girlscandoanything

Millions before, millions after

As I contemplate the aftermath of Katrina and listen to stories of friends and co-workers whose families are still missing and see the devastation on the nightly news, I can't help but think that something is terribly wrong with this picture. Sure, the whole mess is wrong. But there is a "wrongness" that is especially annoying to me tonight. It leads me to question the world and our society before and after the horrific event that was and is Katrina. Why didn't we do anything before?

It has been said many times over the past days that those trapped in New Orleans are the poor and the sick. It is clear that many who had means to escape did just that. Those who had no means are still trapped. But we knew they didn't have means. And nothing was said or done to give them means before this tragedy. Now we are doing all sorts of things. Millions of dollars are being donated every hour of the day. The state of New York tonight donated 2.5 million dollars in aid. Today actors and singers gave up to a million dollars each for relief aid. The citizens of Phoenix have raised over 400,000 dollars to date to aid in relief efforts. The city of Phoenix has committed to housing at least 1000 refugees from New Orleans who will begin to arrive by domestic airline free of charge on Sunday morning. We are doing many wonderful and generous things now.

But why did we not do them before? If the people of this country have millions and millions of dollars to spare, why did we not give any of those dollars to alleviate the problems that contributed to the magnitude of this disaster? Why did we not ensure that the poor and elderly could leave the city before this storm came upon them? Why didn't domestic airlines give them free trips to other states before they were fighting for their lives? Why didn't we pool our millions and alleviate poverty altogether so that everyone in the city had the means to evacuate? Why don't we open our doors to the thousands of homeless that live on our streets every day? Do we have any foresight, or have we been reduced to a completely reactive society? Or, perhaps we are so selfish that only an event of this magnitude will shake our conscience awake.

House the displaced of the Gulf Coast and give to the Red Cross. These are good things. But after, think about what you can do next month and next year to ease the suffering of another. Suffering didn't start with Katrina, and it certainly will not end there. We don't need to sit idly and wait for the next disaster. Some form of devastation is always here.

posted by CT @ 10:17 PM