A jumbled mish-mash of thoughts, perspective, and ideas.

Posted by Ravennacht at 10:26 PM

September 04, 2005

Guard ye the Police, Fire, and Rescuers

I cannot emphasize enough the toll that not only the survivors face in these tragedies, but also the aid and relief workers, first responders, police, guardsmen, troops, fire, and rescue.

CNN Reports:

[Mayor] Nagin said Sunday that his top priority was to start moving traumatized police and firefighters out of the city so that they can get medical and psychological treatment.

"They've been holding the city together for three or four days, almost by themselves -- doing everything imaginable, and the toll is just to much for them," Nagin said. "So I need to get them out, and we've been trying to figure out where to take them so they can reunite with their families."

Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said that two of his officers committed suicide, including one who had discovered his wife had died.

Compass also said that reports that 60 percent of the police force had deserted was "totally ridiculous."

In watching the coverage on the television, Mayor Nagin also went on the explain that he had requested aid and support for the rescue workers that he was going to have to replace, but was told by FEMA that they do not provide for that, to which he responded that he would pay for it himself and figure out how to budget it later. I join in the Mayor's disgust of a lack of support for those aid workers and personell that have reached a point of high emotional distress from the course of their duties. The government should indeed see to their psychological and emotional needs in getting better.

Being from a family of Paramedics that have served the community for over 25 years and have been involved in large scale disasters on the local level, I completely understand the level of frustration and hopelessness that is beginning to show in the faces of some of these aid workers. It destroys parts of yourself to be confronted with situations in which everything you can do, no matter how well you are trained, sometimes just doesn't seem to be enough. They never forget the least of the injuries, they are tortured by the worst.

Years of treating people in dire need leaves raw emotions which in times of highest stress can lead to heart attacks/strokes on the job, suicides, medication for depression, high quit rate. Post-Traumatic Stress runs rampant. The emotional and psychological strength of rescue workers is always at its highest test in these circumstances. I pray that you, as I do, stand behind not only the victims, but also the aid relief workers and first responders that will suffer from the visions and memories which Katrina will inflict upon them.

I also would like to point out that many states do not recognize nor allow on the job heart-attacks and strokes by firemen, EMTs and other first responders in determining eligibility for Police and Fire funds allowance. Please investigate the limitations of your state (Ohio currently changed their law to allow heart attack/stroke by on-duty fire to claim against Police and Fire fund). Pay back those that serve the community the most.

Posted by Ravennacht at 08:38 PM

September 02, 2005

Hurricane Plight

I have been watching the coverage of the Hurricane Katrina wreckage for the last several days, and cannot help but feel compassion and horror at the continuing plight that the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are having to go through, especially in New Orleans. I'm sure not many will agree with me, and personally I don't give a crap.

I have had innumerable verbal disagreements with co-workers over the last several days concerning what is going on. What are their basic arguments?

co-worker: "These people are acting like animals, the looting and the vandalism is unexcusable."
my response: If I need food or water, I would be the first one to brick a store window to get to it. Same with medicine. In regards to the looting of other things, granted that is unexcusable, however you cannot in any sense equate theft of necessities with other objects. Additionally, you cannot tell me for one instance that those businesses are not going to complete write-off their inventory to their insurance anyway.

co-worker: "These ems and firefighters need to get in there and get things done, this is ridiculous, they are right there."
my response: Obviously you are unaware that EMS and Firefighters are the last ones to leave any situation, they have been there doing the best they can with flooded streets AND no access to the hospitals. Additionally, with shooting going on, aid workers are not permitted on site owing to the possibility of being harmed. Use some common sense.

co-worker: "Those people had no business being there anyway, they should have just left."
my response: And if you haven't distinguished this from observation yet, the majority of the people that remained behind were mainly poor class. Those without vehicles, those with close ancestral ties to the only thing they may own, those with no other place to go. Where were they to go? What were they to do? How were they to do it?

I listen to the Mayor of New Orleans completely lambast the state and federal government on the radio and couldn't help but cheer for his outraged candor.

Already comparisons with the World Trade Center disaster have begun, even though the two are not remotely related. The reaction to the two events have been highly disparate and very different.

During 911, activation of emergency personnel occurred state and nationwide to send personnel and equipment to the site to aid in recovery. No widespread personal activation has occurred this time to the level yet.

No one has yet discussed the imminent beginning of waterborne diseases from the still remaining flood waters on site. Cholera and other diseases will begin to rear their head quite quickly.

Structurally, the influx of these people needs immediate attention. What will the refugees live off of. How will they get food. Where will they work. How long must they wait for an answer?

