Cindy Sheehan In Louisiana, page 1

The Following is a sample of Cindy Sheehan's Blog Entry on the Huffington Post. It chronicles her actions and thoughts as she entered Louisana after Hurrican Katrina.

www.huffingtonpost.com
I got to Camp Casey III in Covington, La today, after getting up at 3am to head for the airport. Now it is 3am the next day and we are driving in a car to try and find a hotel to sleep anywhere around Jackson, Miss. I was prepared to be shocked by what I saw in Louisiana, but I guess one can never really fully prepare for such devastation and tragedy. After living in a country your entire life it is so difficult to see such callous indifference on an immense scale. When I reflect on how the mother of the imbecile who is running our country said that the people who are in the Astrodome are happy to be there, it angers me beyond comparison. The people in LA who were displaced have nice, if modest homes that are perfectly fine. I wonder why the government made them leave at great expense and uproot families who have been living in their communities for generations.

It is a Christ-like principle to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless. That's what is happening in Algiers and other places in Louisiana...but by the people of America, not the so-called "Christians" in charge. If George Bush truly listened to God and read the words of the Christ, Iraq and the devastation in New Orleans would have never happened.
I don't care if a human being is black, brown, white, yellow or pink. I don't care if a human being is Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or pagan. I don't care what flag a person salutes: if a human being is hungry, then it is up to another human being to feed him/her. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power. The only way America will become more secure is if we have a new administration that cares about Americans even if they don't fall into the top two percent of the wealthiest.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I don't know where to start with on my commentary especially as this is my first submission. I understand Mrs. Sheehan is not fond of the President or his Administration's policies. I for one am turned off by her mean spirited barbs that she uses to justify her points. Her comment that most of the people that were displaced have nice, if modest homes and wondering why they were "made to leave" is just shocking. New Orleans was under 15-20 feet of water in some spots and 80% of the city was flooded. Would it have been better for them to stay in their houses as the waters reached the roofs? Her assertion that most people homes were fine and modest does not stand up. The City of New Orleans had almost 30% of it's population living below the poverty level. Most of those 30% lived in the areas that flooded the deepest. Even if those homes were nice modest homes before the storm, what condition are they in now after massive flooding?

Her comments about about if George Bush had listened to God, the devastation of New Orleans would not have happened and how we now need to leave "Occupied New Orleans" just leave me shaking my head. The leeve system of New Orleans was not made to withstand a Category 4/5 Hurricane such as Katrina. In order for the levee's, built in the 1960's, to withstand a storm of such force, the rebuilding of the levee's would have needed to been started in the 1990's in order for them to be fully in place in 2005. It was no suprise to multiple Administrations that if a big hurricane hit New Orleans, things were going to be bleak.

The comments about "occupied New Orleans" are troublesome as well. The Local Police and Fire Departments as well the Healthcare systems had ceased to function in a meaningful way in the aftermath of the levee's failing. After it had become apparent that chaos was increasing as the basic services of the city stopped, something needed to be done. Some have pointed out the slowness of the Federal government's response, to Mrs. Sheehan it seems any response would not have been right. If the National Guard and active Military Units had been deployed in advance of the storm, she would have criticized the Federal response as too extreme and heavy handed. That they were deployed after the storm she has the same opinion. No matter what the Bush Adminstration does, it will not satisfy Cindy Sheehan.

Related News Links:
www.voanews.com
www.msnbc.msn.com
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[edit on 27-9-2005 by DJDOHBOY]