Comments on: Feds Gov’t Blocks Red Cross

By: MaxPlanck

MaxPlanck — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 01:06:50 +0000

Was the Red Cross ‘Blocked’ or would they have BLOCKED themselves anyway? Hope this contributes some clarity to the Red Cross Story.
MP
Red Cross: “It Was Not Safe To Be In The City” (Video).
In a Larry King interview on Sept 2nd, Red Cross CEO Marsha Evans explained that the Red Cross were not in New Orleans because it was unsafe.
It was unsafe to be in the city.
it was not safe to be in the city, and it’s not been safe to go back into the city.
According to other reports, Red Cross workers could have been shot or infected by disease if they entered New Orleans in the first days after the storm.
In addition, Evans mentioned concerns that relocating in the city would delay evacuation.
They were also concerned that if we located, relocated back into the city, people wouldn’t leave, and they’ve got to leave.
However, many reporters and news sources have failed to acknowledge the safety/security aspects of Marsha Evans explanation (an exception being Bill OReilly at Fox News).
It is not yet clear whether or not the Red Cross would have entered the city early on, given these serious safety risks, even if they had not been asked to stay out by the National Guard, the city and State emergency management.
A relevant video clip from the Larry King interview can be found here:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509090002
MP

By: crisis = opportunity

crisis = opportunity — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 21:02:44 +0000

Americans versus Foreigners? Liberals versus Conservatives? Democrats vs. Republicans? The Fed versus the state?
We all tend to live rather insular lives until some cataclysmic event jolts us from our deluded self-interest, and cracks the veneer of our beliefs in ‘self relience’ and the ‘self made man’.
Apocalyptic fairie tales do come true, it can happen to you, if you’re cold of heart.
Isn’t there a tendency we have to over-identify with some label, & its assumed moralistically superior behavior?
Times like these are actually blessed openings where we are sprung free from our insular prescribed ways of looking at our world.
Whatever your usual self image, now is a blessed time to lose the cataract of egotism, and to evolve beyond needing to be identified with a side or a party or a label.
Whatever your image of yourself, and your image of ‘the other’, this catastrophe will only remain a tragedy if people do not evolve beyond their usual clinging to self-images that make them feel more secure.
The tragedy will be made cosummate if people do not learn to see that there is no ‘other’.
We are all interdependent. No amount of money or favored social status could have saved you in New Orleans once those levees and flood walls were breached.
This apocalyptic flood of biblical proportions is
the Universal Solvent, washing away all mental obscurations of social, classist or elitist distinctions. All sentient beings, men, women, children and animals, were rendered equally impotent to wrest themselves from such tortuous suffering as happened in my beloved city of New Orleans.
An enormous Thank you to every human being who has allowed themselves to be re-oriented to the primacy of all sentient beings interdependence, and thankyou for taking action, whatever and however, from your renewed understanding of your humanity.
Love to everyone, from a New Orleans native who managed to escape with my life, with help.
And though I just lost my house and my beloved ‘N’awlins’, as well as every material thing i own and worked for, I have gained a clearer understanding of my humanity.

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 01:21:41 +0000

The President of the United States has proved to us once again that he has the inability to take charge. I am a veteran of the Armed Forces, and Bush is the main reason I got out after serving my country for ten years. I find it very hard to respect someone who doesn’t have our best interest in mind. I ask God to forgive him for causing innocent soldiers to die on foreign soil. I also ask God to forgive him for the catastropy in New Orleans. And last but not least I ask God to forgive him for 9/11. The President of the United States has the power to put the Governor and the Mayor in check. Therefore if they were in fact not doing their job, then why didn’t Bush step up to the plate. After all, he is the President, and it was a national disaster. He had the means to make it happen, he just didn’t have the to do. We need to realize that the Governor and the Mayor have been victimized also. I commend the Mayor of New Orleans for sticking by his people, and I want to encourage him to keep his head up and look to the hills for his help. We need a shot caller to be our president. Bush is not. He is an oppressor. I joined the military, first because I love my country, Second, because I was willing to fight and die for a legitimate cause. Not for a lie. I have a major problem with the blood bath that is happening in Iraq and in New Orleans. There is no reason whatsoever that people in the richest country in the world die, and be left to rot on the street. There is no dignity, or compassion in the thought pattern of any individual who think that this crime that has happened toward these Americans in New Orleans is right. Holes have been blown into every excuse that our governemnt has come up with as to why they did not respond in a timely manner.

