Aid

There are a slew of articles today about how officials are preventing aid from getting into the devastated areas. Here is one, but there are others if this really upsets you.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050905/D8CEAHT80.html

Opinion time.

OK. I understand how it benefits rescue workers and relief agencies to keep people out. Especially those people who arrive with nothing except themselves and a boat or a truck. These people will eventually need food or water, and if they didn't bring any with them then they will only be a drain on an already strained system.

But what about those that arrive with truckloads of essential supplies?

They are being turned away as well. And if I understood all those articles right, the supplies they are bringing are being turned away with them.

That is utterly deplorable. We've been hearing for a week how desperate everything is, and how desperately supplies are needed. So why would anybody turn these supplies away?

And if I've heard right, (internet radio, can't seem to find print to back it up) even the red cross is having a hard time getting aid into these areas. And not for lack of trying.

So we have to ask at this point why we can't get aid in. There are people dying, and yet there are/were guys with guns saying to leave when people try to help.

Honestly, in situations like this, who is to blame for deaths after the first day or so? If we have a case of the government turning away people who are trying to help, and are actually qualified to help. And a lack of help from the government itself. Then we actually have our own elected officials to blame for these deaths.

Couple that with the recent cut for the N.O. levees by the shrub. And we see that the whole situation is a massive government failure.

May this be a lesson, and may they actually learn from it.