MISSING NUMBERS: LIVES LOST OR SCATTERED, SOMEONE BETTER COME TO THE TRUTH

For a variety of reasons that mostly don't matter in the scheme of things, I have not written for over three weeks.It does not mean that I stopped watching, breathing or paying attention to this World of Ours. It certainly does not mean my "Aides a.k.a Ass-Kissing- Lackies" are going to have nervously hand me a "BEST OF' Handmade DVD with Current Events on it.( Hopefully you all catch my drift about our Leader being handed such a DVD, and you of course know better than to think I have "Lackies", unless you count a feeble cat and deaf dog).

It means I had Some Things I had to take care of, and Some Other Things that Fate dealt me that led to a Temporary Blog Withdrawl that was rather painful and unexpected. During that time I was trying to read less, and watch less TV, but the truth is that I am a News///Media Junkie.....So I continued reading and watching, but I did have to take a break from writing so much. But now I am back. And there are Some Things on my mind. So sit back grab a cold one and lets mull a Few Things.
And I will be honest, it ain't pretty.

What is so odd is that over three weeks ago, we were still all reeling from watching the Devastation of Katrina and the
Failure of the Bush Regime to properly address basic Humanitarian Needs. And to be honest the Main Stream Media really kept the limelight on Bush's Blunders, and rightly so, and they helped ALL of us re-focus on the Human Condition which deserved our full,undivided Attention while Mr.Bush looked the other way for FIVE FULL days and continued to stumble the rest of the month with his Helluva Job Browie Blame Game. The Situation Needed our Anger, Our Angst, Our Phone calls, Our Emails....But then in the past month some interesting Distractions have been coming dribbling across the news, screen and and print... I have a name for them:

CREATIVE DISTRACTIONS:

And now since then , we have been plundering through an assorted array of Creative Distractions.Offered to us like stale fingerfoods by the Host at a Tupperware Party Gone Adrift. ( And yes, that does mean I am comparing MSM to a host of a sagging Tupperware Party). First we had to suffer yet more Hurricanes named to honor favorite past Playgal Pinups and Vegas Showgirls. There was Rita, Katrina's screaming baby sister that also seemed determined and relentless to unleash her wrath on the Gulf's Oily Armpit, dragging ATLEAST 24 Rigs all over with gleeful abandon . And then there was the Supreme Court Soap Opera, and in true Opera fashion the first act was a fulfledged snoozer.( I am sorry but let's be real, even Roberts' own damn fine, doting Donna Reed of a Wife was caught nodding off on C-span. So I am not the only person who with the Dramamine "Excitement" of Mr.Roberts almost suffered lockjaw from world record setting yawns in a 6 hour period.) And now it looks like the" Harry" Follies will start soon. ( And let me be the first to say she will be confirmed with her Church Lady Ways and Attire, regardless of the scary Kathleen Harris Eye Liner ). Just more Distractions from the Truth. And the Truth is that Katrina has been set aside like an Ugly Sickly Old Aunt that No One wants to sit next to at the Thanksgiving Dinner. But By Thanksgiving Dinner Someone, ALL of Us better be sitting next to ol' Aunty Katrina Again and asking Some Damn Hard Questions.

THE DUCKING FLU ?
And Now we all are suposed to be scared knee high shitless of this Mythical Bird Flu that is A-Comin-to-Get -US. I am sorry I am not buying it- not now and not wext week. Because to be honest after Katrina I don't think they understand Public Health Emergencies- AT ALL. Period. ( Unless we want to give obligatory "Credit " to the New -This- Month Mr. Duck Tape FEMA that he might understand basic hygiene, more than the previous Horsehit Director). If they can not understand how to Air Drop Food and Water , how am I susposed to pretend that they are SOOOO competent that they Understand a Droplet Spread Disease ? Or that they even begin to grasp the Goals of Hygiene can play in Disease Path? For example- leaving 1000's without water of any potable kind sitting in sewage for days on end may have indeed contributed to the deaths of 1000s'. And this isn't just the rant of a mom, or a nurse, it is merely common sense. And last year, there was some sort of Secret Problem with the Flu Vaccine- and so the Administration vaccinated themselves and their workers- 2 million vaccines worth- and then announced that there was NOT Enough- and proceeded to blame it all on Chiron. Yet CDC, and the DHHS had also UNDER- Ordered the vaccine ( atleast 14 million or so). So there was NEVER enough even planned to be distributed. But we all are suposed to Not Remember That...because now we are suposed to be Scared and Fearful of a New Flu....I am tempted to call it the "Duckin' Flu'. Because it is giving this administration a New way to Duck Other Responsibilities....like the Mess in Iraq or the Unresolved Issues of Katrina. And yes, It is indeed a Foul Situation, just not a Fowl Situation that the Leader would rather us focus on.

