Did anyone watch the NBC Brian Williams special on Katrina?

[pooja]

Every time I see those images, I get chills. I was sitting here tonight holding my not yet 2yr old son rocking him to sleep. I'm watching the horror we all allowed to happen in America. I was thinking, I can't imagine if I was stuck there at the dome or the convention center and was holding and rocking my child until the last breaths came out of him. I can't imagine looking into his eyes and feeling like I have failed to provide him the safety he needs and requires. I can't imagine the images of his first steps, words, smiles, and his future flashing through my head in one brief moment as I realize I will never see him grow into a man.

We all want to blame someone for the breakdown of society that happened on American streets in the days that followed Hurricane Katrina, but a year later I blame us. I blame us because we have complacently allowed our govt to become a large mega-machine that cares more about money and big corporations than it cares about the people who they represent.

It is our fault that we allow homeless to roam the streets. It is our fault that we have allowed pieces of our society become a welfare state. It is our fault that we didn't pay attention to the constitution and stay ever vigilant. The blame game is easy to fix on someone and something else, but in the end, we are a democracy, and we have allowed our citizens to die in our streets.

I blame myself. I was not awake. I was knowledgeable on issues, but I was still thinking about my lot in life and how to get survive. I am awake. And when I see and remember the pictures from Katrina with our people dying on the streets, I think of the wars we are waging abroad. I think of those mothers rocking their dying children from the war that effects their every day. Think of Katrina everyday. Could you imagine living like that with no safe place to rest your head.

To all the people out, please I beg you stand up and say enough is enough. No one deserves to watch their babies die from stupidity.

[blm]

1. You are now where some were during Vietnam, where more were after

Watergate, where more were after IranContra and illegal wars in Central America, and where more were during BCCI, and where more were after a false impeachment, and where more were after a stolen election, and after 9-11, and where more were after the invasion of Iraq, and after another stolen election, and where more were after the exploitation of a braindead woman....and then Katrina.


The catastrophic event that could NOT be spun - even by BushInc.

[pooja]

4. I have to say that I am young... When the Bush was being elected

I was in college (I did vote absentee, but I was registered in VT.) In my small town, big politics didn't effect me. We had town meeting every year. The town members decided on everything. When my mom was on the school board she had to be nominated, seconded, and then voted on by the general assembly. The year she wanted out, they were still nominating her. So my sense of govt was that... the people decided on everything... their property taxes for the year. The salaries of officials. It was all small and simple. I guess I was dissolusioned by real democracy and thought it all worked that way.. I figured that politicians were like us. One of my teachers was a state legislator. He would stop by and have coffee with my parents, and my mom let him have it every time he voted for something stupid. They were real people to me. Dean wasn't some far off politician. We knew all the sheriffs. We knew the judges. Bernie Sanders called my home (don't know why?) Adult things you know.

I guess it took walking into the world to see the corruption... I grew up revering the Green Mountain Boys.. "Live free, or Die!" There used to be fights about paving roads (people like the dirt roads better). There were fights over covered bridges (restoration or rebuild). There were fights over where the recycling center would be, the dump. Small town stuff.. but it was all decided by majority in the town hall. I am glad to know what real democracy is, and am appalled at what reality is for so many.

[blm]

9. I understand - I didn't pay much attention till I realized what was

actually going on in IranContra, and it was alot different than what the media was focusing on, so it took some years to digest the info gleaned from Walsh's intermittent reports.

Welcome aboard - preserving what democracy we have left is a job for MANY alert citizens.

[madokie]

12. That sounds like the place I would like to live

government for and by the citizens, what a novel idea

[markus]

2. George Bush doesn't care about black people

I watch this to cheer me up, which is in itself a fairly depressing thought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr4pmF4xnKA

[madokie]

13. Agreed, bush* doesn't care about anybody not even himself

if he did why would he still be like he is? could you imagine being a child of his, nauseating to say the least

[AspenRose]

3. My son is a year and a half

Not only do I feel what you're feeling re: Katrina....
Images from Iraq and the Middle East evoke the same emotions.

It's hard not to feel overwhelmed, isn't it.

[pooja]

5. I am not defeated while I still have breath in my body. I live in FL

that could be my baby at any given moment. Not only that, I don't want him to have to learn about what democracy was before we became a facist state... He will learn through me on how to actively protect the constitution.

[tnlefty]

6. No, I didn't see it. I take a slight exception to your thought that we are

all to blame for the failures, though. You see, I didn't follow the path of those 'Reagan Democrats', I didn't vote for repukes nor for their ideals to "shrink the government to the size that you can drown it in a bathtub'. Even in a hostile community and state I've spoken up against these ideas, not that it gets me very far in my little red corner of the world, but I still try!

I made phone calls to reps and senators trying to prevent the eventual 'yes' vote on the IWR. I've protested this war because it is wrong and it depletes resources that we OBVIOUSLY need right here in our own country.

Please, don't be too hard on yourself. Use that energy to do something positive for change! My "babies" are now 16, 13 and 11. None of my pregnancies were 'easy', they were very complicated and I can honestly say at times that if I had known that this country could become as mean-spirited and warmongering as it is now I don't think that I would have had them, although I love them dearly. But I see them becoming more outraged, attending peace rallies, the youngest went to DC with me for the huge march last Sept., they have all been disgusted by the neglect that they witnessed during Katrina - but there are younger ones coming along to help those of us who are getting older to be a voice for what is just!

Rambling, I know, but stay united for justice and peace. Your little one will benefit from what you are feeling now. Peace to you.

[pooja]

7. I'm not ready to give up... I am realizing it is my duty as a citizen

of the United States to pay attention. Everyday something new astounds me... It is time to demand that we teach the words that are written in the Constitution to our children and that we teach them the checks and balances in place to ensure govt never get to big... If they leave school knowing anything, they need to know these principals.

[tnlefty]

8. I agree, and hug the little one.

Teach him the ideals of the Constitution and The Bill of Rights. As long as you are paying attention and discuss what is important he'll know, too.

I leave copies of the Nation, Mother Jones, National Geographic, Kid's Discover, lying on the kitchen table. During the past 3 yrs. I've been amazed at how often I'll walk into the kitchen and "catch" them reading the Nation. Instill a love for reading, a thirst for knowledge, and critical thinking skills and that baby that you're rocking will amaze you in a few years. My oldest just finished reading 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman' and we discussed it.

What I'm trying to state, and poorly I'll admit, is that even when I'm pessimistic about what is happening in our country and the world now, I know that there will be others to pick up the torch and carry on. For now do what you can, rock the little one as much as possible, and somehow we'll work to make the world a better place.

[bdamomma]

10. watch Spike Lee's documentary if you can, you talking about

chills you will have alot more after watching his documentary, Spike doesn't hold anything back.

[bigwillq]

11. No but the one on the Discovery Channel

"Surviving Katrina" was perhaps the most chilling, jaw-dropping, riveting piece I have ever seen.

[dogday]

14. What is so weird is that when everyone

thought Rita was going to hit Houston, they left, we didn't.. We saw tons of guard troops and vehicles riding through the city off of I-10 before the hurricane hit...

My question is, why did they not position the guard in NO before the storm? They knew it was coming, they had advanced warning...

They did in Houston, why not NO?????

[raccoon]

15. I'm perplexed as to what you mean by this,

"It is our fault that we have allowed pieces of our society become a welfare state. "