Sad eyes, crooked crosses in God's Country

I try to avoid too many bitter rants of my blog because I consider this a source of relaxation and entertainment, but those two pleasures have been hard to come by this week because I cannot believe that five days after Hurricane Katrina there are still more than 20,000 stranded people at the hell hole formerly known the New Orleans Convention Center.

They have no place to sleep, no medical attention, little food and water and only the clothes on their backs. Our citizens used to think we were buffered from these types of situations by massive oceans and cultural boundaries. Is the real reason no one is helping these people because our country doesn't have enough National Guard troops since they are in Iraq? The convention center is not flooded. The roads are clear surrounding it yet people are still stranded inside tonight. Why are they being punished and held captive to lie in waste for being stranded? How in the world is this happening just a couple of hundred miles down the road in our America?

This is what the Associated Press reported this morning:

At the New Orleans Convention Center, thousands of hungry and failing residents were strung 15-deep in a line along Convention Center Boulevard that stretched two kilometers.

One woman, 82-year-old Erma Jackson, lay slumped over and unresponsive in a laundry basket on wheels. Her daughter said she had suffered a stroke.

Deployed across the street were hundreds of armed soldiers and police officers, some with rifles raised in a scene that looked more like an armed standoff than a humanitarian rescue effort.

"Why are they treating us like we are some kind of enemy? They are putting a perimeter around us," said Gary Kinard, 41, who was at the convention centre for three days with his wife and five children.

"There ain't no way in the world this is supposed to happen in America. Not in America," said Mr. Kinard. "They go way overseas and take care of somebody overseas, but not down here. That is messed up. You are not supposed to do that."

There is a lot of positive humanitarian effort going on to help the many thousands who have been rescued. We are seeing a nice showing of local support here in Birmingham as hundreds of these evacuees are finding some sense of solace in local shelters. K volunteered for 8 hours last night at the Convention Center and said our local agencies are doing a really nice job providing comfort for these displaced people. Kids have new toys and games to play with. A basketball goal has been assembled for them as well as some ping-pong tables.

While I am happy to hear that my community and others around us are stepping up to the plate, I am disgusted with the fed botch job that just continues to fail the thousands who are weak, starving and trapped in that stinking convention center. Earlier this morning, national television reporters on the scene were screaming and crying for help during live broadcasts from that filth pit.

I don't understand how this can happen in our country and I never thought I would feel sadder and angrier than I did after 9/11, but I do. According the AP, the death toll will exceed 10,000 and this sadly shows how little we have learned in the past four years as a federal acting body in response to crises. We are supposed to be the richest, most modern country in the world, a shining example for other countries. We are so sophisticated and confidence in our strengthes that we send our forces overseas to rebuild other countries. We pride ourselves on providing quick, strong responses to other countries in crisis.

What the hell happened?

The saddest part of this is that our own country is acting as its worst enemy. All politics aside, this is a total unprecedented complete disgrace.

This is what is written on the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Our country was founded on this ethic and it must regain validity if we are going to continue to call ourselves the United States.