Lets get this off of our chests...How are you doing in the wake of Katrina?

[GYPSY JAZMINE]

Hello BPO family!...I have seen alot of high emotion in the wake of Katrina...I think it would benefit us highly to put our feelings & how we are doing down in type...It always helps to share our feelings with friends....I'll go first.
Well 1st off I break down & sob at least once a day...I mean heart wretching agonized sobs...I turn off the t.v. when I can't take anymore but inevitably turn it back on because I have to know how things are going...I pray more than I ever have in my life & I get angry...I feel helpless...I want to run down their & DO SOMETHING!...I feel that donating & praying is not enough...I am not sleeping nights hardly at all...I alternatly get irritated with my children & animals because my nerves are shot & hug them close & thank God I am with them & we are all o.k...One minute I feel that all will be o.k....I become optimistic & the next I feel so sad & despondant...& I pray...I pray...I pray.
Yup, I'm a wreck...How are my friends here at BPO?

[Anky]

We were talking about this the other day in chat.  I feel like a horrible horrible evil person, but honestly I'm sick of seeing it all.  I'm sick of that being everywhere.  I'm tired of seeing the same people complaining constantly, and shoving the truly thankful out of the way.  I understand all the deaths, those who've lost their loved ones in addition to everything they have in the world.  But I make like no money, I gave $10 the other day at the gas station to help the victims of Katrina.  When you only get $54 a week, $10 is a LOT of money.  People here are doing all they can and the people there don't even care.  Maybe they do but they don't show that on TV.  All they show are the angry people, the people who hate everyone, the ungrateful ones.  It's draining, and I'm sick of it.

I'm tired of the government screwing everything up.  We were supposed to have 500 refugees come to NH and stay on an abandoned military base.  Government randomly decided not to have them come here.  There was a woman on TV, she had the clothes on her back, not even a picture of her mother who recently died.  They tell her that her house that was thought gone was found totally intact down the street.  She was ecstatic, but before she got there they dozed her house.  There's no call for that.

I'm depressed enough about this and there's no release from it. 

Ang

[mixedupdog]

I feel awful for the people there, I used to work at a big company that has several offices there and wonder what happened to people I used to talk to on the phone, like Clyde who had such a great sense of humor, and Charles, who was so proud of his grandkids.  I lost a boy I grew up with in 911, he was a firefighter who went in when everyone else was coming out.  I helped in the hurricane Andrew cleanup, and agonized over my mom and brother sticking out last year's hurricanes in Florida by camping in his walk-in closet (Mom's 85, bro is 67).  I hate that we're at war for what is apparently the wrong reasons.  The state of the world has me very worried right now. I don't know how much more I can take.
On a personal level, they keep bringing people to my part of the world.  That's great, I'm glad we can help. But I have a job making very little money, and the price of gas is impacting business so that soon I will have to find another job to feed my kids, and compete with people who lost everything, and will get preference because of the tragedy (not saying they shouldn't- just saying it is adding to my worries). My skin kid has a mental illness and is very unstable right now, I get caught up in my own stuff and then feel guilty that I'm not doing more for all the suffering.....

[brigid67]

I am upset...as a nurse I feel like I am not doing enough...want to be down there but don't either.  It is absolutely awful.  I am so thankful for what I have - to be safe and cozy in my home with my family all safe...I think we take a lot for granted.  I pray for all of those people to find some peace and happiness...it just seems like everything is just so overwhelming.

Now on another note - I am very angry!!!  There are really two reasons.  One is the government and how the help took such a longtime to get where it needed to be.  I think we have have already talked about it in another thread.  The other reason I am angry - the reports of the way the people acted who were down there.  People robbing, raping, killing, mutilating bodies....I am sickened at how the victems of Katrina fell pray and became victems to monstrous people.  The New Orleans Convention Center was being run by gangs...I don't know maybe it is all sensationlized and i am hoping that it is..but I can not believe the level some of those people sunk to...just awful!!!

[newflvr]

Brigid, Anky I'm with you.  I'm angry.  I'm angry because politicians, media, every person who gets a mike stuck in front of his face is trying to blame someone....any one.  I'm sorry, but sometimes bad stuff just plain happens for no reason.  It's a waste of time and energy to lay there and point fingers!  Get up, get going....any place is better than down.  We are all going to have to pull together to move forward.  Leave all the blame S*&T behind.  Forget it!  Learn from our mistakes.  THINK and THANK  .....those are the words I've been trying to drum in to my kids' heads.  Think about what you are doing and the consequences of your action.  Then thank EVERYBODY  for every kind thing that is done for you.  Gratitude is the biggest healer.  Look for the good!!!

No body planned this hurricane.  Yes, the levy broke because the government gambled that "the big one" wouldn't hit.  They put our money elsewhere..... anti-terrorism?  Okay...that's fine and we haven't been hit again.  They gambled, the Gulf States lost.  Let's all pitch in and get every living creature out of there and learn from the mistakes.  Don't waste time and good will by going over and over and over who made what error. 

Sad???  Yes for the good people that got out when they saw it was time....by any means  and thereby lost everything.  But I'm so flippin' angry at those who stayed behind to loot, shoot, rape and murder!  I've said this before but there are many times I'm sad to be human.

[GYPSY JAZMINE]

I am upset...as a nurse I feel like I am not doing enough...want to be down there but don't either.  It is absolutely awful.  I am so thankful for what I have - to be safe and cozy in my home with my family all safe...I think we take a lot for granted.  I pray for all of those people to find some peace and happiness...it just seems like everything is just so overwhelming.

