The world according to Riff.

I received this email from a volunteer here.  It does make you think.

Yvette, I thought of our ER and staff.  We had it easy by comparison.

 What is wrong with this picture?? Everything!!!!!!
Subject: Gustav

Remember this when you vote in November.
Have the Democratic social programs really worked? It seems to me
that the government  has made many in our country look to the
government for everything and have no accountability or
responsibility to make their own way in this life....It is time
that we have a system that helps people not only to survive but to
be able to eventually become self reliant..............
________________________________


   Hello Mr. O'Reilly,

I am a nurse who has just completed working approximately 120
hours as the clinic director in a Hurricane Gustav evacuation shelter in
Shreveport, Louisiana over the last 7 days.  I would love to see someone
look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective. Local and national news
channels have covered the evacuation and 'horrible' conditions the
evacuees had to endure during Hurricane Gustav.True - some things
were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification.
At any point, does anyone address the responsibility (or
irresponsibility) of the evacuees?
Does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone,
charger, cigarettes and lighter but forget their child's insulin?

Is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks
immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all
medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle
(most of which are narcotics)?

Isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a
$3 copay for a
refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can
take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and
return to consume them secretly in the shelter?

Is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming
evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger
the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth
of drugs, alcohol and weapons
being brought into the shelter?

Am I less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the
floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby,
watching me work 26 hours straight, no t even raising her head from
the pillow to
comfort her own son?

Why does it insense me to hear a man say 'I ain't goin' home 'til I
get my FEMA  check'  when I would love to just go home and see my daughters
who I have only seen 3 times this week?

Is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must
find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay
his copay while
the FEMA declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free
medications under the disaster rules?

Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is
paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the
shelter provides a 'day care'?

Have government entitlements created this mentality and am I
facilitating it with my work?

Will I be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor Christian if I
hesitate to work at the next shelter because I have worked for 7
days being called every curse word imaginable, felt threatened and
feared for my personal safety in the shelter?

   Exhausted and battered but hopefull,
   Sherri Hagerhjelm, RN