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 19:08:57 +0000

I am waiting to see the numbers on how many operable vehicles and autos are under water in LA. Is it true that the only folks who stayed behind were those who had no way to get out of town? Or was there a good deal of transportation available in the neighborhood that people simply chose to not use?

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 20:28:37 +0000

You might want to try to ACCURATELY report this story — it was the state Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness agency NOT the federal Department of Homeland Security that was responsible. So it was the Governor of Louisiana that was responsible for the delay in aid, at least from the ARC and Salvation Army.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 14:38:22 +0000

Thumbs up to Matt, Scott Free, Gary, Suzy, Jon, Bob Lewis, Pam S., R. Lambert, Alfredo D. Marin, Dave, Rey, M.N., Theresa, Kilo 4 and CDC5502D.
Thumbs down to the Times-Picayune, Arnold D.Mackey, Mary Etta Rowan, Rachel Butler, gimama, and their ilk. All adding to the problem.
I think it is about time that the media get their facts before running off at the mouth. It is fast becoming evident that most of the major broadcast and cable network reporters and print journalist must have been hired right from the supermarket tabloid ranks.
It seems to me that if a story is absurd the facts murky, suspect or even 100% wrong, it is still worthy of prime time TV coverage or a newspapers front page above the fold. The only requirement for the headline and story it seems to me is that the piece must degrade or accuse an individual, department, organization, or be engaged in some type of an action which they, the 5th estate, disapprove of. In this case, the individuals, departments, organizations, etc being blamed for everything from causing the storm to dereliction of duty are President Bush, the director of FEMA, the Corps of Engineers, the Red Cross organization, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, the Defense department in general, the Army and the Navy in particular, the war in Iraq and the Kieto (sp) Treaty.
We should all pray that God gathers up to himself, all the people who have died and that comforts all of the survivors. I thank God for the all the men and women who are working day and night to rescue, feed, evacuate, cloth, house, reunite families, those who survived. America’s citizens have always been a compassionate and generous to all the world and to their fellow Americans when in need. We should continue to do so in the aftermath of Katrina. There is plenty of time to identify what went wrong and why it went wrong, when tempers calm and reason is restored.
Once the aftermath of Katrina is stabilized, the victims housed, and the clean up in full gear, then the people of this great nation will come together to determine the causes and the corrective actions required to fix the real breakdowns and failures in our relief systems from the individual, in any disaster area, to the responsibilities of city, county, state and federal agencies, in the relief of such disasters. Government at levels must eliminate laws which tie the hands of the various agencies as they try to provide assistance.
Emergency plans when written must be executable. Some sort of emergency plan testing at all levels must be done. It is unfortunate, but reality, that unless a plan is executed or tested in the field, it can not be assumed that it will work. The public at large should be informed as to the real time lines involved in any disaster recovery. We the individual citizens must learn and understand that real life is not a TV series such as “24” or a Hollywood thriller where the world is destroyed and rebuilt in the 90 minutes it requires to view it.

By: CSC5502D

CSC5502D — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 06:21:52 +0000

Awww, Kilo Echo 4 stole my thunder!
Love the selective quoting, fellas. Or are you just so intent on blaming Bush that you either are too stupid to read the actual information?
I wonder which?
http://csc5502dsays.typepad.com/my_weblog/

By: Kilo Echo 4

Kilo Echo 4 — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 01:01:51 +0000

Here is the link to the Red Cross FAQ explaining that STATE authorities blocked them from entering, not the FEDS or FEMA:
http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html#4524
Marty Evans, the president of the ARC, was just on FOX News saying the same thing. She stated it was the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security who stopped them from delivering food and water to the Superdome and Convention Center.

By: gimama

gimama — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 06:55:48 +0000

Petition to IMPEACH BUSH & CHENEY
http://elandslide.org/elandslide/petition.cfm?campaign=impeach&refer=friend
Contact info for elected employees at http://www.congress.org
~also see MANY(outraged)letters to ‘leaders’.
FYI: DISPLACED VETERANS #1–800-507‑4571
Not ONLY Katrina SURVIVORS.
Please pass this info on. thx~g

By: Theresa

Theresa — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 00:52:52 +0000

I’m from the Island of Guam, and we have started collection efforts through Catholic Social Service and the Red Cross to Aid the relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina. Our prayers are with all those affected by this disaster