...on Katrina, and another riddle...

I've heard several opinions on this Katrina thing. I haven't posted about it yet. It's time I did. (Click on the title for information.)

For those of you who don't know (and if you don't, where the heck have you BEEN???), Hurricane Katrina, a category 4 storm - which is the second worst kind of hurricane, fyi - has completely decimated New Orleans and other areas in the south. New Orleans is literally GONE. There IS NO MORE New Orleans, it's sunk under several feet of water, and the water is still rising even today.

Yes, some people chose to stay there, regardless of the seriousness of the situation. Yes, people are snapping and acting like animals down there - looting...stealing...lashing out in violence against other people and military trying to help evacuate. I can certainly see how this would garner some disgust from people.

But you know what? None of that matters. As people, we have a moral obligation - not a choice, but a fucking responsibility - to rise above acting like animals in action or in mind and thought, and support each other. Those people down there, regardless of choosing to stay, regardless of the way they're reacting, JUST LOST THEIR FUCKING ENTIRE LIVES. THEIR WHOLE WORLD IS GONE FOREVER. To them, the apocalypse just came through; they've lost friends, family, their homes...EVERYTHING.

Plus, 95% of the people left in New Orleans were either people who were so low on the economic scale that they depended solely on public transportation to get around, or wouldn't leave for family and friends. I would have stayed in those events, if I had people I needed to look out for, people that would otherwise be alone in all this. Plus, where were the transports to pull these people out? Where were the helicopters, the buses, the vehicles provided by our military? They knew on Thursday of last week that this thing was coming - and our military is JUST NOW getting around to caring.

And if you wanna say, "Well, I wouldn't have stayed, I wouldn't be acting out in violence." you're fucking full of total and complete shit! Know why? Because you've never BEEN in a situation where you're entire way of life was washed away in one terrible weekend-long sweep - so you can't sit there and tell someone how mentally and emotionally stable you'd be if it happened to you. These people are in around 90 degree heat, on rooftops, de-hydrated, wading around in severely unsanitary and deep flood waters, they're lacking food and clean water, every basic necessity we take for granted every single day - how would you handle it? So fuck you. You know absolutely NOTHING about it, so just shut the fuck up.

And Bush - our "great" and Christian leader...where was he? On his ranch. Taking his relaxing vacation. He didn't even WANT to come back to his post for this thing; he was hesitant to cut his vacation short. Don't even fucking comment on how he couldn't have done anything - that's bullshit; he exercised and demonstrated his ability to do pretty much anything he wants with that whole Terry Shiavo bill that he passed; he could've done something, at the very fucking least he could have STAYED AT HIS POST HOLDING VIGIL during a crisis that laid waste to about a fifth - ONE-FIFTH - of our country. Fuck the living hell out of George W. Bush. If I could I would put HIM in front of Katrina and let HIM suffer.

Don't say "We couldn't have known the levees would break" because that, too, is total bullshit. Our military has been far too slow to get there to help these people. Instead of bringing the medical supplies and food to the refugees, they're putting it all in other spots, under the reasoning that the people should go to those places. How? How will they get there? I suppose that's their problem, eh? The fucking Mayor of New Orleans is doing more than Bush and the federal government, and he did it RIGHT AWAY instead of taking his goddamned sweet ass time about it.

Don't say, "The military got there as fast as they could" - fuck that! We went to Iraq, which is across the goddamned ocean, in a week's worth of time. We went to Afganistan with the same speed. Our military could have been there immediately after Katrina, but they dawdled; they took their fucking sweet ass time with it. Thousands of people are dying. Get the fuck off your ass and get there YESTERDAY, goddamnit!

And before you start in with the "Where's the rest of the world to help US, huh?" - I got news for you: Canada, France, Japan - a total of 12 countries are lending us aide, and without a second thought, and pretty much immediately. That's MUCH better than OUR track record, as we were the LAST country on the planet to make a move towards helping with the Asian tsunami aftermath, and we sure as hell didn't do much of anything when England had that train bombing.

Now is not the time to sit there and hold people responsible for sticking around down there. Now is NOT the time to argue the whys and the hows. Now is the fucking time to get off your ass and HELP PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP AND SUPPORT PEOPLE WHO JUST LOST EVERYTHING THEY'VE EVER KNOWN!!

Thank you. Sorry if that sounded harsh - holding my tongue about this is not an option. This is goddamned fucking ridiculous. We live in what's supposed to be the greatest country on the planet, and every single fucking day things get worse and worse; healthcare, this goddamn war in Iraq, Bush being the single worst President in history and screwing everyone in his path that isn't the rich "elite", and now THIS fucking debacle. I can't stand it. I can't FUCKING stand it. Fuck this shit. Fuck this goddamned corrupt government heirarchy. Christ, everything is fucking falling apart. I'm sick and tired of this...

I'll end this blog on a different note. Here's another riddle. You have until next Friday to solve it. Have fun...


“All people have known me since before they could crawl -

I have a several forms, yet known by all.

Some forms are loved, while others are cursed;

Can you figure my name by the end of this verse?

I bring feelings of joy, sadness, and pain;

The hint to the answer lies within this refrain:

I’ll tell you no story; I’ll spin you no lies –
My influence is huge, yet I have no true size.
From nation to nation, I’m a tie that binds;
Read me again, the solution you’ll find.


What am I?”


Good luck!


Quilled Tunes: "How Can I Live" - Il Nino