I'm not that political, I just know when something so wrong is occurring, its hard not to notice. I do. I am taking an American History course, and am doing fairly well, and in my pursuit of making an A in my class, I have involuntarily gained an interest in why our constitution was written, and what the people needed at the time. Nothing has changed, except the times, which results in ignorance in why we have a Congress, what our State Represenatives are for, and why we have these elections. I admit [get ready to throw stones at me], that I am not a registered voter. Which means, in simple words, I did not vote for Bush, and worse, I did not vote against him taking a second term.

I can see in black and white, what is happening to our communities, especially here, in the Gulf South, hard hit from Katrina. It was an insult when "W" took his sweet time getting here to survey the damage, as well as call in orders desperately needed to save apparently some of the thousands that perished in the disaster. That aside, which was peoples' individual choice to ride out the storm, was a wave of reality with how bad it really was. I witnessed the aftermath from TV sets in motel lobbies, in anywhere and everywhere, USA. I sure wasn't heading home anytime soon. After a month long debate, I decided to take residence in Erie County, Penn., and remained a resident there for the following eight months. To watch the horror on TV was unbearable, and to talk to locals in a state 1100 miles away, truly drove home the perspective of being a world away. I assume Bush knows just about as much as what we were facing as these back mountain farmers in PA. Now I am not bad mouthing any particular group of Americans, I think I gained valuable knowledge from these people. The red cross was phenomenal there, which brings me to my second point.

Hurricane Katrina blew in August 29, 2005. I traded in my world as I knew it, a 22 year old physically disabled single mom of a two year old boy, working as a bookkeeper. I was born and raised in a small poor community, 20 miles north of New Orleans, but managed to independently support myself and my son, and maintain a happy life. I walked away from it all, to find refuge in an old house in Pennsylvania. The 130 year old house that I moved into in September with my cousin located at 7700 Pageville Road, Edinboro, PA 16412, perished in a fire November 12, 2005. There we were. Barefoot, watching it blaze away, wondering when the fire trucks will come. Barefoot, in 30ish degree weather. Barefoot, with my son, at 5 in the morning, watching it blaze. Thankful we ran out in time, thankful we woke up, thankful for each other. Watching it blaze. I can't forget that.

It took me six more hard months to admit I should return home. FEMA, with condolences, guranteed that although my emergency money was basically burned in a fire, they could not take further action to assit my family to recover from our losses. [Which meant losing everything twice in 2 months].

I live in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. I am ashamed to admit that we are weeding out the poor in this community. Now, as I mentioned our represenatives, they are there, to plead the case of their communities' best interest to Congress, and work towards preserving the pursuit of "Life, Liberty, & Property" which was later reworded as "the pursuit of happiness." Either or  I've only pursued happiness, but never gained it. I'd love owning some "property" but there's some rediculous bubble of inflation going on, which desperately needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, Congress is too involved in some war with a bunch of retards that enjoy blowing themselves up. There's a requirement for success, which goes something like, respect yourself, before respecting others. Love yourself first, and only then can you love someone else... So how the hell are we going to win this war, if we are only taking care of them? We are weakening our own unity as a country, and its going to take a longer time to fix the problem, than the years Bush will have spent in office.   

This is about all I can say without beginning to start punching things. I get a little outraged by politics, probably why haven't voted. I will though. I'm dragging my behind down to sign up soon. So yes, I now live with my parents, in the town I was born in, in the same house actually. I am 23, my son 3, I am still unemployed, and receive too little in Supplemental Security Income to EVER afford to move out. I will rise above in time, but I'm kind of pissed about having the whole world in front of me a little over a year ago, and my being reduced to nothing more than a mooch. Before Katrina, I rarely did anything but work, never drank. Now all I can do to pass the time is drink, because I can't stand not working...