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during the past several years my sister developed a pattern of talking, talking talking needing to unwind from her day. to me she sounded like a victim. it became damn tiresome listening to her give long setups explaining the problem. i kept reminding her of the art of the small sound-bite when dealing with short attention spans. this just made her more frustrated. she became a totally unfun person to talk to — listening to her made me feel like a psychologist dealing with someone suffering from serious post-traumatic stress.
she comes in this evening to tell me that a $100K federal grant is about to be lost because of management error (ie, her boss fucked up). while we're talking i suddenly get a revelation look at her & say: you work for the government (at the city level). suddenly i understand that endless conversations of {a} three months ago yadda yadda, {b} this department, this person, this paperwork, {c} seven months ago yadda yadda, {d} several council meetings later, {e} mindless trivia, {f} a full explanation of proper procedure for her department dealing with this problem & another piece of paperwork ({a} which is another problem because...), {g} can i have something to drink?, {h} other bits, {i} the thing that happened today that set all this off — represents the red-tape she deals with every minute of the day when trying to provide city services. why is she crying? because every failure to get these programs running means that something important (like a human being) falls through the cracks.
don't get me wrong, i love talking to my sister coz she's got this weird way of expressing herself. so i started asking her questions.
i ask her about homeland security. you can't have homeland security because people don't know how power works & their egos get in the way. it'd be more effective if you give everyone a gun because it's every man for himself.
who's to blame for the breakdown at NOLA? the levees breaking was the most serious problem — i'd start there. i'd also look at why it wasn't fixed because that's part of the problem. (actually, i think i asked her this twice & she never actually placed blame on anyone).
i ask her about one nation under god. there is no leadership. think about it: one nation under god.
she brings up 911. we're standing facing one another. the problem we made [after 9/11] is that we should have brushed it off (she brushes her hand against her cheek). or, at the very least we should have done this (she pushes my shoulder slightly & says "yeah" slowly & calmly); but instead (she balls up her fist & i look her in the eyes & say, "don't hit me") we did this (then she brings up her other fist looking like a boxer) remember how we used to fight as kids?
btw. every city official takes an oath to be present if a disaster occurs, once their family is secure & safe. [big sis does bit on annual meeting reminding everyone about obligation with exceptions: "only if your house is on fire or you have to drag your kids from under the house", yadda.] everyone has a pre-assigned role & task. my sister was assigned to shelters & would have been assigned, if she was in NOLA, to the superdome. being her sister (because this is how it works in my family) i probably would have been there with her. i am absolutely positive she would have ended up at the convention center. my sister is a diabetic with multiple sclerosis.
before leaving, my sister told me about channel 5 reporting ghosts & bibles in New Orleans. found the story (with video): Guardsmen Sense Ghostly Presence In New Orleans—
(CBS5) By Janet Yee :: The presence of the supernatural and the influence of voodoo long have been synonymous with New Orleans. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, members of the U.S. military are saying that there's something spooky going on and it's not just images of death and destruction that's haunting them. By all accounts, the Sophie B. Wright Middle School in New Orleans sits empty and evacuated except for military personnel who have taken over the campus as a staging site for missions around the battered city. But the men in uniform have the feeling that they're not alone. It prompted a chaplain to utter this directive: "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you Satan to leave the dark areas of this building."
Said Sgt. Robin Hairston of the California National Guard: "I was in my sleeping bag and I opened by eyes and in the doorway was a little girl," . "It wasn't my imagination." Hairston wasn't the only one seeing things. Spc. Rosales Leanor had her own close encounter. "I was using the restroom and I just saw a little shadow," Leanor said, "kind of looming in front of me." Another member of the Guard unit said that she saw and heard a little girl laughing when she opened a closet that contained cleaning supplies.
At a Baton Rouge marina, boats were strewn like trash, but not a shred of paper could be found. Except for the pages of a Bible, which was found by a soldier. It was open to the Book of Revelations. At a nearby church, nearly destroyed, another Bible was found, showing the exact same passage from Revelations. Like the power of nature, there is a power at work in New Orleans that defies explanation.
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