Ok, so I’m starting yet another blog. I have a shady history when it comes to maintaining blogs. I have registered with a number of blog sites, spent hours deciding on formats, and earnestly wrote first entries, only to abandon them like politicians’ marital fidelity. Yep, I confess, I’m a blog slut. But I’m hoping to remain true to this one and curb my fickle tendencies. I am inspired by some great blogs like Jake’s (http://nofo.blogspot.com) and Mrs. Chili’s (http://teacherseducation.wordpress.com) so maybe I’ll be able to do it this time. But I’m naturally a pessimist so I’m not going to hold my breath.

I was talking to a friend the other day about “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and that led to a discussion about New Orleans. I have been embarrassed about our “elected” president for the past 7 1/2 years and cringe every time I see his smirking mug on TV. But that pales in comparison to the absolute shame I feel about how our government “responded” during and following hurricane Katrina. We’re coming up on the third anniversary of this catastrophe and what has been done?

Residents of that area were victimized again and again. They received very little notice and assistance for evacuation, due to evacuation problems they were either bussed out of state or herded into the Superdome, inside the Superdome they were left to fend for themselves with massive shortages of the basic necessities, rescuers attempting to evacuate stranded residents refused to allow them to bring their pets, New Orleans was locked down after the storm so people who wanted to help were turned away, some people who survived the storm actually died waiting in line for water, FEMA provided some trailers that either couldn’t be used because they couldn’t get zoning clearance (!) or were later discovered to be health hazards due to dangerous levels of formaldehyde, and there has been little, if any, effort to clean up and rebuild the area. It makes me sick. What do we pay taxes for if the government refuses to help people recover from catastrophes like this? Oh yeah, we pay taxes so the government can send soldiers over to another country to kill citizens, destroy buildings, and get killed themselves. Silly me.

Ok, I could continue to vent but I’ll stop myself because it just makes me nuts. I was relaying my frustration to my mother yesterday and told her I felt helpless to do anything about the situation. But then I stopped myself and tried to focus on what I COULD do (which is very uncharacteristic for me). So this is the first thing I thought of: this Christmas I want to organize an adopt-a-family program for families who are still in need in New Orleans. I know it’s a small gesture but at least it’s something. If anyone else has any other ideas, please share them. We obviously need to step in and help our neighbors because the government has proven fairly useless. Perhaps I should thank the government for providing an opportunity for me to do something good for a fellow American.