New Orleans, the gulf coast, and lessons we'll learn about "representative government."

Still don't know about Krissie, my daughter in Mississippi, except that there don't seem to have been any fatalities in the little town of Petal. Now, I'm a survivor, so I have a viewpoint far different from the average to elite "American" (there are thirty-four other countries in the Americas, you know). For seventeen years, I survived much of what the people in New Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama are experiencing, all of it at the hands of the U.S.government. Flat broke and fresh out of a home, I, too, had to find food and water, shelter, and the rest. I had taken a lot of precautions, of course. You learn to do that when you're growing up by yourself in a sod hut beside a river back in Iowa. Forced to live in the wild and live off the land when a federal hurricane named IRS struck, I had the little additional problem of people actively trying to assassinate me. But, like I say, I had experience, and I survived. I knew, for one thing, that any time the government does anything for you, it's with an eye toward how much it will benefit government. No benefit to government, nothing for you.

So it was that the difference in my case was that no one in government would lift a finger. The courts denied me access, police harassed me continually (more than 120 "stops" in fifteen years), and welfare agencies denied me assistance resolutely. So, like I say, I have a rough idea of what Hurricane Katrina's victims are experiencing.

I should feel for them. Sorry. All of that was ripped out of me by the same people who are now posturing mightily in order to profit politically by what's happened. A guy fighting for his life is pretty selfish. You're that or you're not here to write essays.

Then too, we had another disaster on September 11, 200l, you'll remember, and the parallels are remarkable. FEMA says they did a study two years ago, and knew what to expect should a force five hurricane hit New Orleans. So?

I have fifty "whys" here, but a few will do. If we can have two or three divisions of troops in Iraq in a few hours, and 130,000 in a few days . . . ????

If we knew what would happen were the levees to go (not exactly rocket science, folks), why . . .?

A Sikorsky CH-54 SkyCrane (out of shear genius, we retired them - didn't think of them during that FEMA "planning" - I'm told - but we have CH-47 Chinooks, don't we?) helicopter can lift a house, cannon. or even a tank - would a few loads of sandbags be out of the question?

WE CAN'T GET PEOPLE OUT OF NEW ORLEANS (General Motors, who reminds us that they are the world's biggest auto maker, is "donating" TWENTY-FIVE trucks!)? We have the biggest navy in the world - by TWENTY TIMES, we have the biggest fleet in the world - and we can't get people out of New Orleans?

So far, if I've added the various and vague accounting's correctly, we've sent less than 10,000 National Guard troops to the three states. Where the hell are the rest? You get one guess.

Et cetera. If we knew what would happen two or three years ago, why this? Why, because we have the government we have. The government we deserve. The "leaders" are right there where you'd expect them, in front of the cameras spouting platitudes and self-serving write-ups handed them by speech writers who were obviously caught as unprepared as all their bosses were. The nation's wisemen, "correspondent" and "commentator" geniuses like Al Franken, Michael Moore, Bill O"Reilly, Sean Hannity, Allen(sp.?) Colmes, and all the newspaper pundits who have a wondrous opinion on everything else, have nothing more relevant and effective to say beyond blather like "the nation is thinking of you and praying for you." If "you're looking out" for us, Mr. O'Reilly and gentlemen, now's the time.

Meanwhile (there is life, and all its troubles, elsewhere on the planet, you know), friends of mine in Iraq are being told they're in for third and fourth tours (I always loved that terminology - "tour," like you were sight-seeing) of duty over there. Isn't it time all the big supporters of the Bush League signed up for a "tour?" Send your kid. He (or she, since we started sending women to fight) shouldn't mind a year or two delay in getting his degree, not for a great cause like "Iraqi Freedom." Isn't that the patriotic thing to do?

You're either for Mr. Bush or against him, you know.

Maybe that's why 100,000 in New Orleans are getting out of town forty or fifty at a time, on a bus. Or having to commit burglary for food and water.

The blind do lead the blind, it seems. "Leaders," they call themselves.

Addendum: God, I can't stand to see the suffering of those people, and the unconscionable political posturing of the shit swum to the top who have the colossal temerity to call themselves "leaders." The human condition is is incapable of rescue, but if your "leaders" had a shred of decency, we would have heard things like this: Every morning, there is water safe to drink everywhere. On every glass, plastic, metal, or similar surface there is condensation. You can make what is called a "solar still." Take plastic sheeting like Visqueen or dozens more, stretch out over anything green, put something heavy in the middle to form a shallow (or deep, for that matter) cone. Put a cup under the rock or weight. In time (a very short one, in that climate and under those conditions) condensation will form on the sheeting and run into the cup. Your baby can drink that safely.

There are literally dozen ways to make a fire, for light and to boil water or cook food. For light, steal (if you have to) flashlights and what have you from the sporting goods stores, K-mart, Wal-Mart, drug stores and more. The sporting good shops and camping stores all have fire starting equipment, too, beside manuals explaining all the ways to make a fire. Ferro rods are available in many stores, and make a fire that will burn even wet wood and paper. Magnesium shavings, cut from blocks of the same, or dust made with a hacksaw, can be started with matches, sparks made with the hacksaw, or even, failing that (if they're wet), a bow and arrow drill. Make a bow from a limb and shoelace, wire, or the like. Wrap it around a dry stick in such a way that pulling the bow back and forth twists the stick and "drills" it into a block or base made of dry wood. It's a good idea to dig a little hole in the block or base. Set the stick in the hole on block where you've piled the magnesium shavings. Put some dry wood shavings there, too, if you have them. Pump the bow until the friction between the "drill" and base heats to smoldering and starts the shavings. Have some kindling ready. Make torches. Steel wool can be ignited by holding it between two dry cell batteries until it heats and catches fire. Have tinder ready, 'cause it doesn't burn long. Nail polish, hair spray, and twenty things with alcohol in them will work, too. Tampons, shredded and fluffed make good tinder for fire-starting.

If there's a library nearby, you may be able to find survival information there (above the water, of course).

An egg, any egg, is edible if it sinks to the bottom of a container of water. If if floats, it will kill you. An egg shell in dirty water will make whatever kind of particulate that's in it sink to the bottom. Boil what's on top, and you can probably(!) drink it (condensation is surer). Everything that's alive and swimming in all that water is a food source. This is no time to be squeamish. If you see sharks, like the media is bellowing, eat the SOB. If I were you, I steal food before I'd loot shit like TV sets. You'll die of thirst trying to carry the f------ thing.

People, if anybody reads this and can contact anybody in the city, tell them. Newsmen, if you have a particle of decency left in you capitalist souls, broadcast info like this to people with radios and television (like cops, fireman, and rescue people) who seem to have forgotten. I've been listening for days now, and not one damned "correspondent," or "leader" has mentioned a single one of these things. If you can't do better than stand around broadcasting and bloviating, come and get me. I know how to live in conditions like this—your slimeball government taught me.

I wrote this in great haste; excuse the typos, please