I was in a discussion with the current rift in American culture where we for some reason are so quick to judge and as a result ignore the real problem. We continued the discussion and a quote from Teddy Roosevelt was brought up. It is a quote from a speech that he gave in Paris in 1910 titled “Citizenship in a Republic”.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

Do not jump to conclusions. President Roosevelt later said that “Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indespensable; but it can never take the place of action.”

Roosevelt knew that criticism was something that could not be done away with but he stood by his belief that taking action is much better than criticising while doing nothing. I feel that this applies to the entire Katrina aftermath and the things that some TV networks and people in general have decided to say and do. We are in a time of crisis, the last thing we need is criticism with no action. Right now this country needs to act and ask questions after the problem has been solved. This nation of finger pointers needs to grow up and just help each other. Who cares about political agenda, political side of the fence, and color, race, or creed.

I have spent some more time at the Reese Technology Center, which is where the evacuees in Lubbock are staying for now. A lot of them have mentioned staying here and settling down. It seems that the urge to go back just is not that great.

I will be spending more time out there next week and will hopefully have some pictures of the kids I have been getting to know. They are great and have the best outlook on what is going on around them. Every single person at Reese was rescued from their roof or from inside the floodwaters so they did not make it to the Superdome and their stories are pretty amazing. I am going to take some interviewing materials next time I am out there and will hopefully get some of their stories in recordings or at least typed.

First off, unless you have helped or seen the people who have been effected by Katrina face to face, you have no room to make this whole ordeal a political issue. It has only been what, almost two weeks since it happened? What is wrong with everyone?! Stop complaining, you still have your house. I am sure the last thing on these people’s minds is whether or not President Bush responded quickly enough. Most of them just want to know if their children or parents are alive. Yet we as Americans turn around and immediately make the issue political. You have idiots writing columns about it already. Why not get out there and do something productive with the resources that you have? There is still a need in places where these people are being evacuated to. We still need baby food and baby clothes here and we just aren’t getting it. I guess people are too busy pointing fingers.

That’s just like Americans though, isn’t it; It isn’t my fault, it’s his. We never want to take responsibility for what we do wrong. Yet, no one who is making the comments that they are making seems to realize the way federal aid works and the current confusion that is hurting the whole operation.

I sat in a briefing today with the Red Cross and all of those in charge sounded completely frustrated with the way the military was handling the transportation of people. It is very hard for a relief organization to have some form of controlled chaos when they do not know where people or supplies are going. The Lubbock Coliseum was to receive 500+ evacuees on Sunday. The planes never came. Weather and some confusion kept them in New Orleans. Yesterday, Labor Day, the planes again, were supposed to come, but they never showed up. The military re-routed them to Chicago temporarily because of confusion on the ground. Do you see what I am getting at?

Federal Aid can only be brought in after the local authorities, that would be the mayor and police chief of New Orleans for those of you having difficulty keeping up, and the governor or Louisiana have declared a state of emergency. Did either of those two things take place quickly? No.

The mayor of New Orleans faultered right off the bat by not requesting federal help immediately after the evacuation order was given. Had he done so, the government could have stepped in and supplied large military trucks to haul people in. Hmmm, seems a lot easier than picking people off of roofs. The President alone cannot make these decisions though! There has to be a chain, it’s the way it has to happen.

There was a slight delay, I think it was four hours or so, between when the President was told of the devestation and when the state of emergency was issued. Is that the fault of the President, yes, more than likely he was in meetings discussing the best possible solutions.

Don’t give me this crap about how he was in Crawford and yada, yada, yada. Do you know exactly what was going on in Crawford? No! You have no idea. The President has worked from there before, and hey, it’s closer to New Orleans than Washington D.C. I still do not understand what people expected, President Bush to somehow stop the levees from breaching, I mean, that’s saying he’s like super man or something, almost like a compliment.

I’ll end this whole rant by saying, please, stop making this a political issue for now. People are still suffering and dying, there’s no need to attack someone. Just wait till the water recedes and people can go back, then you can yell “foul” all you want. People are looking for any little thing to just go all out on the President, yet they seem to know very little about the situation. They assume from wherever they are that they know exactly how these people feel. I’ve sat and talked to some of them and I still do not understand it. Some have lost everything they own yet they sit there and smile because their family made it and that’s all they wanted.

[EDIT]

At least a few reporters have done their research and see that it’s not a single person’s fault and that a lot went wrong.

