I'm not naive and I do realize that it's a drip in the flood waters, but
you might notice the Red Cross donate link temporarily added to my site. I
know it will make little difference but at times like these it is too easy
to be paralyzed by the feeling of your own insignificance and powerlessness.
What possible difference will my small dollars make? I'm not a general, or
a mayor, or a helicopter pilot, or a millionaire, or a celebrity, or a first
responder; heck, I've never even visited New Orleans and it is many hundreds
of miles away so what difference can I possibly make?
With hundreds of bodies decaying where they fell, hundreds
of thousands displaced, 400,000 jobs lost, a dollar number of more billions
than I can comprehend being touted as the cost of rebuilding the region and
people's lives - their problems are so big it makes one feel so helpless.
So what can you do? You do the little you can.
Send a few dollars their way. Is your company matching donations? If they
are you may be able to give twice as much as you thought.
Nurture your outrage.
Don't forget this unforgivable neglect - it isn't all that long until we
get to vote again. There's blame enough for everyone but don't let them make
a scapegoat out of 'Brownie' to spin and wriggle out of their own responsibilities.
If
you want, add a link to a legitimate organization who needs money and is
providing aid to the victims of Katrina (instructions
I followed for the Red Cross link). Maybe a visitor or two will click
through to donate simply because it is convenient. At least you will demonstrate
to the displaced that they are not forgotten by their fellow citizens.
This is
not the victims' fault for living in New Orleans, or for being poor, or for
not leaving the area. Most of us Americans are at some kind of risk from some
similar form of natural disaster be it forest fires, floods, earthquakes, tornados,
hurricanes, drought, landslides, volcanoes, hard winters, fierce summers or
whatever else is thrown at us. There but for the grace of god go us all.
