The Mutha of all rants

I am all full up.

I am tired of finger pointing.
I am sick and tired of politics.
I am angry to the point of wanting to scream and if I do I am very afraid that I will look exactly like Piccaso's portrait. Just scream and scream and scream.

Now is NOT the time to point fingers. Now is the time to make sure that rescue efforts are working. It is time to insure that people are getting their food, water, clothes and a place to lie their weary heads.

I'm sick and tired of Jesse Jackson calling everything under the sun racism. Yea, there is racism in this world and it is shameful, but now is not the time to say that the color of a person's skin delayed hurricane assistance.

There was a breakdown. BUT now is not the time to discuss the breakdown. It is time to rebuild or build or house, help, hug. It is time to wrap arms around the tragedies that happened and make it right.

I'm also incredibly sick and tired of the insurance industry telling us how to survive. Telling us what to pay them for their policies and then when we need to use our insurance, they change the rules or invent additional fine print.

Insurance companies make billions of dollars. Their lobbyists are many and powerful. That is because the insurance industry can afford to pay huge sums of money to lobbyists, who wine and dine our representatives.

Well insurance companies are telling victims of Hurricane Katrina that their insurance claims will not be approved because THE HURRICANE DID NOT DESTROY THEIR PROPERTY. No say the insurance companies, a FLOOD DESTROYED their property. Thus anyone with hurricane insurance is kicked to the curb by the very insurance companies that have received premiums for hurricane insurance coverage for who knows how many years. This is nothing short of criminal.

Had there not been a hurricane, there would not have been a flood. Have you seen the cars and houses that insurance executives own? These large ticket items are purchased with money that they are stealing from good people who pay their premiums. Sky high premiums that net NOTHING OF BENEFIT.

Write to your congressmen. Threaten to cancel your insurance policies and find a company that isn't denying Katrina claims. Do this today. Do this NOW.

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In 1982, I worked the floods of Marin County, California. Point Reyes was virtually destroyed. Mud and silt and I mean a wave of it flooded that beautiful town and homes were destroyed. It was no where near the devastation of Katrina, but it takes time to mobilize assistance. It takes time to move equipment and crews and supplies to devastated areas.

The crime of the Katrina devastation is that the Office of Emergency Services didn't have a plan in place to evacuate people who did not have transportation. Believe me, that will be discussed long and hard. The residents of the area who elected to "stick it out" cannot complain. There was ample warning-just not ample means for the poor to leave.

These things will be rectified. There will be better processes in place to evacuate people. You must let the system work. We must be part of the solution. Pointing fingers is only adding to the chaos.

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Other than helping dig out, provide supplies and assist the victims, the biggest impact that we can have is to take the insurance companies to task for deserting the victims in their hour of desperate need. It is shameful that insurance companies get away with so much. Deny everything is their first line of defense. Then you appeal and reappeal and they hope to frustrate you and make you give up trying before you change the outcome. Well enough is enough.

No more drive through surgeries. No more denying hurricane claims by calling it something else. It is time to stop giving insurance companies our hard earned money. Are you with me? Then take pen in hand or pick up your telephone and hit them where they live-in the premium department.