[Swimmer]

What you all are just coming to grips with is the tenuous hold on order and function in society that is in place. It is fleeting at best because no one wants a more stringent system of checks and balances. No one wants higher taxes to pay for this ahead of time so a disaster like this is always played as catchup. I don't recall 1000 people being killed rioting or looting in Califonia after the quake and bridge collasped as someone said. I don't think you'll see anyone killed by law enforcement in New Orleans unless they shoot at the cops. Only one newsman made any reference to black people taking food as looters so the rest of the African American community is taking that slight and running with it. No one not even the cops stopped anyone taking food. The authorities were letting everyone take all the food they could carry. And as one of the list members said it was before ad will always be one of the most corrupt cites in the country. Remember about 15 years when a black female officer was killed by another black female officer when the second officer stumbled across the first one after she robbed and killed someone. In uniform and on-duty that happened. Everyone was agast that the cops only earned $13,000 a year. They fired half the force and replaced them with what is there now. The only reason anyone would take the job was the bennies that could be had stealing, killing, and drug dealing. I was going to school for my masters degree around that time and read study after study done by researchers who searched high and low for the reasons why things were as they were there. Bottom line was the avergae pay for a cop was $35,000 to 40,000 a year everywhere else it was only $13,000 and whatever you could scam. That type of corruption trickles down and up the entire social strata of the city. The managers of the police department accepted it and the people the cops served accepted the corruption as status quo. I mean look at it biggest claim to fame, once a year for two weeks different groups sponsers parades and binge drinking. I had a friend who was an acute alcoholic who has since died of cirrohsis of the liver. He used to say he could vacation there for two weeks every years and he didn't stand out as abnormal. New Orleans has been one of our busiest seap ports since before George Washington was president. It played integral roles in our history, The french blockaded the harbor, the brittish blockaded the harbor, so we bought the land out from underneath the pirateers who tried to run the city and we kicked them out. If the response time was to long it was so by one maybe two days at the most. You have to remember that once the decision was made to evac the entire city no one was going to make the victims of Katrina any more comfortable than necessary, because the government wanted them to be ready to move when the buses were made available. If they were well-fed and had showers they might have had a tough time getting all of the people on buses. They have to rebuild almost the entire sections of the city and the residents not being there will help that to happen at a much quicker pace. The whole thing is a real kick in the b$#$s, and sometimes that kick take you to your knees. You have to be willing to get up and take a step.Anyone wants to donate the checks can be mailed to: American Red Cross Attention: Disaster Relief Fund 285 Columbus Avenue Boston, Mass. 02116. I sent $200.00 and I challenge everyone here to donate also.