Heart Broken

My heart is broken. My home town is gone. Members of my family have lost everything except their lives, which I am very thankful for. It was a sense of relief once I finally heard that everyone is alive but then despair sets in when you learned that the homes the lived in are gone. Their homes are not just damaged and repairable but completely gone. The only thing that remains is twisted metal and lumber. Fortunately most of my family is fairly well off. They have insurance and money and even other houses that the own and can go to but the things that are lost some are irreplaceable. Sure furniture can be replaced. But what about pictures of my grandmother and grandfather, pictures of my cousins and parents and aunts and uncles, they are gone forever. To never be seen again. I will never see that certain picture of my grandfather in his HS Letterman jacket. All that is left are memories, memories like going out in the gulf to go shrimping with my dad and uncle, and of cook outs with my cousins. There is no tangible evidence of any of it taking place except the images in my mind. It is not fair too because your mind forgets the details. There is no more looking at something with others and say things like “Mom look at your hair! Dad why are your socks so high back? Is that a GI Joe shirt I am wearing? Was this really the fashion of the time?” Those things GONE. See my entire family is from southern Mississippi I was born on the gulf coast in Pascagoula Mississippi, a town that once was.

This morning I was so pleased and so angry. The angry first. I read that people with guns are roaming the streets and having shoot outs in New Orleans; they are shooting at helicopters and at people trying to aboard buses to get to safety. Supply helicopters are not landing because of getting shot at. Yes Military Police are on their way to enforce martial law but my question has society and moral values declined so much that when there is no law enforcing us that we become an anarchic society? What happened to common good? This situation makes me so angry for a few people taking advantage of a desperate situation but it also makes so sad. Sad, because I see now what society has become and my belief that people are inherently good is very naive.
Now the pleased. I went to Sufficient Grounds this morning to get a coffee and breakfast on the way to work. When I walked in sitting on top of the dessert cabinet was a big plastic jug with a note saying “Donations for Katrina Relief to the Red Cross.” I am glad they the owners are supporting this. But what made me even happier was the bottom of the note. Sufficient Ground Owners will match every dollar donated. The owners are putting their money into this also. That makes me happy that I work for people that are maybe I say, inherently good. With the amount of people that come through that restaurant every day and the money that some of the costumers have this could cost the owners thousands of dollars. I hope it does and somehow I hope they don’t mind. This morning I paid for my breakfast with my debit card and put every dollar I had on me in the jug.

Now for the outlook. Right now people are pouring out money, supplies and their time to help out in this, the greatest natural disaster that we have ever seen strike the U.S. I hope people realize the million or more people displaced by this are going to need help not just for this week but for months. They are going to need shelter, food and clothing for months. This is not going to be something that will be fixed anytime soon, but years from now. I so wish I could take a hiatus at work and go to Laurel Mississippi and help out. My heart aches for not being able to do more then give money and clothing. I want to help out first hand.
Yes there is price gouging going on in our gas prices, but gas will continue to go up for months. New Orleans refined up to 35% of the crud oil to gasoline used in the U.S. That capacity is gone. The president releasing part of the defense reserves will not help since it is the refining of the crud oil that is the problem. You can expect all petroleum based products to go extremely high, including natural gas, gasoline and even hair products. Also New Orleans was one of the three busiest ports in the nation for imported and exported goods. This capacity is gone. Yes there are other ports but they will not be able to handle the increase demand on their capacity to move goods. This disaster have and will effect unemployment rates, cost of goods, transportation, etc. I do believe that our economy is going to be hit hard and take years to recover.
What good could come out of this? For one I hope we can become a united country again. Politics, war and religion beliefs have divided our country for the last few years. We focus more on the abroad then at home. We saw the world unite after the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. I hope we see our country unite after our own disaster.