Hi Beauty. I'm sorry you have misunderstood at least my purpose in contributing to the above. You are a very empathic person; that's one of your many well recognized and valued personal traits. Understand we, or at least I, was poking fun at us, as a group, and that truly is not meant to belittle or in any way denigrate the survivors and dead from Hurricane Katrina, but in my case is a way of coping with my anger and feelings of inadequacy at the magnitude and desperate needs of the people of New Orleans. If I don't find something close to my center by using my sense of the ridiculous, then I would be depressed and then unable to act. As it is, I am very angry at the failure of the local, state, and federal governments in preparing for and following up on the hurricane.

My own personal response is neccesarily limited to transporting donations of food and clothing, from me, my sister, and other family members and friends to the local collection points, but it now appears those will be applied to survivors being transported into our communities. So long as they will go to good use, I guess. You may recall my sis and I share the care of my 85 years old mother. I have been hearing all morning about a nursing home finally being reached with 32 elderly people who died as a result of the failure of those in government, and probably those charged with their well being. And that really hits home all over again!!! You just wonder what the bureaucrats were thinking to not provide for the evacuation of those helpless elderly folks!!!!! Such facilities have to be licensed, so it's not like they didn't have a record of them, ya know? They weren't able to get themselves out, most likely due to age and ills; I know my mom couldn't. What happened to the facility director that he or she didn't arrange for their transport, and for that matter where were the families of the dead? And the authorities "..expect to find more of these tragedies"! Auuuuughhh!!!! I find that nearly incomprehensible that it would occur. Neither can I understand why anyone mobile would have stayed where they were when there were options to leave dangerous areas, even if only by walking, but then things and property mean relatively little to me.
Love, CarolynnL
"It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,"
David Weber – In Fury Born