Euthanasia......

The news that a NOLA doctor and two nurses have been arrested for alleged euthanasia after Katrina caught me by surprise this morning. They were charged with second degree murder. What surprised me is....why now? This is old news. Those stories were out there within two weeks after the storm. The nursing home deaths have been dealt with, an animal evacuation plan passed the legislature -- I thought we were through trying to think of things that happened during a time of anarchy as if they had happened during an ordinary day when a city was intact and capable of operating, responding, supporting. There was more than one doctor, so I'm assuming more arrests will be forth coming.

I'm so tired of thinking about all this crap. And I'm ashamed of myself for feeling that way. ....Tomorrow will be better.

But, today's not over. And today we have to go back in time almost a year. Katrina has passed. Hospital generators have flooded. There is no electricity to keep life-supporting machinery operating. There is no food, oxygen, air conditioning, clean water, clean linens. Medical personnel is limited. Water is rising. It has been determined that only the "viable" patients will be evacuated. What do you do. Do you just leave the others to the looters and the gun-wielding criminals breaking into the hospitals looking for drugs?

I know we are on a slippery slope when we deal with things like these. But in a time of lawlessness, can reactions be held to regular legal consequences? I'm not smart enough to answer this. I need to hear some theories and see what agrees with my spirit.

One thing I do know is that it is getting weird down here. Maybe it's because the one year anniversary is fast approaching. But in the past three months a dear friend was beaten to death by his adult son. Another friend had an adult daughter who had moved home with him along with her three small children. Two weeks ago, she came home, got her father's gun and shot herself to death.

I guess all you can say about a disaster is that it's disastrous.