Today was spent doing relief work at the Lubbock Coliseum setting up for evacuees to arrive tomorrow. They were supposed to arrive today but for some reason not all of the transport planes made it out here.

We are desperate for baby supplies. A local Albertson’s manager that we contacted told me to come in and he would help us out. We showed up and he grabbed some shopping carts and asked us, “What do you need”. He then proceeded to fill the carts with formula, baby diapers, baby wipes, bottles, baby food, and bottled water. It was a true sign of what people are willing to give to help others.

If you would like to help with the baby supplies you can contact the Lubbock Red Cross at:

2201 19th Street

Lubbock, TX 79411

Phone: (806) 765-8534

We still do not know the devastation that Katrina has wreaked on the southern states. It will probably be weeks before we have any kind of idea as to what the actual toll is. The situation is dire now and it is amazing to me the road that some people have chosen to take. This article just about made me sick to my stomach. How can people have the nerve to say that this is “the man sticking it to the African Americans of this region”? In my meteorology classes I don’t remember hurricanes being on the list of weather events that are racist (apparently tornadoes hate people in trailer parks).

Everyone in that region has been effected by this storm. Everyone is suffering. Even the people who have shelter are suffering. Yes, the conditions are bad in New Orleans but shooting at helicopters and ripping off TVs from appliance stores does not help the situation.

The evacuation order was given a full day before the storm. In that day people could have walked, yes walked out of the path of this storm and been better off.

Please, do not take this post as being unsympathetic because I am. I feel horrible for these people and cannot imagine the pain that they are experiencing. I just cannot understand why some people choose to rape, pillage, and loot while people die in the streets. I do not understand why there is already a lawsuit being talked about because of “race” issues. It all seems a little ludicrous to me.

Visit Redcross.org to donate money to help these people in need. Any amount will help.

Things in Lubbock are going well, classes have been speeding along and I am finally get into the “groove”.

My desk came yesterday so that is definitely going to help with the organization of my room. This is great since I have my mentoring position coming up next week and a lot of job stuff happening.

I have a lot to say about hurricane Katrina but I’ll save that for a time when I am not about to head out the door for class.

I finally arrived back in Lubbock on Monday and started moving in. I came down with the flu on Wednesday so things have somewhat slowed down and I am just starting to feel better.

I have put up some of the house so far… You can find them here.

School starts on Monday so this will probably be the last you hear from me for a while.

Bathroom

Kitchen

Kitchen

Dining Room

Living Room

Living Room

I leave tomorrow morning at 7 to move back to Lubbock. I am not sure what my internet connectivity will be like so if you need to get ahold of me my cellphone will be your best bet.

It will be about an eight hour drive and with the way that Highway 36 is looking with construction it may take a little longer.

I will post about the end of my internship when I am finished moving in and getting settled (and hopefully have internet).

Jeremy Boles has put up somewhat of a challenge called Photography Calisthenics. It is a challenge to take 50 pictures a day for a week, trying new techniques, experimenting, and just getting out and taking pictures.

I have decided I will try to take 50 pictures a day and it is already turning out to be pretty tough. I take my camera with me almost everywhere I go but don’t always pull it out and take a picture. This will be a good exercise for me to stop being camera lazy and get out and take some shots.

Jeremy has started a flickr group called Photography Calisthenics (appropriately). Check it out and if you have a camera that’s sitting around, participate.

I have not made a political post in a while so I thought I’d heat things up a bit.

Israeli soldiers have begun to forcibly evict settlers in the Gaza Strip. Ariel Sharon has said that the pull out from Gaza will bring peace to the region, I beg to differ. I would wager a good sum of money that we will see an attack by one of the Palestinian groups (Hamas, Hezbollah, etc.) some time in the next 2-3 months.

This pullout, nor any of the future planned pullouts will satisfy Palestinian organizations. They will move into Gaza and then complain that there is not enough water or there is famine. To me it sounds like a personal problem. You wanted the Israelis out and you got what you wanted, now you are on your own.

Yes the Gaza pullout looks good for the short-term, but is anyone thinking long term? The Palestinian people will not be satisfied until Israel is given to them, which will not happen.

I was looking for a band on iTunes today and I could not for the life of me remember the name. I had looked them up on Sunday after hearing a sample on an indie website. Not being able to find the band really frustrated me and since there is no ‘Recently Viewed’ functionality with iTunes like there is with Amazon and eBay I still have not found the band.

So they lost a sale and I won’t be able to share the band with others. The name will more than likely come to me sometime next week and I’ll finally be able to buy the album but until then I’m going to be completely frustrated.