WHAT UNRESOLVED ISSUES ?!!!
2663 ISSUES TO BE PRECISE....
2663 MISSING CHILDREN... AND WHO KNOWS HOW MANY ADULTS ? WHOLE FAMILIES GONE?! HOW MANY? AND SHOULDN'T WE ASK FOR THE SOLID NUMBERS, THERE ARE 1000'S STILL MISSING FOLKS....

And my-oh-my there is quite a list of Unresolved Issues, but for now I have One that the MSM seems to have neatly sidestepped once Rita had finished doing her dance across the Gulf. The Friday before Rita hit ,and actually the whole week before Rita, the Media spotlighted something rather Tragic- a consequence that Almost went under the radar- MISSING CHILDREN. And so CNN and then MSNBC spent almost an entire week dedicated to running pictures of Missing Children.
Photos were displayed on the side of the screen, and I believe at last count a fair number, <100, CNN actually assisted with actually reuniting the children with distraught families. We know that families were literally torn asunder by the Raging Surge and the crumbled levees, but that is ALOT of Missing Children....And so tonight I am flicking over the screens and surfin' the net, and I see ( Forgive me Father for I have sinned....) yes, Geraldo Rivera ( who I NEVER watch....) over on FOX ( also NEVER) and he is interviewing a Wellspoken, ever so Patient woman who is explaining to Geraldo that according to Project Alert, a group that works with other Missing Children Projects- that according to her group- there are indeed 2600 children STILL MISSING from Katrina as of today October 9th,2005 .

I spent all night looking at the photos on the Missing Children site- baby photos, and junior high graduation photos. The Photos tug at your heart, moments of pride and recognition pryed from a tattered scrapbook. Moments from Christmases and family gatherings and picnics, irreplaceable moments stolen and scattered. Faces scrubbed clean glowing with hope even with missing teeth and poorly chopped bangs. Names that ring across the page, Hope, Faith and even a little one named Heaven Butler. I look at her photo, her beautiful baby photo, I know her mother never meant for her name or her photo to be on the Missing Katrina Children's page. She named her that name believing her God had indeed given her a little piece of Heaven to hold in her arms.

And the more I thought about it, I thought Where is the Outrage- Where is the Horror. WHY aren't more people Screaming out in Pain, that is alot of children to be LOST ? I mean all summer every time there was a missing white blond teenager- there was much Angst and Horror liberally buttering the News by the Day. And now 2663 Chlidren are STILL MISSING , LOST, from Katrina. There must be weeping mamas and granmommies for these beautiful children that are bewildered and bereft. Yet I thought about it , and if there were griefstricken families awaiting news and still searching, they would be raising Hell by now. Because that is what Moms do, they YELL for their children. And instead we have Silence. Deafening Slience.

WHY THE DEAFENING SILENCE ABOUT THE LOST CHILDREN:
2663 CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND MR.BUSH....

I think I might have indeed accidentally found part of the reason. I don't think we can Blame all of this on Mere Misplaced People Scattered Far and Wide. Part of me, the Pollyanna- Ever- hopeful side of me, was indeed drifting to that path. Yet part of me kept asking where are those Screaming Moms? And Dads? WHERE? There should be Lots of Noise by Now.
And then I stumbled onto a little PDF on a site called www.missingadults.org.
Distractions are created so we will look out the Window at something else, anything else.
Just not at the Ugly Disgusting Truth.

If your go to the www.missingkids.org site you will see the page laid out so that you can look at missing kids from both Hurricanes. And also not as noticeable, yet present on the site, a link to missingadults.org. And then you can link to
http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/katrina/katrina_missing_adults.pdf. This document was just "updated" and placed in pdf format as of 10-7-05, and you can download as a pdf, it is 182 pages long.
It is 182 pages of missing Adults.
It is the Deafening Silence.
It is WHY there was NO Outcry for the Missing Children. It is Missing Families.
It is an oddly compiled, slightly organized, vaguely Numbered List of Missing adults from the Disaster Zone- it is JUST Katrina.
It is 182 pages with 50-60 Missing adults per page.

That means that there are 9100- 10,920 Missing Adults from Katrina, that we are NOT suposed to ask about, or think about.
And it makes sense that 2,663 children are still MISSING or LOST if they were with their families that are Lost.
And that there is now a Deafening Silence.
There might Not be anyone to Yell.

So I am Yelling Now, in my little Blog. WHY is the Media NOT covering this ???!!!! 1000's are still Missing, and they all did not just get dispersed asunder, they actually may be Dead. Even the Crappiest Papers Know how to Write Obituaries-properly.
It is time Someone Write the Obituary properly on this, and not distract us with other pleasentries of Tweety Flu and inflated Judicial Gossip. As a mom I want the Truth about the families on the pages, the children, the moms, and the dads and the grandparents.

At the Very Least I think we owe it to a little baby girl named Heaven Butler.
I Need to know if she went to Heaven with her mama.