it's not life that matters but the journey...

I've been reading as much as possible about the aftermath of the hurricane, and my heart goes out to the people who have to restart their lives in new cities, some without anything at all!  I'm especially worried about the people who were already living below the poverty line and who have to face big economic and racial problems if they move far away from what they are accustomed to.  Its hard to believe that there hasn't been a mass exodus of American refugees like this since the Civil War!  Of course America is always welcoming refugees from other countries, but its amazing to see it happening to people in the same country. 

after the negative stories that I read in the beginning of the crisis (looting, raping, etc), its heartwarming to read stories like this one about kids raising money with lemonaid stands across the U.S.:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-05-kids-sell-lemonade_x.htm?csp=1

plus I read how so many people  have been helping the displaced New Orleans residents to get settled in other places:  the mayor of Detroit is offering free hotel rooms for 500 families, and he is trying to move them out of hotels and into homes with the help of HUD - he says he wants them to become a part of the community.  Also, the owner of a San Diego oil and gas company chartered a jet to Louisiana where he offered families at shelters rides to California.  Once he got them there, he put them up in a shelter at a high school.  But I wonder what they will do now - San Diego is a far cry from New Orleans! 

Nonetheless, that's the kind of spirit that makes me wish I was in the U.S. right now - I would be doing my own part to help out and raise money if I could.  I can't really do that here - people in Japan care, but they are too far away from America to really be impacted.  its just so nice to know that so much is being done to care for the survivors of this crisis and help them start over.  Why couldn't people have done this much before the hurricane (to get the poor people out), or right afterwards when they were abandoned and stuck waiting for help?  I know that those questions are being asked and hopefully answered now...

   I found a great site with "Bushisms" and I thought I'd share some of them here.  You can see how smart our president really is . . . notice the way he likes to make up words (is he being creative, or does he just not have enough vocabulary?  you be the judge) . . .

1. "I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure."  Interview with the Associated Press, Jan. 18, 2001

2. "They misunderestimated me."  Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

3. "Let me put it to you this way, I am not a revengeful person."・Interview with Time magazine in the Dec. 25, 2000, issue.

4. "I understand small business growth. I was one."  New York Daily News, Feb. 19, 2000

Well I can definitely agree that he is a kind of growth, but more the kind that appears under the skin and that won't go away and just gets uglier and uglier all the time (like a pimple?).

hope I didn't offend anyone's sensitivities, but Bush is not my favorite person - can you tell?