The Big DumpTruck

Okay, kids, call to action time. After posting my Thursday message about how if I had unlimited resources, I’d provide a filled backpack to every child survivor of Katrina, my message was forwarded to a local company, and a grassroots effort was started by the employees to do just that. 200 employees have pledged to bring in a backpack on Tuesday, and the company has said they will ship them to Houston and arrange to have them delivered. Oh, and for every backpack an employee brings in, the company will match with one. That could mean 400 or more backpacks, each with a stuffed animal or toy, crayons, markers, etc. Some people have said they’ll put in clothes, art kids and handheld games. Oh my God, can you believe this? I’m not at liberty to give more details than this at this time (or even the name of the company), but hearing this brought tears to my eyes, and makes me want to do more.

So now I’m challenging all of you.

Can you get the word out, have others pull together a backpack with boy or girl-specific items in it, and then send them to the people at CoffeeCup? How awesome would it be if we could somehow get 10 or 20 or 100 people to send a backpack? (I can’t begin to hope we could get one for EACH child, but darn it, I want 1000 backpacks to head to Texas!)

CoffeeCup Software
c/o Hurricane Aid
226 South Tancahua Street
Corpus Christi, TX 78401

I wish I was in a position to gather and ship them myself, but I really have no room to do that, plus, it isn’t like all of you life in the Leominster-Fitchburg area. But if you do send something, can you let me know – drop an email or post a comment to this message? That would be FANTASTIC

[Updated:
Another family started an effort very similar to this one, and in fact they are far more organized. I’m not looking for glory – I’d be happy if we hitched up to their wagon too. The whole point is to get stuff to the kids, not to have the best backpack drive. http://www.projectbackpack.org/

Here’s another link I received for a similar effort. These people are trying to pull together school supplies for the thousands of kids pouring into Texas school systems. Another great effort! http://backpack.random-assortment.com/link.html) ]

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From Agathena in the dailyzos.com’s comments section:
Just say 9/01 – That is the day that Bush said:

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

PBS did.
National Geographic did.
Popular Mechanics did.
Scientific American did.
Army Corps of Engineers did.
Scientists at University of Louisiana did.
Scientists at Louisiana State University did.

“Ah don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees”- GWB, 9/01 2005

DailyKoz has lots of interesting info on this train wreck of a FEMA head.
That sound you hear is what’s left of my respect for Bush circling the drain.

Don’t forget to read the comments. LOTS of good stuff in there.

Also, here’s what the Secretary of State was up to this week:
http://in.sys-con.com/read/125393.htm

I didn’t hear about this until I read an entry in my friend Gina’s Livejournal. She’s from New Orleans, and her parents (God willing) still live there.

I do not want to see George Bush’s face or hear his voice for the next few weeks. His reaction to Katrina sickens me. He cut his 5 WEEK vacation short by TWO WHOLE DAYS (what a gem) to come back to DC. Why not fly back the minute everyone knew NO was a target? Because he doesn’t care. Nothing that doesn’t impact him directly gets him to move his keister.

The relief workers/FEMA/National Guard should have been staging in Texas BEFORE Katrina made landfall. Everyone knew NO was in danger a day or two ahead of time. Yet W has the nerve to say that “Nobody could foresee the levees breaking.” Excuse me? There have been reports for years that a direct hit hurricane would devistate New Orleans. The weather guys were saying it before the storm hit. What color is the sky in W’s world?

Oh, and he defended himself by saying he told everyone to have reports ready for him when he got back to the white house, telling him what they planned to do. So basically, he is providing ZERO leadership. NONE. It’s up to the department heads to make all the decisions, and then he’ll rubberstamp them? This is so not the guy I want running the country. And he proves it more every day.

I have no facts to back this up (yet) but I hear the reason FEMA’s response has been so piss-poor is that guy leading it got one of those good-old-boy political favoritism appointments. [update: Here is a link to a Bloomberg article on how bad FEMA has been and why.]He has no disaster experience. None. He was a lawyer. Oh, and get this, he told reporter Brian Williams last nite that FEMA had just learned about the dire situation with the people at the [edited to correct the location] Convention Center that day. WHAT? GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES! [Update: He also said the same thing to two other reporters at different times, making it look very much like a CYA lie.] Anyone whose screw-ups and incompetence have caused people to suffer and die for lack of basics like medicine and water and food, should go to jail. Period. If you get paid to do the job and cannot do it, you have been stealing from this country and are now guilty of murder. If you cannot even figure out how to airlift in WATER, you are not fit to make my fries at McDonalds, never mind run FEMA.

Oh, and according to Metafilter, “While FEMA is slow to reach those in New Orleans, they were quick to promote Operation Blessing, Pat Robertson’s controversial faith-based “charity”, linking their website second only to the Red Cross. Hours after the federal agency was exposed by the blog Sploid today, they quickly tried to hide their support for the pastor’s organization by changing their web pages.” Unbefrickinglievable.

Can you tell how angry this makes me?

$3.29 a gallon to fill up this morning. I can’t help but think how much prices on EVERYTHING are going to go up because of the increased costs to transport goods. So if you think this is bad, wait until you have to pay an extra buck for your box of Captain Crunch.

For those of you who want to donate to the Red Cross, to help get the basic necessities right to the people who need it most:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/philanthropy/red-cross.html/104-8552742-4709549

Additionally, I received an email from the president of Coffee Cup software, Nick Longo, that was sent out to their corporate mailing list. (I am a user of their FTP software). They raised 1 million dollars for 9/11, and 50k for the Tsunami victims. Now they want to help the Hurricane victims.

They are located in Corpus Christi, TX, and are offering their warehouse for storage and their staff and trucks for delivery of the “non-essential” stuff that will help the tens of thousands of refugees arriving in Texas to get through the dark, dreary days when they’ll be living in shelters with not much more than the clothes on their backs. Because the Red Cross and other relief organizations are handling the basics like food and water, Coffee Cup is recommending people donate “goods”. Over 25,000 people will be arriving at the Houston Astrodome in the next day or so, and Coffee Cup wants to help provide them with toiletries, small toys, and other items that will make life a little more bearable. They don’t want money, food or water.

You can buy things from online vendors like Amazon, Target and Staples, and have them delivers right to Coffee Cup, or you can pack up your own boxes and mail them. Here is the address, and a list of some of the items that would be very welcomed. He says that they’ll be documenting the effort with webcams and photos.

Coffee Cup Software
c/o Hurricane Aid
226 South Tancahua Street
Corpus Christi, TX 78401

Diapers, Baby Wipes, Infant Care Items
Personal Care Items (Soap, razors, shaving cream, toothpaste, hygiene items)
Clothing (socks, underwear, shirts, shoes, pants)
Phone calling cards, batteries, FM radios, walkie-talkies
Toys (books, drawing paper, Coloring books, crayons, puzzles, any activity toy, small stuffed animals/dolls/action figures) [Jody’s note: I’d try to keep these things small – I was thinking about the little handheld electronic games, or travel games]

I will also let Nick know that I’m posting this on my site, just to help get the word out. I think it’s great that they are willing to use their warehouse, staff and time to do this. For a child who just lost everything, having a stuffed animal to hold can mean the world.

In a perfect world, where I had unlimited funds, I would start an effort to send backpacks to each child, containing fruit snacks, a stuffed animal, crayons, drawing paper, and a book. That way they’d have the backpack to store their things so they wouldn’t have to worry about losing them again.

Thanks for reading this far.