shit kenzi says

Wow, it's been a kicker of a week. The more I read and see and hear about everything that's going on down on the Gulf coast, the more numb I feel. I think about the how nothing was prepared, how advice and statistics and predictions were ignored and then I think about my own home and what could happen. We could be hit by an F5 tornado or a devestating blizzard or an arctic blast that freezes the water in the pipes. Last winter there was even flooding in some parts of my city so while the snow was falling people were having to evacuate from the freezing cold river water that was seeping into their homes.

I want to do something. I have exactly -3 dollars to donate to a charity and I have the overwhelming desire to go South and do something. Roll bandages. Hold babies. Boil water. Let my shoulder be cried on. Hold flashlights. Bury the dead. Anything.

But I won't go South because if I do I'll end up coming home with no place to live and no job to speak of. I won't go South because even though I don't trust the leadership to do jack I do trust the American people to step in and do the dirty work of repairing power lines and clearing streets and patching the levees and rebuilding the cities. Americans might bicker and feud and disagree and put jackasses in the White House but at the end of the day I trust them to band together and get things done. Please, don't let me down. But, much more importantly, don't let the people living in their own subtropical Hell down.

ETA: Was just discussing everything with the Da. He's the bishop of a local LDS ward and has been trying to come up with ways that his members can help the people on the Gulf Coast. One of the items that came up were Hygeine Kits. One of the perennial service projects in my church is the compilation of kits to be distributed in times such as these. I'm bringing it up because it is something that all of us can physically do. This page has assembly instructions. These can be sent directly to LDS Humanitarian Services at ( - ) or I'm sure that any humanitarian group would be glad to receive these kits (eg. your local Red Cross chapter). These and any other donations, as hiyacynth so correctly points out in the comments, would be more then welcome.

ETA 2: I've been meaning to do this for a day now, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the people on my f-list who have been blogging so relentlessly about Katrina and the aftermath, in particular twistedchick and liz_marcs. You guys have kept me up to date on information that I wouldn't have been able to find on the tv networks. A special shout-out goes to writerj whose eloquent and evocative posts have helped me to mourn for a place that I never visited but always knew in my heart. He's also put together an iMix with all proceeds going to hurricane relief. You can go here to check it out.