Now on another note - I am very angry!!!  There are really two reasons.  One is the government and how the help took such a longtime to get where it needed to be.  I think we have have already talked about it in another thread.  The other reason I am angry - the reports of the way the people acted who were down there.  People robbing, raping, killing, mutilating bodies....I am sickened at how the victems of Katrina fell pray and became victems to monstrous people.  The New Orleans Convention Center was being run by gangs...I don't know maybe it is all sensationlized and i am hoping that it is..but I can not believe the level some of those people sunk to...just awful!!!

It's good to get our feelings out!...I urge you to keep it going people!...The atrocities commited against the victims of Katrina by the gang members & predators makes me very angry...I try to control my anger though & save my energy to project the good...Karma will take care of the evil doers....I truley appreciate & value all of you here...I just want you all to know.

[newflvr]

Thanks Gyps.  It's a great thread and it does feel good to vent a bit. 

[Rocky's 'Rents]

I am upset...as a nurse I feel like I am not doing enough...want to be down there but don't either.  It is absolutely awful.  I am so thankful for what I have - to be safe and cozy in my home with my family all safe...I think we take a lot for granted.  I pray for all of those people to find some peace and happiness...it just seems like everything is just so overwhelming.

  I know how you feel. Every night my husband catches me crying watching tv. I ache because my family depends on my paycheck and I have responsibiliti es to my hospital. But I also want to go there and help as I also am a nurse and know that there is so much I could do. I am waiting because they are going to have a group of evacuees coming to Pittsburgh and I hope to volunteer to help there.  One of my supervisers said a few days after the hurricaine hit that "God is mad at us." Well I'm sure that He was even madder at first when the worst of mans inhumanity was showing but He must be encouraged now to see how we as a nation have pulled together once again to lift each other up!!  It is emotionally draining and I so understand what Chelle said she was going through - so frustrating!!

[newflvr]

Laurel, that was so moving.  You've given me such a realization of what's gone....perhap s forever.  Thank you.  You've put so much of the tragedy in to perspective.

[pndlake]

Laurel that is so moving.

I can't begin to say what mixed feelings I have for this whole turn of events.  On one part I am ashamed of our government for being so slow to get aid in there.  I am ashamed especially of the local government calling for a mandatory evacuation and then not providing at least school buses to get those out that cannot help themselves. 

I just got back from San Antonio and learned a lot just talking to some locals to see how they felt.  They have a huge number of displaced people there and already a lot of them say they want to stay in San Antonio.  A cab driver told us that they came up to him and said they were from New Orleans and could they have a free ride.  They also wanted all their food in town for free. 

A disaster of this magnitude brings out the best and the worst in humans.  It is hard not to feel badly for the people stuck in the awful heat with nowhere to go for days.  Then there are snipers and people stealing rescue boats - what a shame on Americans.  Maybe there is a little hope after all through all of the other countries that want to help the "big, fat americans".  It shows that regardless of our race, religion or nationality,  we are all humans on this earth and we do what we can to help our brothers.

It will take years to sort this all out, if ever.

Peggy

[brigid67]

Thanks Gyp for starting this thread...I think it does help!!!  At 7am this morning I am watching the news and wondering "how are they surviving without Starbucks?!?!?!"  lol  just kidding - but the thought did flutter across my mind as I sit here and sip my sugar free vanilla soy latte....

[Carolyn]

I feel really bad for the people, but my heart goes out to helpless animals. I cant stop thinking of how & what I could do to prepare myself here. They keep saying NY is over due. I live in the middle of Long Island, I have a better chance here than people living along the shore. I have been pricing life jackets for dogs about $20. Then there would have to be some kind of bag to put some food & water. Then we would need some kind of raft, the canoe just wont work for dogs. Sometimes I think Im going crazy. I swear I would never leave them.
Carolyn

[dgodden5459]

I also have mixed emotions. I have family that live about 10 miles ease of Biloxi MS. They live in a small town called Gautier. Thankfully they had only roof damage done to their house while others in theit neighborhood lost homes. My Uncle made the comment the other day on the phone that his friend lost everything and only had the clothes on his back. Local families gathered clothes, food and toys and took them to the Red Cross. We were told that they would not accept them that they only wanted money. Now that is sad. I am also tired of people calling the victims of the hurricane refugees, they are not refugees they are victims of a disaster. I live in Central Illinois and read in the paper that our town is welcoming 250 people this week and 450 next week. There is only a population of 5000 people in our town on a good day. It's people helping people. It really irks me when people try to say it's a racial or economic thing and that's why the goverment was slow in assisting. I hope that it wasn't I hope it was just not being prepared for such a major disaster. Now I feel better, and I know our country can get through this and hopefully we can remember the golden rule "treat people how you would want to be treated yourself", maybe we should all try to think how it would be to walk in the peoples shoes from MS, LA ans AL...

[PupDaddy]

This is the Alton Family, 18 of whom escaped New Orleans with little more than the cloths on their back. The parents of two of the kids are NO cops, so are still there. They moved into the homes of Jay and his family, and his parents across the street. Friends and co-worker loaned them 3 RV's or travel trailers, and bought them an extra refridgerator and freezer. In additoin to Jay's 5 dogs ( all rescues) the NO folks brought 3 more dogs. I've given them dog food, and have plenty more when they need it.

It's not much, but it's what I can do, and makes me feel good!

[brigid67]

I think that is great P. Daddy....

Julie I m sorry for al that you have going on - it sunds vry stressfull.  Hope the surgery goes well.