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Dear Kendra: Letter #2 From Mississippi from Lousiana Mayrah Sandusky... by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Thursday, September 8, 2005
Rated "PG" by the Author.
A remorseful Louisiana writes a letter of apology to Kendra Williams, her friend in California, after writing her a profanity-laced letter yesterday. She is still in Mississippi as she writes this, and she is beyond exhausted.
I am writing again to apologize for my rude behavior yesterday. I said some things I shouldn't have said, and now I am feeling ashamed and embarrassed. I am a CHRISTIAN; I should NOT be talking such trashy language as I was yesterday, but I am just fed up with the (slow) response from federal officials and the military, and I am just fed up at the blame game that politicians and other government officials are pinning upon each other. And I am sick and tired of seeing people lying or living in such filth and such deplorable conditions, and nothing has been done to try to better their lives. There are people living in squalor here in AMERICA, and there are these overpaid actors and athletes and politicians who think nothing of spending over one hundred grand on jewelry or clothes and complain that they can't make their payments on their houses! I am also fed up with the horrors in New Orleans, Louisiana, and I still can't believe that people were being murdered or raped at the Superdome, and nothing was being done to stop it!
I am also sick of the blame being pinned upon our President...now, he may NOT be the BEST president we have ever had, but right now, he IS our Commander-in-Chief, and he is trying the best he can! HE didn't cause Katrina to happen; it was an act of GOD, of NATURE, NOTHING else!! At least he CAME to see the storm damage and talked to victims of this tragedy instead of hiding out!! Yes, he SHOULD have come sooner than he did, but the fact is this: he DID come, and he DID promise aid to the victims of the hurricane! Now it is up to people in Washington to ensure that it DOES get to the people instead of it ending up in their own pockets!! I have taken care of people in the worst possible shape, and I am more than ready to take in a whole armload of children into my home (as if I don't already have enough NOW!!), and I am seriously considering in taking in a woman I met here in Mississippi just a few days ago who has lost EVERYTHING she has; and now she is fighting pneumonia, severe dehydration, a (possible) fractured arm (only x-rays at a hospital will tell the tale, and then we will treat her according to the findings on the x-rays), and cuts and bruises all over her thin little body; she looks more like a concentration camp survivor than a woman living here in AMERICA, and she is just barely hangin' on. I will be surprised if she does survive; but I am praying that she does! She was found just two days ago, and we have been fightin' tooth and nail trying to keep her alive! As soon as we can, we are going to fly some of the storm victims to hospitals in Tennessee, and if this woman goes, I am going to ask to see if she can go to Nashville Memorial, where I work, so I can continue to take care of her and try to help her through this difficult and long road to recovery that is ahead for her. She lost her home, her job, her car, her clothes, her very possessions: she has NOTHING that is worth saving, and she is going to have to start from the ground on up; and it will be a very rude shock to her system when she DOES find out that she lost everything but her life in Hurricane Katrina!! All I know about her now is the fact that she is approximately in her forties, and she is named Shaniqua Nakaya Williams, and that she lived in Biloxi. If she has family, I have no clue; she has been fading in and out of unconsciousness, and she is still burning up with a raging fever from the infection that is coursing through her body. She is desperately sick, and it will be a MIRACLE if she survives!
I am just fed up and angry right now, and I felt like I had to vent, so I did. I am sorry if I used such bad language, but after witnessing the horrors that I have done these past several days, maybe then you will understand why I have been so angry. I have been watching the news, and it sickens me, it absolutely sickens me. It is all I can do to keep from losing my belly, as Ronee' would say, and I am trying my best not to lose my head and try to offer help as only I can. It isn't easy, even in the best of conditions, and conditions here at the present aren't that good. We still have very little in the way of power (the generators keep fritzing out, and we never know when they will come back on; right now, I am writing this by flashlight so I can see!), and food and supplies are quickly dwindling. We are praying that more come soon, or we will ALL starve. I am so hungry now I can eat a HORSE (maybe TWO or THREE!!), and I have had very little in the way of sleep since arriving here. Then people wonder why I am so cranky....YOU try working under these conditions, in this hellhole that was once a beautiful, thriving, bustling city, and see what it does to YOUR senses! YOU try working with people who are so destitute and needy, and try to provide care for them, and see the senseless circle of poverty first hand! YOU try catching up on lost sleep, only to have it interrupted by someone gasping for air, and or by someone screaming that someone is pouring blood all over the floor, someone is seizing uncontrollably, or someone is stroking out, and then you have to work like hell to try to save them before it is too late!! Or YOU try to break up fist fights that flare up, and hope that you don't get in the middle of those flying fists! That is how it has been here, and it has NOT been at ALL fun!!
It is hot, ungodly hot here, and not having air conditioning or limited power is only making it worse. It smells worse than some of the institutions I have visited, and it smells worse than a garbage dump or landfill. There is garbage rotting in the streets, decomposing bodies, or bodies riddled with sickness/disease, and you are at risk at catching something like cholera, dysentry (spelling??), or some other poor sanitation- or water-inducing illness! I pray to GOD I don't get dysentry, cholera, typhus, typhoid, or even something like malaria or yellow fever!! Just keep me in your prayers, that is all I ask!!
Oh, crap..the generator is in the process of dying, so I have to go! I will write more when I get back come Saturday! God bless you, Kendra, and again, please forgive me for my colorful language yesterday; but right now I am tired..in fact, I am BEYOND tired!! I am flat out WORN OUT!!
I will be soooo glad to see my family again come Saturday!!
Write soon, and God bless!
(((HUGS))) and much love, your (tuckered out) Tennessee friend (who is now on a rescue mission in Mississippi), Louisiana Mayrah. :( >tears<
P.S.: ANY WORD ON AUDREY JACKSON YET?? I haven't heard hide nor hair from her, and I am worried about her!! I only pray she is okay!!!!
Under the extreme duress Louie, and many of our EMTs, firefighters, police and medical staff are under, no apologies are needed. Just tons and tons of prayers. A compassionate, hurting, well penned write--well done!
Great write Karen! Another heartfelt impassioned story from your heroine,Louie, who should not worry about apologizing under the circumstances. God alone knows how these people can take what is happening there. They deserve only the greatest accolades,help and prayers they can get. Fine writing!
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