Katrina

I don't know that there is much I can say that hasn't already been said. Devastating, heartbreaking, agonizing...

The pictures on TV are tearing at me. It is horrible and it makes me want to turn it off and quit watching. How convenient for me, I can reach up and shut off the suffering and go play with my son on the floor with his toys. I have the luxury of being able to turn it off. Guilt.

The situation there is horrid and getting worse instead of better. To me, the pain of what is going on there is more real than 9-11 for some reason. I mourned and vowed revenge to those who commited the 9-11 atrocities. But there is no one here to vow revenge on, Mother Nature? And the suffering of those directly affected is greater with Katrina. I see it on TV, see people begging for help, yet there is very little I can reasonably do aside from donate money and hope it gets to where it needs to go.

It isn't feasible for me to pack up, drive to New Orleans and start packing people out. I don't have a medical background to assist. Or am I just making up excuses. Excuses that make no difference whatsoever to the people affected down there.

In every child's face on TV, I see Leif. The desperation of the parents kills me. I would be equally desperate. I saw a woman on TV last night screaming and crying that her baby was lethargic and she needed help. That is an image that has forever been burnt on my mind. I will never forget her pleading.

This isn't halfway around the world. We aren't seeing pictures out of Afghanistan or Iraq that are removed from our daily life. These people are our people. They are tourists who were visiting a great fun city and have been trapped. They are moms, dads, grandparents, sisters, brothers...

Hans works for a company that has sites in the area, two labs. There was at least one person employed that lost everything. We hope to donate to this person. I have a great need to help someone directly and not just blindly write a check. Then Hans told me that his company has spent a large sum of money on generators to get their labs back up and running. His coworkers are questioning the motives here... they can outsource their samples to the other sites. Hans' lab could pick up the work for example. They could instead of spending the money, set up a refuge site, put the generator somewhere where power is really needed, instead of the lab. They are frustrated. But maybe, is it at all better to start getting people back to normal? Give them a job to go to? Will that, in the end, help more with recovery in the outlying areas?

I don't have the answers obviously, no one does. But I have lots of prayers to offer.