Katrina is the open wound

[babydollhead]

This is the way I am thinking about it now. The wound of this country is not reopened by fingering 9/11. That was a gasp and a hand help up to our collective cheeks which had just been slapped. How vulnerable we were. How shaken. The night after, we went to a Tarot class. The defining card to come up was "The Tower"; people leaping out of a burning tower. The significance of this card is "change" things unable to go on as usual. We also came to the conclusion that we need to apologize to the Native Americans. For everything. We came away with the feeling of humility, sad apologies, coming from our hearts, for all of the suffering in this world.

The wound of this country, continues to fester, rises like a silent scream, the horrid treatment of our own, in the aftermath of Katrina. Next time you find yourself in an Arena, picture all of those people living in there with you for days in 100+ degrees, with no food or water, no working toilets, being kept there and not being let out. I understand Munch's, "The Scream" painting. This was our government, grabbing us by the ponytail, pulling us back to their lips and breath, hissing, "One up or two down?"

[lonestarnot]

1. And it is never going to heal.

:cry:

[Erika]

2. The image of mostly Blacks in a shelter so desperate

for food or even water. No bathroom facilities, no way out, a lady dead in a wheel chair. Reporters screaming for help for these people. W's on vacation, Condi's shoe shopping and Rummy at a ball game.

It sickens me, it shames me, their government abandoned them.

How can anyone think W or his group even cares about average Americans.

[applegrove]

3. People will heal. Especially if you have universal health care. The drugs

for PTSD are very good now. What may not close over.. is how the * WH reacted.. by thinking they "had Americans pegged" as selfish assholes in the GOP image. Boy they were wrong. Social engineering by trauma.. that is not acceptable.

If there is an emergency.. you move mountains to help out. Governance is no place to practice new theories. Vet those in academic circles. If you dare and you are not just a bunch of dilettantes.

[pitohui]

5. what drugs?

there are no drugs for ptsd, not really

what drug would make this not have happened, yeah, people are taking drugs, some of them are, but it ain't doing diddly

if they had all these great drugs for ptsd, who would have it? there are some drugs that often work for clinical depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, but when a person who doesn't have one of these is subject to stress then the drugs don't do anything, do they? and after all that IS (hopefully) the majority of the population

what i've looked into is that there really isn't anything to be done for natural disaster caused ptsd


and i know some people are great advocates for talking things out but i don't quite see the use of that either, have you noticed anybody getting better because they talked it out?

me neither, i still jump everytime there's a damn thunderclap

:-(

if you live long enough, sure you'll heal, i no longer duck when i hear a backfire because i think someone's shooting at me

now i duck because i think a tree is falling on me :-)

[applegrove]

8. I was talking about the victims who survived. Many reportedly have PTSD.

Can be very painful. Sorry. That is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

[applegrove]

9. I wanted to talk about hope for the victims. The issue at how * handled

it will not go away. I agree with you there. But there are better and better drugs these days. So nobody traumatized and poor should worry that they cannot get help and feel better and then move on with life.

That being said.. you are right that social engineering.. like what the GOP's first intentions were "these people are to blame cause they didn't evacuate" (I'm sorry the old, sick and poor? Like they had a choice?) Well that virulent neglect will be remembered by all of America... not just by NO.

[earth mom]

4. Exactly right....What an Awesome Post!

I still feel the pain of that open wound and I have never been to the Gulf and don't even know a soul there. But the thing of it is-is that it could have be me, you, any of us. We are them. That's why it still hurts a year later. We all now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that none of us matters to the powers that be. * & Co proved that to us by pouring salt on the wound by eating cake, playing guitar and shopping for shoes while people in the Gulf died of thirst, starvation, exposure, and drowned.

The open wound of Katrina will NEVER EVER heal...unless * & Co are tried for their crimes.

[pitohui]

6. i'm guilty of picturing this too

Next time you find yourself in an Arena, picture all of those people living in there with you for days in 100+ degrees, with no food or water, no working toilets, being kept there and not being let out.

i visited some castles in germany and the point of castles is really quite distressing, as the entire town would be gathered up in there, with no (or limited) food and water, no toilets, being kept there and not being let out unless they wanted a bunch of arrows or musket shot perforations...

it's like everything reminds you, you just can't blank out and forget

at least in the castles the aristocrats were trapped in the seige with you, there was some sense of everybody in it together

in today's world it's all the aristocrats were eating cake at the coronado hotel on the silver strand while people were drowning in their own homes

you could really learn to hate if you think too much :-(

[babydollhead]

7. today too