Deep impact

It appears some relief is arriving tonight for the people in New Orleans (for more go here). But it will be a long time before the frustration and fallout of this disaster subsides …

And we can give all the money we have to the relief effort. Though it’s perhaps more sad how skeptical I remain of where the money’s going and who’s getting it. Those feelings turned for the worse today when I heard a news report that one city prepared pallets and pallets of water to send for the victims, but FEMA told them it didn’t want the water -- only cash. And during my lunch today, a kid knocked on my door, shoving a donation card in my face. Before I had time to think about it, he was asking for my name. And then when I tried to stop him, he abruptly said, ‘OK, I need the card back’ and shuffled away ….

Getting the latest hurricane news was the first thing I thought of today when I woke up and kissed my wife off to work. Updates on the relief effort were the only things occupying my mind as I came home for lunch today. And again, I was rushing home from work to make sure I could catch the updates on the network news …

I guess it sort of hit me today the impact this disaster has had, much more than I would have realized when I wasn’t so interested, say, on Monday or Tuesday, as was most other parts of our nation and world. But I watched Harry Connick Jr. talking to Katie Couric this morning, reeling from the poor relief effort and practically yelling about how easy it was for him to walk up to the thousands of suffering people at the New Orleans Convention Center. Why is the relief not getting there, he cried … I watched the president offer seemingly hollow excuses and charges to reporters in a morning press conference. … Then at lunch I saw the video of a CNN reporter meeting up with an Asian mother and daughter who were stranded in a hotel room. They had raided all of the other hotel rooms of food and drinks, set up a security wall against intruders and hung a white towel from their window to attract rescuers. After seeing and hearing all of this, the reporter gathered her crew members, loaded the two women in their van and drove them out of the city and harm’s way to reunite with loved ones outside the devastated areas. The reporter -- in the way that us journalists are always trying to do, but never seem to get the credit for doing -- helped a couple fellow citizens, because nobody else would.

… the emotions poured out of me and my eyes welled up today as I told my co-workers and wife these stories … emotions I didn’t realize were so real inside me.

…I’m blessed and lucky tonight that I again could enjoy this final Friday night of summer in my home. And when we finally got our DVD player to quit malfunctioning we watched “Freaky Friday” and “Laws of Attraction”

…“Freaky Friday” was, in a word, cute. It’s no “Face Off,” but Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis weren’t bad. In fact, despite a few cheesy moments, Lohan’s acting was convincing and her comedic potential showed through. Now, if she could only turn off her snobby appearance, shut her yapper in real life and go back to being as cute and likable as she was in “The Parent Trap.”

… “Laws of Attraction” …Yeah. First of all, this was not the movie we initially picked for tonight. With a free blockbuster movie rental earlier this week I had picked out a newer release, only to be informed at the counter that the coupon was only good for an older release. It might have been better to forfeit the coupon … While the plot is somewhat fresh -- two divorce lawyers who find love in each other -- it’s never developed enough to bring in the audience. The movie had ended before it began …

Kind of like the rescue effort in New Orleans?