Taken from a response to an e-mail I sent: I myself don't have any folks in those areas but a friend of
mine does. She's from Mississippi, her folks are okay but it hit
pretty close to home so far as a realization of hers and her family's
mortality. Yeah...Bush and his constituents dropped the ball on it big
time, same could be said for those states hit hardest on a local
level(local offices).Overall this reflects around the world that when people of color are ravaged by disaster here, they're expendable. Louisiana is about 6 hrs east of here, no it isn't that far.
Relief aid has been pledged from
South Korea,
Israel and
Nigeria with no word from our goverment on whether or not this aid will be accepted...but whatever, as black and brown people, we only ever had us to take care of ourselves...the volunteer turnout was great to see. As for as the actual evacuees go...they sure didn't seem like the
"looting savages" the media painted them out to be...there was this
look on many of the faces like...ok, what's my next move. None of that
"why did this happen" stuff...
We didn't do anything glamourous, sorted books, toys and clothes for kids. "Medical Volunteers" were picked to actually go into the Astrodome. The building to the right was were a majority of us went to for the day. It's an ongoing thing so who knows...maybe we'll be called in to the dome to just talk with some people. In the parking lot there was job placement tents being set up for them. These folks are going to be here for a long time...let's get these people to work. HISD (Houston Independant School District) is taking in kids to begin school. Medical staffs were thick on the scene and a call for more was present. I'll add more to this the next time I head out there...
blizzy
