned away by FEMA? Were you watching as people stole and shot at each other over tennis shoes and TV sets? Were you watching when the media reported that some of the 10,000 people at the Convention Center were being raped and killed? Some of them children? That dead bodies were being desecrated? That people were dying from lack of food, water and medical supplies? Were you watching when Michael Brown said live THREE DAYS AFTER KATRINA HIT that he wasn’t aware there were people even at the Convention Center? Were you watching when George said “Brownie” was doing a great job?

Please don’t try to minimize what we all saw and what many of us are very, VERY angry about.

I have never seen the level of disregard for human suffering by others as I have in the aftermath of Katrina. 9/11 was HORRIFIC, but imagine how truly bad it would have been if FEMA had not allowed in firefighters, police, the Red Cross and other service organizations in to help those who were hurt and suffering after the towers fell.

26

Rsight, but it does seem to be about people in a rather deep funk about a natural disaster and an unacceptable response on the part of some. You may never have seen such a level of disregard but you haven’t seen everything and believe me this isn’t the first time nor will it be the last.

In spite of that things go on, normalcy returns and we blunder on just as people did after the great bubonic plagues.