Gacked this from somebody.

Oh, Viggo, I want to bear your children.

I gave over the weekend (about $175 to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army), and I hope other people do, too. This should never have happened in America.

The Red Cross office is two blocks from my house. They weren't taking blood at that center, but they were accepting checks and when I walked in with my debit card they were processing scores of checks from donors. There were many other people in the office making donations, too. Little old ladies on fixed incomes writing checks for $10, little kids with their piggy banks--whatever they could give. The lady who processed my card and gave me my receipt told me that two little girls had a lemonade sale and raised $1,300 in two hours. I live in Burbank, CA, which is a fairly affluent community, but people do care and I want people to know that the American people by and large are different from the American leaders, who obviously don't know the meaning of common sense and ought to be impeached. Even the National Guard, some of whom have been waiting for days for deployment orders, are shaking their heads in dismay at what's happening. So far, Los Angeles has sent several trained personnel to the disaster area, and more are on the way.

What's happening in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama could happen here in southern California should a big earthquake hit. No, Angelenos are not prepared. Large quakes don't happen that often and we don't take the threat seriously as they do in countries like Japan, where they have earthquake drills all the time; the last drill I participated in was in 10th grade, some nineteen years ago. My school doesn't even conduct fire drills, much less earthquake drills, so nobody knows what to do or where to go.

I would hope that should something happen here, people will respond with the same outpouring of donations that have been forthcoming from fellow Americans in this crisis. Yes, our people have done far more than our government.

If you want really good, concise reporting on the disaster, cleolinda has done an excellent job pulling together links.

I wonder if I should offer to write ficlets (i.e. short pieces, not full-blown stories) for charity. erestor and delaese have far more fans than I do, and can squeeze out a lot more creativity than I can. But if anybody has a burning desire to have me write a ficlet based on my erotic stories and is willing to make a small donation for it, let me know. I want to do more than I've done.