Random Thoughts on a Sunday Afternoon

The Story is just beginning. People continue to be recused and people continue to die.........sadness has set in with all of the American people. The stories will continue, if fact they are just beginning. We all are helping in the ways we know how, yet we continue to feel helpless. I still can't and won't point the finger to government officials or corporations. All of the facts aren't in yet and they may never be.  I know that in times of disaster mistakes are made, but everybody is trying to do their best.

I want to do a SHOUT OUT......to the LA. policmen and women who stayed behind to help the refugees. I saw an African American policeman look into the camera the other night and BLAST the policeman and fireman who fled New Orleans when they took an oath to due their duty. He called them cowards.  This same policeman was on the last helicopter leaving the convention center.  He stated that the worst people in the Superdome were a group of men. They pushed women and children aside to get on the busses leaving. He said they made them go back. I am sure their lives were threatened over and over again. This group of dedicated men and women who were there did their very best. The mayor has ordered them out of there. They are being sent to Baton Rouge. The mayor wants them to go on to another city for some rest and also to get some counseling. He also said a couple of policemen had committed suicide.  GOD BLESS THEIR LIVES for the enormous responsibility they had and will continue to have.

Here's something that chaffed my a$$.......I only saw this once on television. Reporters were interviewing people from other coutries around the world about the huricane and the devastation. I heard from several people from several countries that it was too bad that the BIG Untied States couldn't even handle a storm. I wish they would show that again so more people could see them. It will only make us more determined to do what is necessary to help these people rebuild their lives and to rebuild the cities devastasted by this storm. I must admit that THIS southern woman let lose of the F-bomb after hearing those idiots. 

There are so many pictures and stories coming out of all the cities. Many will be etched in my brain until the day I die. One picture was on the AOL welcome screen. It was of a women in a wheelchair. She was being led to a helicopter or bus and walking with her was the granddaughter of her nurse, a little 4 yr. old girl. Her nurse was a 60 year old woman who said this lady had not had her adult diaper changed in 2 or 3 days. The woman in the wheelchair was 105 yrs. old. She had never complained once.

It bothers me that in this whole mess the race card is being played by a few leaders now. The fact of the matter is that the majority of the population of downtown New Orleans is black and poor. I do NOT know anybody that would not help a person in whatever way they could. I wouldn't ever decided who to help and who not to help based on the color of a persons skin. I can't believe those left behind to help or those brought in to help would do so either. Perhaps I live in a "shell" but that is how I feel.

Yesterday we had a celebration in the midst of tragedy. My grandson Dominick turned 10 and we were bound and determined to have a good few hours. His favorite restaurant is Joes Crab Shack and so that is where we had lunch. All of the grandkids were hungry and ate most of their food. We came back to our house to have the madatory ice cream and cake and sang in our best voices Happy Birthday To YOU!  He was blessed by having several gifts. He got a Harry Potter Book CD and a CD player, a football, and a whoopie cushion. The whoopee cushions are a tradition of our family. Give a kid a $3.00 whoopee cushion and he will be entertained for hours.

My son, who suffers from bipolar will be celebrating his 32 birthday on 9/11. Brace yourself......my other son's birthday is Pearl Harbor Day. Good grief Charlie Brown, how did this happen?

I want to take this time to tell all of you in J-land how much I appreciate you and your friendships. We are a community of caring people. I have opened my life to you and haven't regretted it one second.

And so the story continues........not mine, but the survivors stories. The Lords Prayer has never meant so much to me as it does now.  Protect us against evil.