Human Knot

A psychological doodle pad. What are my issues? How do they affect me? Hurrican Katrine – what a colossal screw up. It amazed me, the moronicness of our President and his government. It just really does. I should stop listening to NPR news. It just upsets me. Did anyone else notice the oddity of timing for this tragedy? A year after Bush’s re-election is Katrina. A year after Bush’s initial election was September 11th. I’m not accusing Bush for the hurrican. He and his government don’t control the weather, just like they don’t control the Islamic terrorist groups. But they control their own reactions. To me, he’s fallen flat on his face both times. I feel betrayed, abandoned andlied to by my government. And I don’t know if it can be fixed.

In elementary school, we used to play a game called Human Knot. Everyone stands in a circle. Each person puts their left hand into the circle and takes the hand of someone else, but not the person next to them. Then everyone puts their other hand in and takes the hand of someone else. Now untangle. Its fun but sometimes tough. You have to work together and be very clear about what each person is going to do. If each person tries to solve it in their own way, it becomes even worse. To me, that’s my government right now. No one communicates or works together anymore. I wonder if anyone in DC remembers what we’re fighting for. What’s the point? In the game, the point is to make a circle. What is the point of the government?
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
I had to memorize that in high school. I think every person in DC whould be asking themselves if they are fulfilling the point everyday. The President shoud be asking it hourly. Instead they are focused on themselves.

NPR has been talking lately about the ways Americans are opening their homes to refugees from Katrina. There are websites you can register at to be put on lists to get in contact with refugees. But how safe is this? In all honestly, these people are strangers. And you’re letting thme into your home, your life. Its a nice sentiment and I’m guessing sometimes it does work. But these people are still strangers. It can be unnerving. But putting that aside and putting aside the “How nice that is” thought, who’s job is this? I mean, really who is responsible for these refugees? They are not aliens or immigrants fleeing a harmful foreign country. They are American citizens who have paid taxes and worked and lived here. So shouldn’t the government help them? Isn’t that what FEMA is for? I’m not against the Red Cross or “everyday” American’s helping and offering assistance. But that doesn’t mean FEMA should stand back with their thumbs up their asses. What if untrained, uninformed people had run into the WTC, trying to save people? They would have cause more havoc and deaths, even though they were coming from a good place. Even trained, informed officiers perished that day. I really wonder what the hell FEMA does between disasters. Shouldn’t they be perfecting procedures so that there are less deaths? I understand with natural disasters and emergencies there are unpredictabilities. You don’t know what’s going to happen until it happens, but you can estimate. There are tools to help us with early warning systems now too. So we probably don’t need procedures for tornados in the Adirondacks and we probably don’t need blizzard procedures in Phoenix, AZ. THey saw Katrina coming. They knew this was a possibility. So why did FEMA and my governmnet seem so caught off guard by this? Why did it take a week before anyone got moving? A WEEK! Seven whole days – one hundred sixty eight hours! What would have happened in NYC if no one did anything for 168 hours? I can’t even imagine!

DISCLAIMER – I’m making comparisons between apples and oranges, I know. But Katrina and the WTC are the two major American-soil disasters in the past few years. And somehow the Bush administration has screwed up on both.

The point NPR was trying to make today was what happens next? People have opened their homes to these refugees. The refugees have immediate needs – food, a place to live and sleep. But how long are they planning on staying? Is New Orleans going to be rebuilt or will these people have to find a new place to call home? Are they on their own or will the government step in and help them?