The Fed has already begun pointing fingers at the State and local government for their dealing of the problems. My arguments would be one to ask how can a state already inundated with a statewide issue fully deal with it, especially when its neighbors are equally dealing with it. How can a city government, under water, in wreckage, starving and in need of water and electric, make people stop looting when 50% of the police force walk off the job, when firefighters cannot fight fires for lack of pumpable water, when no transportation whatsoever inside the infrasstructure is readily usable. Clearly this disaster SCREAMED for federal involvement from the beginning.

Rampant fires. Starving, dehydration, overheating. Onset of waterborne disease beginning. Exposure. Lack of hospital facilities. Lack of medication. Lack of means to escape. Goddam it GET WITH IT! We need water. We need food. We need medicine. We need people moved out. We need the dead recovered and contained and identified.

Five days pass before Bush comes to walk amongst the people of the landfall. I cannot help but correlate that with his nigh on immediate visit on 911 to New York. His stroll through Mississippi and Alabama was most heartening, however, one cannot but be certain that it was made more for the benefit of the press corp than those without electricity or even televisions to receive the benefits of his assurances.

And what about Congress taking 5 days to pass funding for 10.5 billion in aid funding for FEMA? Where the hell were you people for the beginning hours of this process?

If anything, this has clearly stamped the impression of the plight of the poor upon me. They with few alternatives that have suffered the most.

This is a complete blunder on all levels of governments as far as I am concerned.

Posted by Ravennacht at 07:21 PM

August 14, 2005

Funerary Buzz

I cannot help but find a profound level of disgust for the lack of respect for the family of Peter Jennings in dealing with his recent death. I turn on the television and get barrages of "What is in Peter Jennings' will" or "What has the family decided to do for the funeral".

He was a public figure, however, neither his funerary plans nor his will clauses are any business of anyone. This stuff makes me sick (clicks off television)

Posted by Ravennacht at 08:35 PM

August 09, 2005

Iraqi Constitution Countdown

Is it just me, or does it seem wildly dangerous and reckless to set a deadline for a fledgling interim government to hatchet together a Constitution for Iraq?

At best, I can only relate to our own Constitution here in the United States, which is meticulously worded and studied to structure and guide law. It is the Constitution which provides the security, the power, the means to correct issues, undo, etc.

Yet, we want a war torn country, conquered by multiple invaders, to piece together a working, lasting, fair constitution before BLANK date. I don't feel highly confident that the structure and foresight needed to structure a strong government can come from rushing an issue in such a volatile nation recovering from a regime control.

Granted, there is an urgency in setting up a system for stability, however, I feel setting unreasonable issues leads to gaps and holes which will cause huge problems later.

Posted by Ravennacht at 09:08 AM

July 18, 2005

NRA and Columbus Ban on Assault Weapons

NRA Stuns City With Decision, July 18, 2005, Reported by Kevin Landers

Its convention promised to bring thousands of people and millions of dollars into Columbus, but the National Rifle Association says it is pulling out and it is a decision city leaders say was a shock.

The NRA says it won't hold its convention here in two years because of the city's assault weapons ban.

Read the rest.

To be followed quite hotly on the heels of with a story of the Republican state senator sponsoring a bill to strip the ability of cities to ban assault weapons.

This is my opinion... this nonsense has gone on long enough. The Right to Bear Arms was never envisioned to ever encompass mass crowd killing assault weaponry of any kind by our forefathers. Charleton Heston can take his squalling "Take it from my cold dead hand" banterisms and stick it straight up his arse.

Are you a policeman, do you face people on the streets carrying assault weaponry against you every day? Don't feed me a line of absolute bullshit that proliferation is by any means a way to keep everything under control. Just because I know all my neighbors may have guns to protect them against an intruder coming into their house protects me, next door, or the people walking innocently on the sidewalk, from stray bullets coming through the walls.

Nevermind the fact that these are ASSAULT WEAPONS they are banning, not handguns, not rifles, etc. Come on already, are you expecting the Red Army to parachute into the heartland? Just go right back out into the country, to your militia compounds and fire at every errant sound that makes you jump out of your camos, we don't need this crap in our cities.

Yet again people are losing sight of the affects. You don't pay attention to the number of people losing their lives from interaction with assault weaponry. The number of children getting killed by guns in the homes. Christ, people, we are already at war on more than one front in the world, leave the guns to warfare. When does it end.

Screw the NRA and the PAC diddling state senator that's in the NRA's pocket. Kudos to Columbus for standing up for their own safety.

Posted by Ravennacht at 07:20 PM

July 07, 2005

London Bombings

Three train bombings and one bus bombing occurred this morning in London. Still no news as to who is responsible. This doesn't seem to have the "taste" of IRA to it. By all memories I can recall, they tended to make known their threats well before they carried thru. The fact that it was so synchronized across multiple targets seems to indicate someone else.

At the moment they are saying 33 dead and many casualties.

Clearly this is a message to the G8s.

Posted by Ravennacht at 11:08 AM