This is the most horrible thing I have ever seen, it really is. I am sure there have been worse situations in the world, but I am so close to this one–it is horrifying. All of those people.

Why didn’t they leave? Why didn’t they leave when they were told to evacuate before the hurricane hit? We saw it go through Florida. We saw it was big. Surely the people of NOLA were watching as it came to them. Why was there one vehicle left in that city? Are we so disrespective of authority these days that we ignore them when they say it is mandatory to get out? Mandatory Evacuation, the Governor said. That means GO.

If you are a tourist, you go. If the plane can’t take you, you drive north, stop at a rest stop or on the side of the road. You leave. You do not go back. If you have a car, you drive north. If you don’t have any friends north, you go anyway. You get food and water and blankets, and you go to the same rest stop as the tourists. If you don’t have a car, you use your feet or your bike and you go. You have time to get out of NOLA before this thing hits. Anywhere is better than being in NOLA when “the big one” hits it. This is not a surprise that this happened to beautiful NOLA. Everyone knew it was going to happen eventually.

Unfortunately, there is no one to blame but those who are stranded. You cannot in good faith blame the government. They are trying to help the people that were too stubborn to leave. I said it. Too stubborn. If they had wanted to go, they could have gone, with very few exceptions. Those in the hospital, those in jail, the infirm- living alone without anyone thinking about them. I imagine some of them had the attitude that they wanted to go down with the ship. Unfortunately, they made that decision, and go down they have.

The government is working as hard as the poor old government can, with all of their checks and balances it takes them longer to take a potty break than it does anyone else. Those who rely on the government for their basic needs better not have too many basic needs, and woe be it to the ones that do. That is as good a reason as any to rely on yourself and on your community for your basic living. You and they are built much better to take good care of you. The government cannot help that. People have made them this way, and have made them this way over the last 40 years. The government gets bigger every day, with more responsibility for the welfare of its people, and more liability for it as well. Here comes the checks and balances. They are necessary, we have made them so.

Maybe NOLA should have had a better hurricane evacuation plan. Communities running busses through them, picking up anyone who would get on them. Maybe that would have caused some of these people to leave who didn’t leave. This is excrutiatingly painful to watch. I love my country, and I believe that they are doing everything within their power to help. But it is always hard to help those who won’t help themselves. The government is designed to help those who CAN’T help themselves and they are being overrun and downtrodden by those who COULD HAVE helped themselves, but didn’t. Very, very sad.