Greetings.

Agreed. I hope that Loren's family, Stu's family, Lectric's, and everyone else are able to come out of this as well as can be expected.

If there is anything that can be done to help out, post the request on the board. If we can help to send people to Amersfoort or arrange international curry deliveries, I am sure we can help out on a more personal level than just the ARC or America's Second Harvest (my charity of choice).

As for the politicians and the political debates, discussions of responsibility, accusations of racism or of economic discrimiation, who to blame, etc. - I am sure there will be plenty of time after everyone is safe and people's lives are stabilized to congratulate each other, provide spin, debate "should have / would have / could have" and point fingers. For now, politicians who whould be directly involved should get to [censored] work! If the politicians are not directly involved, then get out of the way and let those who should be working do their jobs! The debate right now is a distraction and a delay to those who need help now.

Sorry. I have heard a few too many debates on this in the news lately. I prefer to think, perhaps incorrectly, that it was a combination of the severity of the disaster combined with the chaos of the sitation and destruction of communication, roads and infrastructure compounded by mistakes or miscommunications on the part of local, city, county, state, federal and executive governments and agencies that have probably not slept a night since before the storm hit that made a lot of this worst than it should have been than some dastardly plot to deliberately withhold aid in a bit to secretly perform ethnic, political or economic cleansing on a targeted population.