I am lucky enough to work for a company that offers a match for charitable contributions. Do you? If so, don’t forget about your employer matching gift contribution when you help.
And if you do, pop over to Give a Little and let them know that you did. They are keeping a tally of knit-bloggers and the like who have made a contribution.
And once you’ve done that, think about the kinds of questions we citizens should be asking of our representatives and senators, and governors and mayors. Where were the plans that were supposed to be made after 9/11? Why did paperwork delay the response times for helping these people. Why was the media able to get in and film all the suffering, but the National Guard was not able to get in and help? Where has all the money gone that was given out after 9/11? Wasn’t this supposed to go for emergency preparedness? Plans? Equipment? Collaboration between different government and service entities? If that wasn’t part of the plan, why not?
Is it really acceptable that trucks full of water from Wal-Mart (an organization I normally despise) were turned away when people were acting crazy out of fear of dying from dehydration?
Is the same government that said “bring ’em on” to the terrorists too proud to say “please help?” Isn’t it possible to just get the help that’s needed now and worry about who gets the bill later?
This is going to take so long to heal. This isn’t like a tornado where people just move to a neighborhood motel and go to work on Monday and go on. There is no work to return to, everything these people own will be destroyed by mold and sewage, and there will be thousands to be buried when the water is finally gone. They are going to need so much. It’s hard to imagine how much, but I am sure we will find out.
It’s easy to be angry seeing people looting stupid things like TVs and blenders when there won’t even be any electricity for a while. That’s why I have waited so long to post on the subject, I was angry with people who didn’t leave when they had the chance, or angry at people who would steal when everyone has lost everything. But now I am just angry at the amazing lack of leadership and coordination displayed in the last week.
How can we get politicians to think beyond the next election cycle? I really think this is at the heart of most of the problems we have in America. No Child Left Behind teaches just enough for kids to pass the next test they will have to take. Ridiculous ideas like Intelligent Design are taught in Science classes. What a joke our country will be when the next generation goes off to work and has no science to compete with the rest of the world? Why is the Plan-B birth control pill delayed again when it’s proven to be safe for people over 17? We deny cigarettes and alcohol and driver licences based on age, so why not this drug? Why not require cars to be more fuel efficient now? Why not place a value on innovation again, like when we went to the moon? Is it really as simple as believing that Jesus is coming tomorrow, so we don’t have to worry about clean drinking water and air for our children and grandchildren? Is there really any doubt that the rise in Autism and Cancers of all kinds and Asthma have been caused by our own desire for individually wrapped everything, sanitized for our protection? Is there any wonder why everyone is so fat, when our food doesn’t even contain food anymore, but it contains high fructose corn syrup and antibiotics that were fed to the animals so that the farmers wouldn’t have to care for them and keep them in conditions that would keep them from getting sick? How do we make it stop?