I am appalled at the indifference of our government. They were so slow moving to respond it was sickening. When they finally responded it seemed to be only because of media ? suddenly when all eyes were focused on the fact that they were not doing anything, they felt they better get busy now. In the meantime, underprivileged, sick, elderly and minority people were being left behind as if they counted for nothing, as if no one cared. It was so heartbreaking and it made me ashamed of my own country and fellow human beings. Prisoners were left to drown and it opened my eyes to how society considers me less than human because I am a convicted felon. After awhile, I couldn?t watch the news anymore.
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Racism is alive and well. I hope it was a wake up call for the country. People who are poor or people of color are just not going to get what they need. The only good thing was that the hypocrisy was exposed. This country needs to shape up.
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If I could go down to New Orleans, even if I had to be shackled all the time, I would do it just to be able to help people there. Some people here come from that area, so it touches them personally, but most people are happy to help. We collected over $3,000 for flood victims.
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A lot of people here were hurt watching what happened to New Orleans. Some have still not heard what happened to their families there. The guards passed out the forms to indicate if and how much you wanted to donate from your own funds. Everyone filled out the form and retuned it within the alloted hour, but we have not heard what happened to that money. Has it gotten there?
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Some people responded to Katrina, and the tsunami before that, but some tune out all news. Many have families in the area and wanted to call to find out what happened to them. You could not get through at first, it took several weeks to hear if our families were OK. We heard that they left prisoners to drown in their cells. It made us wonder what would happen to us if there ever was an emergency here.
Chowchilla?s women prisoners on Katrina
