Bush Stages Propaganda Event While Citizens Die

Yesterday, as I protested with hunreds of others outside El Mirage Country Club in a western suburb of Phoenix, as hundreds if not thousands of citizens were trapped in attics because they were too poor to evacuate the areas where they live.

Throughout the time I was across the street from the country club where Bush spoke, I kept thinking about costs and alternatives. I cannot imagine the costs of diverting hundreds of local law enforcement officials, closing roads, doing the research to find the loyalists, busing them in, flying in the president and the various groups of people who comprise the massive entourage traveling with Bush. And all this cost was incurred essentially as a propaganda event for yet another of Dubya's ill-informed bankrupting schemes that would put money in the hands of the few at the expense of the nation.

And while this well-rehearsed event was taking place, horrific destruction was unfolding as sweeping devastation across the Gulf Coast of our Southern United States. The thought that repeatedly flashed through my mind and kept my stomach churning was, "What about all those people who could not evacuate the coastal cities in the path of Katrina because they had no car, could not afford hotels, had ill or extremely infirm parents they could not transport and did not want to leave?" Surely the National Guard troops would have activated all in a several state area helped evacuate people before and help set up camps for the 10 of thousands of people who will be homeless. But where are our National Guard troops? They are off fighting a war started by Bush and his inner circle. States are having borrow troops from neighboring states and hundreds are dying while they travel that distance.

Where were the trains capable of taking thousands upon thousands out of the area? Corporate automobile and oil interests saw those dismantled throughout the 20th Century to to benefit their businesses and create an automobile dependent society.

Who was coordinating the massive evacuation of the poor who did not have the means or connections necessary to leave these cities and parrishes on their own? I did not see any coverage of Guard Troops coming in to help with the evacuation? Why were our guard not out in these areas, pounding on the doors of people who do not have cable and really did not understand the enormity of what was coming?

Our Guard troops are not here. Our president continues on as though nothing has happened. I've yet to see any shots of rescue crews who are not Coast Guard, police or fire. I still can't get my head around the human cost of this devastation. I cannot begin to think about the financial costs. Our surplus has been squandered for no reason tied to National Security. Our social progams have been gutted, and we have a need that is undoubtedly only the first of many, many needs generated by the new intensified and irratic weather patterns or a warming world that the Dubya also refuses to acknowledge.

When will the people awaken to the fact they are being bilked, abused and dying for an illegitimate government who has no concern with the people's welfare or future (including the heroic people serving in the armed forces who are willing to put their lives on the line for our country?)

I will report about the protest soon, but now I'm still in shock that our leadership is so dysfunctional.