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>Grrr. The suggestion that Katrina was God's retribution on the sinners of New Orleans sets my teeth on edge. If that was His intention, he sure fragged a lot of the innocent along with the guilty. Not very good aim for the alleged creator of the universe.
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Hi Mike..

Pardon me if I din't make myself clear.. I didn't say that (or at least want to say).. But please, give me a little break, english it isn't my natural language..

I just compared, my personal time living with a lot of people talking about all the sins on french quarter.. With all the events of katrina..

As I said on the reply to Dragan.. For Jesus sacrifice, God doesn't punish anyone here.. And, if someday he decide to do it, no man will be stand up.. There isn't any difference between me (the guy talking about God) and the most game's vitiated of Vegas.. We are equal by the God's eye..

>I didn't say a lot about it at the time but I was down there in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. A volunteer organization I am involved with here in Chicago solicited members to go to New Orleans for a week of emergency aid. By the time it was all organized NOLA had been evacuated so we went to Houston instead, where the largest number of evacuees were. Whoops, we weren't supposed to call them evacuees, but "clients" or "guests". Whatever we called them, they had run for their lives -- a race many others lost -- often with literally only the clothes on their backs. The dazed expressions on some of their faces, especially the children, is something I will not forget any time soon. It is pretty well known by now that most of those who were blasted out of New Orleans didn't have much to begin with. And then they lost that. I have never been in a war zone but in some ways it felt like being in a war zone. These folks looked shellshocked, and I'm sure many of them still are.

wow.. I can imagine what you saw over there.. Only imagining I few cold on my backbone

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>..I have contacts at some of the relief organizations and volunteer to be our logistics administrator, for lack of a better term. If someone else wants to do that, fine with me, it's not an ego thing. I just see this as an opportunity to do some good and meet some UT acquaintances in the bargain.

I know what you meant.. There isn't better way to live with our personal "nightmares" than learning/serving as volunteer in situations like that.. For me personally speaking is much, much better than a psicanalyst.. :-)
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>If you are interested, please reply here or email me at mbeane2@comcast.net. The timing is wide open. There will be work to do along the Gulf Coast for months to come, if not longer.
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Thanks for the invitation.. but, in Brazil we have our own "katrinas victims" facing daily all the economical difficults.. Needing support..

Claudio