More frustration
As I read more (I'm almost back up to my regular news intake), I keep finding more and more things that make me feel vindicated in crying out "clusterfuck."
CNN reports on a family who lost a grandmother and a baby in Katrina. The story is similar to many I've heard about escaping the flooding, only this family got it much earlier due to the barge that crashed into the levy during the early part of the storm. Here is a part that sounds even more familiar to me, personally (although on a different topic than I have experienced):
Every place Robert Green wound up -- the Superdome, the Astrodome, a Tennessee hospital, Red Cross aid centers -- he asked where he could find information about Katrina's dead. But for weeks, all he found was confusion, delays and wrong information.
"You couldn't reach FEMA because FEMA's recording always said they were too busy and to call back. And that went on for probably five days," Green said. "I just have pages and pages of numbers where you call to try to find out about the dead and it turns out not to be the right person or you get a message that the phones weren't working or if you get through then it wasn't the right number."
Robert's call to another wrong number he received - a chiropractic association - produced information on the Find Family Call Center, which is the correct agency to locate the remains of Katrina victims.
Again, I am aware that this is a disaster of proportions and type that we have never seen. Confusion is understandable, but it didn't have to be like this. The two things that I would like to see addressed and changed that could make the difference in the future are compassion and corruption.
Each of the organizations that deals with victims of this type of event should include training on giving or experiencing compassion - and that training should be done from the front-line phone person to the CEO, department heads, and decision makers in each agency or company that will work with the affected people. We all also need to take this example to heart and not allow our local or city governments to become corrupt and inefficient. Here in Chicago we are dealing with a "hired truck scandal" (among other things) and we all know our city is rife with preferential hiring (hello, Lincoln Park deck collapse scandal) and inefficiency (they say the CTA middle management is the new dumping ground for Daley cronies). While we all know about and bemoan the incompetency of government and its employees, we need to complain, hold them to task, write letters of disapproval, and vote for candidates who are more honest (and vote out those who aren't) so that we can make our local, state, and federal governments into entites that can actually do their jobs.
My mom was just chastising me last night about not letting this period of time wind down, saying (basically), "when will this be over for you?" I'm slowly moving on - I only have three families I'm still working with remotely. I'm beginning to come back to my home and my reality*. At the onset I didn't want to play any blame game and refrained from any finger-pointing or specific-person-or-entity bashing because I didn't feel it was beneficial to the people who needed assistance, regardless of whose "fault" the man-made portion of the disaster would be. I don't have any desire to revisit "fault" and scream "Bush! Blanco! Nagin! Brown!" (or any combination of the above). I do, however, feel that we all need to be aware that allowing corruption, crony-ism, misrepresentations, and incompetence in every level of our government is ultimately *our* fault. Yours and mine. So let's pay attention and try to change that.
*I'm getting my dog, Chico, on Tuesday. He is a blessedly positive Chicago-permanent joy who will bring lots of happiness to our family.
CNN reports on a family who lost a grandmother and a baby in Katrina. The story is similar to many I've heard about escaping the flooding, only this family got it much earlier due to the barge that crashed into the levy during the early part of the storm. Here is a part that sounds even more familiar to me, personally (although on a different topic than I have experienced):
Every place Robert Green wound up -- the Superdome, the Astrodome, a Tennessee hospital, Red Cross aid centers -- he asked where he could find information about Katrina's dead. But for weeks, all he found was confusion, delays and wrong information.
"You couldn't reach FEMA because FEMA's recording always said they were too busy and to call back. And that went on for probably five days," Green said. "I just have pages and pages of numbers where you call to try to find out about the dead and it turns out not to be the right person or you get a message that the phones weren't working or if you get through then it wasn't the right number."
Robert's call to another wrong number he received - a chiropractic association - produced information on the Find Family Call Center, which is the correct agency to locate the remains of Katrina victims.
Again, I am aware that this is a disaster of proportions and type that we have never seen. Confusion is understandable, but it didn't have to be like this. The two things that I would like to see addressed and changed that could make the difference in the future are compassion and corruption.
Each of the organizations that deals with victims of this type of event should include training on giving or experiencing compassion - and that training should be done from the front-line phone person to the CEO, department heads, and decision makers in each agency or company that will work with the affected people. We all also need to take this example to heart and not allow our local or city governments to become corrupt and inefficient. Here in Chicago we are dealing with a "hired truck scandal" (among other things) and we all know our city is rife with preferential hiring (hello, Lincoln Park deck collapse scandal) and inefficiency (they say the CTA middle management is the new dumping ground for Daley cronies). While we all know about and bemoan the incompetency of government and its employees, we need to complain, hold them to task, write letters of disapproval, and vote for candidates who are more honest (and vote out those who aren't) so that we can make our local, state, and federal governments into entites that can actually do their jobs.
My mom was just chastising me last night about not letting this period of time wind down, saying (basically), "when will this be over for you?" I'm slowly moving on - I only have three families I'm still working with remotely. I'm beginning to come back to my home and my reality*. At the onset I didn't want to play any blame game and refrained from any finger-pointing or specific-person-or-entity bashing because I didn't feel it was beneficial to the people who needed assistance, regardless of whose "fault" the man-made portion of the disaster would be. I don't have any desire to revisit "fault" and scream "Bush! Blanco! Nagin! Brown!" (or any combination of the above). I do, however, feel that we all need to be aware that allowing corruption, crony-ism, misrepresentations, and incompetence in every level of our government is ultimately *our* fault. Yours and mine. So let's pay attention and try to change that.
*I'm getting my dog, Chico, on Tuesday. He is a blessedly positive Chicago-permanent joy who will bring lots of happiness to our family.