i don't like talking about it

or reading about it, or obsessing about it, or listening to the ghoulish shrieks of delight from many of my co-workers who relish gory/depressing/heartbreaking/horrible moments of other people's sufferings and tragedies. that said, i realize the necessity of having news about the tragedy, but i also feel that horrible private things are being exploited for people like my depraved co-workers to rub their hands together with glee masquerading as pity. Yesterday, I read an article on Yahoo! about how journalists were chased off by the living from their incessant photographing of the dead in the most horrific circumstances. The journalists seemed miffed that they weren't welcomed with open arms to document for the world people's most private moments.

if you really want my soapbox opinion, i'm really angry at our administration for many things, and this is perhaps one of the more tragic instances of Bush's insistence on dollars before people. There's a great piece at Salon that explains it much better than i can. The article is entitled "No one can say they didn't see it coming" by Sidney Blumenthal.
Por ejemplo:

In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut the Corps of Engineers' request for holding back the waters of New Orleans' Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans levees, but it was too late.

I'm really upset about this, especially in conjunction with the article from Yahoo! that had a quote from a man bemoaning that if only our guardsmen weren't far away, dying in a different country, they could help get the people out of New Orleans.

I'm about to send some money, since i can't send anything else at this time. The following 3 organizations are rallying together for the animal victims:

1. American Veterinary Medical Foundation - http://www.avma.org/
http://www.avma.org/press/releases/050829_hurricane_katrina.asp

2. The Humane Society of the United States - http://www.hsus.org/


3. The United Animal Nations - http://www.uan.org/
http://www.uan.org/news/083105.html

and after this, we will bring you back to your regularly scheduled diet of cats, knitting, and reading. it's not that i don't care. it's just that i can't get involved in the ghoulish speculations and constant parroting of gruesome stories that i am surrounded by. i have to hold on to something different.