Hi Robert,
I am sorry that my post affected you the way it did. My intent was not to
offend or upset anyone. It had no political intent. I thought it might add
a bit of humour to a very sad situation. JG

wrote:

Ed and BobS... you are both right. I am probably more than a little
sensitive here... all we have had since Katrina is turmoil in our city
(San Antonio, TX). All of our volunteers are worn out, including me.
Most have given beyond their means in time, money and goods.

We had amost 15,000 people here for Katrina, with a few thousand
remaining. We picked up about the same amount with Rita, but they are
all pretty much gone.

Yeah, it's tense for us around here, and I am certainly not the only
one on edge. We were OUT of gas in some areas of town just a few day
ago, the stores were wiped out of a lot of types of food, and all of
us that could volunteer were stretched pretty thin. First it was
Katrina, then it was immediately followed by Rita. No real recovery
time for any of us, and few replenishment supplies.

My sister and her family lost everything in the great Houston flood of
2000 (?) (including a drowned friend) and many here did the same with
their home underwater (only a few inches in mine) in 2001. So we all
know the drill, we all know what to do. We know things will get fixed,
we know things will get back to normal, even if it is a normal we
didn't have before.

But we are also all tired. Tired of the second guessing media, tired
of Oprah's march to Mississippi, tired of long winded politicians that
deliver little. Tired of this becoming a partisan issue. Tired of
giving, tired of volunteering, tired of being asked for more. Just
tired.

We will all muddle through. I don't mind some humor, and we all found
a few spots here and there through all our travails over the years.
Just not at the expense of others.

I got a kick out of some of the nasty comments put my way after I broke
both wrists back in 2002, but they were aimed at me personally. I was
teased incessantly, even after the casts were off and I had a almost a
year of PT to get my wrists back to usable. It never stopped. After
being in construction for 30 years, I have a pretty thick skin, but
still don't care for smartasses. It IS possible this post hit me the
wrong way.

But geez, look how thin skinned some of the other posters are... Dave
announced he picked up his toys and just went home. Now THAT made me
laugh.

Our situation here is certainly no worse (again, depends on whose wagon
is in the ditch) than all the folks that have faced all the other
forest fires, mud slides, floods, hurricanes, etc. Aid is pouring in
from all directions, and for us, life will be normal soon. For the
poor people closer to the coast, it will never be normal again.

So maybe I hit it here a little hard. That post may never have been
funny for me, but it probably would have rated no more than a glance in
another month or so.

Maybe another contributing factor to the crankiness of our guests and
volunteers... did I mention it has broken 100 degrees for the last few
days? Try working out in that with our normal high humidity.

As for Ed's thoughtful and appreciated question of what one can do,
give what you can to a reliable charity. All of ours are tapped out of
food, blankets, pillows, cots, fans, emergency first aid kits,
aspirins, bandaids, batteries, etc. I cannot imagine anyone else's
having anything left either so I am sure they would appreciate any help
given.

One last thing, thanks for the positive thoughts.

Robert