In Our Own Backyard

Looking through the hundreds of pictures from the recently devastated southern United States, it is difficult not to become overwhelmed with emotion. The magnitude of destruction is beyond comprehension. Imagine for one moment that everything you had was destroyed. Then imagine the days following. How would you get food? Drinking water? Medication? How would you react to rotting corpses floating down the flooded streets in front of what was once your home? Unimaginable.

How is it that our government can justify the ease in which we invade foreign countries in a matter of hours yet cannot seem to respond to a disaster in our own backyard for which we had several days notice? People are angry; they are rioting; they feel betrayed by their government that proclaims to be the strongest and richest in the world. Of course they cannot be surprised. They are the poor. They are the inner city residents that offer little to the advancement of the richest nation on the globe; this superpower. Why would our government feel the need for a quick response to help "them"? Funny that "they" are the ones that helped re-elect our current administration. Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? It is deplorable, yet not surprising. I would riot, too.