Hush Little Piggy...

I originally wanted to chat about how we haphazardly go about finding Pig's babysitters, but that topic will have to wait another day. I also wrote a whole post already but lost it accidentally (thus the late update) and don't have the heart to begin afore, so I'll get to the point: how is it that class in America can be a risk factor for children on par with history, political strife, absence of resources, geographic remoteness, cultural biases and other converging determinants in countries like Nigeria, Indonesia or Iraq? We *accept* that children in these parts of the world live in jeopardy because there seems to be no simple solution to their problems. But what happened in Louisiana? Don't get me wrong, race is still the biggest handicap to class, and I also understand it's hard to talk class in a nation where both the rich and poor firmly believe they belong somewhere in the middle. But Katrina blew the covers off from the parallel universes in our country, and we're reeling.

Barbara Bush, bless her I-can-say-anything-I-damn-well-like-now (I'm guessing no one's putting money on Jeb) heart sums it up so well when she said, "...and so many of the people in the arena here (in Houston), you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." What WASP candor. Are the fundamentalists praising God for delivering this group out of their own misery?

Pictures of the children, the old and the sick left to fend for themselves in the aftermath were devastating. It sickens me America does not respect the dignity of the poor and the vulnerable. How do you survive an experience where you realized you were simply not worth the effort to rescue?

Everyday I tell the Piggy I love him, and I hope he remains safe, happy and healthy. This is a modest wish that should be granted to every parent.