Words Just Fucking Fail Me

I just watched the most harrowing thing I'd seen yet, edited footage from the New Orleans Convention Center, where people were instructed to go. That is, I thought it was the most harrowing thing, until they talked live with the MSNBC photojournalist who took the pictures, Tony Zumbado.

The people there have had no food or water in four days. There's no sanitation. Zumbado said he watched two men die of dehydration.

"These people are behaving themselves," he said. "They're taking care of each other." He said he covered the aftermath of Andrew, and people there behaved much worse even though they had more.

Zumbado was told that police and National Guardsmen had all left the day before; he saw no evidence of any official presence. The only thing like an official who had appeared, he said, was Harry Connick, Jr. He also said that some aid truck drivers had apparently refused to go in because of fears of violence, but that those fears were "just not true".

Look, I consider myself fairly rational. I don't expect miracles to occur. But this is the United States of America. I heard a report yesterday that the I-10 is open to New Orleans from the west. Why are we watching people die on our streets for lack of water?