McGizmo and JamesS have hit the nail on the head.
As I posted elsewhere, the idiots who stayed behind and are looting CHOSE to stay behind. They quite obviously were able bodied enough to leave, even if it meant walking, and lo and behold, they had plenty of time to do so.
I wondered at all the obviously able bodied people in the SuperDome, who COULD have left but didn't. Not hard to see why some of them stayed. I'm with the governor, Loot and We Shoot!
No one begrudges essentials, and certainly food and meds qualify there, (even flashlights!), but weapons, tv's, DVD players? Come on!!!
This is really a VERY SMALL contingent of people, who have a massive amount of media to play too!
As far as National Guard mobilization, it takes a few days, we are only in Day 5 folks!! My brother in law, 23 days short of being discharged, after having served in Desert Storm/Shield, and returning from Baghdad about 3 months ago, has been placed on standby and will be leaving from Washington State within a week or so if all goes as planned, but even National Guardsmen take a little time to arrange their jobs and families to leave.
We'll handle it, but those that stayed behind, by and large, CHOSE to stay behind. Those who couldn't leave because of health or whatever, would have had plenty of food and water if the idiots who CHOSE to stay had left instead of using up those supplies!!
That all said, when the National Guard and Army get there, I'll bet that within 48 hours order will be returned and things will get turned around. It's a little different shooting at a guy in body armor who survived Baghdad than it is shooting at overstressed cops and civilians who are exhausted and stretched to their limits!!
We will handle it, we have before, we will again!!
From another post I wrote elsewhere:
One of the issues is that the people who should see it coming and prepare, the ones who live in the area, are like all the rest of us, human. They live and work where there is work and a place to live.
You aren't donating to the country, you are donating to a group of individuals who have had a misfortune, just like the BILLIONS of dollars that the United States and it's citizens poured into countries affected by the tsunami.
They should have seen it coming, too, right? I mean, after all, it's happened multiple times in that part of the world! But like those affected by Katrina, they are people, people who lived and worked where they could find a place to live and a place to work.
You aren't sending money to the United States, because just like virtually every other disaster that has happened, the United States will mobilize the necessary money, skill, willpower, and material resources it needs to repair, replace, fix, or otherwise return to normal a situation that was caused by a force of nature. We've done it before, we'll do it this time
From what I can tell, it affected every group, every political party, every religion, and every race. Rich or poor, healthy or not, old or young, black or white or red or yellow. It affected them all.
No one asked anyone on the forums to send money they couldn't afford, or to send it some organization that was shady or fly by night. We asked, well, I'll be even more correct, I asked that money be donated for those of OUR group, our friends, family, or business associates that needed it. If you chose to donate to the Red Cross, that was your choice.
Does the Red Cross need money, yes! Does it need money in the richest nation on earth, yes! But why, isn't it the richest nation on earth? Yes again. BUT,being the richest doesn't mean it has infinite resources at it's every whim. Putting those resources away and doing nothing with them for years on end would be foolish, so the Red Cross, and all the national agencies, use those resources all over the world. In Iran for earthquakes, in the Philippines for Volcanoes, in SouthEast Asia for tsunamis, in Africa for famine relief. Those monies helped rebuild Europe after 2 World Wars, rebuilt Japan after World War II, have helped fund democratic reforms in country after country. Check your history books, see how many of those countries paid back the loans that the United States gave them after the wars! Check and see how many even tried! Check and see how many offered to return the money given as grants!
Those funds have helped fund the communist block's shift to a market based economy. It has helped Germany be reunited, has raised Poland from a stepping stone to be conquered into a democratic country.
Have those things happened with no mistakes, no errors in judgement, no accidents, no ongoing political strife? Have the agencies, or the United States government done those things without any wrong steps? Of course not, because PEOPLE are involved, and people aren't perfect.
Did the people who lived in the New Orleans area KNOW this was going to happen? Well, they KNEW it was a possibility, but KNOW it was going to happen? Of course not, they aren't all prophets who can foresee the future. New Orleans had weathered storms before, no storm like this has happened in anybodies lifetime. The COULDN'T know it was going to happen!
Like people everywhere, they hoped it wouldn't happen to them. Like the people in SouthEast Asia, like the people near Mt. Pinatubo, like the people in Iran in the earthquake zone, they HOPED it wouldn't happen to them!
While the United States deals with this at home, we are rushing aid to the families of those killed in Iraq in the stampede. Soldiers from Louisiana, and Mississippi, and Alabama, who have families affected by Katrina, provide safety to Shiite Muslims in Iraq so they can mourn in peace, even while those same soldiers worry about their loved ones at home!
A travesty, why? Because the government didn't build the dikes higher? Because some people chose to stay behind against the best possible advice? Even in the richest country in the world, resources are at a premium. No storm like this had happened, so do you prepare for the POSSIBILITY or use the resources elsewhere? In this case, and in hindsight, well the choice is obvious! But in MY life at least, I know that there are decisions that I should have made differently, this was one of those cases for a whole group of people.
Overwhelmed, I don't feel overwhelmed. We'll get it sorted out. Remember, only 3 days have passed, there is a little bit of panic, but we'll get it sorted out. We survived 9/11, Mt. St. Helens eruption, the San Francisco earthquake, the Galveston Hurricane (look it up), a Civil War, 2 World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and so many more that it is impossible to name them.
We will rebound, a little wiser, perhaps, but we will rebound.
As for the idiots out there who are looting and stealing and shooting, well, they'll get theirs eventually. Order will be restored. The night is always darkest just before the dawn. The darkest human instincts always appear when it appears there is no reason to guard against them.
BUT, we will sort it out.
Bill
