Hungry, Angry Refugees in the U.S.

While thousands of people below cry out for help, George W. Bush cannot see them from thousands of feet above. How distant is his connection to what really is taking place on the ground?

I just returned from two weeks travelling the Pacific Northwest. Even before the disaster, Katrina, I could see and feel the anger and the danger. People are tightening up their hearts. Crime is closer. Everybody is ready to stretch the truth and rip you off in a soft con.

We are sick of being taken advantage of, and so we all have our own little pre-emptive wars to launch. We are acting like refugees in our own country, on the run from a government that not only gave up on us, but has been using our sense of duty and patriotism to wage an unjust war and neglect the problems at home.

And now with Katrina we get first hand evidence of what that neglect can lead to. Ignore global warming, and your hurricanes get stronger. Ignore levee building, and one of the most beautiful and distinctive cities in the world (that everyone knows is below sea level) is flooded, its poorest citizens -- mostly black -- left literally stranded.

It is no secret that funding for levee improvement in Lousianna was diverted to pay for the war in Iraq. It is no secret that an overwhelming percentage of the Army Reserves from Lousianna are not at home to protect and help their families and neighbors during this extreme time of need, but they are in Iraq fighting a war that has no clear plan.

The dissatisfaction with our leadership was showing long before this terrible natural disaster hit. People feel poor. Insurance rates go up while salaries stay stagnant. Gas prices skyrocket while, well, we know who is profitting.

Yes, it really is this bad. Yes, our president's policies have driven us into this situation. Yes, we are in more danger than we were before Bush became President.


We appear to be in the process of being waved to. Goodbye indeed.

Let's chew the fat. Speak out.