The1000's lost on 9/11. The hundreds (So far) lost due to Katrina.

[A HERETIC I AM]

As the anniversary of 9/11/01 approaches, the number of documentaries on TV increases bringing back memories of that day and the days and weeks that followed with the heart wrenching stories we are all familiar with. I remember specifically where i was (As we all most assuredly do) when we heard the news of that dreadful morning four years ago. I remember driving back to Florida from Houston (I was supposed to fly from Houston to Fort Myers around 11 Am that day) and hearing a story on the radio of a man that called his wife from one of the upper floors of the WTC saying to her that he knew he was going to die. His pleas to her to know he loved her and his love for their kids hit me like a hammer and i cried, bawled.....like a 4 year old....as i drove east on I-10 in the Florida panhandle.

It is now finally settling in for me that these types of stories are one in the same and will be repeated and retold more and more from Katrina's victims relatives. We have already heard many of them. There are, to be sure, many thousands more.
I am prepared to do some more crying.

Until now I have had a mix of feelings about this horrific disaster. Anger, disgust, compassion, helplessness (Because of my inability to do little more than give money and blood) and now the realization that these two events have entirely too many disgusting, deliberately negligent and careless parallels.

The story of the man who talked to his mother daily, reassuring her help would come until she died in a nursing home cause no-one came. The video i and others posted about the young man who refused evacuation because he could not take his beloved dog - his companion for 14 years....since he was ten....and the overwhelming emotion he showed when told his dog would be saved.

The idea that the victims of Katrina in New orleans were all destitute, poor and on welfare is not only inaccurate but unfair. Many if not most are/were poor but they also had productive lives, replete with the blessings of love of family and kindness of neighborhood that we all take for granted. Hundreds of Grandmothers, Grandfathers, Mothers and Fathers that looked after their families in a uniquely New Orleans way have had a lovely, charming and sweet way of life torn to shreds.

I recall the stories of the suburban wives who lost their husbands in the WTC with the same sentiment.

A tragic, horrific shearing away of comfort and place, of family and continuity that only time, patience and strong will can reassemble.

May all of them, victims of 9/11 and Katrina, find a way back to that continuity.

And may it be with all due haste.