Sometimes Baseball Just Doesn't Matter

So the Sox are doing ok these days. They are still struggling mightily in the pitching department but the bats seem to bail them out on a nightly basis. Two nights in a row they have come back from pretty big deficits (5 runs) and won the game. That is a good thing. Schilling still looks pretty mediocre and the bullpen is still suspect. We are keeping the yankees at bay which is a good thing.
But really that doesn't even matter these days. What is going on in New Orleans and the Gulf Goast is just so devastating that every thing else that is going on right now just seems insignificant. The tragedy that is unfolding in the south is something that I'm not sure that any of us can even really understand.
New Orleans is probably the saddest situation of them all. The city did ok with the actual hurricane but shortly afterwards the levees that protect the city gave way and water came flodding into the city. NO is basically a big bowl that sits below sea level. Once those levees are broken and water starts flowing into the city there is no way to stop it without plugging the levee. That ain't so easy to do. There is also no way of getting the water out without pumping it out. You can't pump it out without electricity.
So all of the people that didn't evacuate before the hurricane are now pretty much trapped in the city with no water, food, electricity, phones, or bathrooms. 30,000 of them are trapped in the Super Dome where they have been for days in pretty much the sam condition. The water raised so fast that many people had to climb up into their attics and chop holes in the roof to get out. Then they had to wait on the roof to get rescued. I'm sure some of them are still waiting there.
You also have a select group of individuals who have decided that this would be a good time to act like thugs and go loot. The first instance of this was in Alabama at a Wal-Mart. First off the conditions in Alabama aren't nearly as bad as in other places second of all what the fuck good in a PS2 going to do you now? I can kinda understand people in NO who are breaking into places to get food and water and other basic necessities but that is about it. You hear stories of armed thugs wandering the streets of NO after stealing guns. I think the National Guard should be able to shoot them if they have to. People have been stealing stuff from hospitals and this morning then even shot at a helicopter that was trying to rescue people. How stupid and selfish can you be?
The thing that is kinda mind boggling to me about the whole deal is the basic lack of any kind of plan for an event like this. How can you have a city that is situated like this and not have a plan for when the levees break? Did they really think that for all of eternity these things were never gonna give way? The people there are literally abandoned with no way of getting out and many not having seen help for days. HOW CAN THAT HAPPEN?
Bush is all about getting the government involved-four days after the event. They are sending the big hospital ship from Baltimore but it won't be there until next week. At that point the only thing it will be good for is storing the 1,000's of dead bodies. The wheels for all of this should have been put in motion on Monday when the first levee gave way. Then they would have been seeing help now instead of next week. How come the only way to save these people is one at a time on a helicopter? What if they got boats like the cruise ship life boats and used those? How come they can't at least drop supplies into these people? Where is the rest of the world who we help at the drop of a hat?
The whole thing just makes me so sad. I just want to drive down there with a big ass truck full of water and food and help but that won't work. There's no gas and I probably couldn't get there.
Speaking of gas...over 3 a gallon? You got to be kidding me.
Ok, I have to try and focus and do some work.
It is just astonishing to me that something like this could happen in the US. I just can't believe that we can't help these poor people at all.