sifting through the debris

I don't know why I'm so damned tired right now but I am. Maybe it's just a generalized fatigue, combining the emotional with the physical...

Just got back from the local Red Cross chapter where I did not answer phones after all. Instead I worked as a "greeter"/"runner" - which basically meant I figured out what people needed as they arrived and then ran all over the building to take them to said place or get the answers needed. It all seemed very chaotic to me with a steady flow of traffic, but according to one of the directors there, today is pretty quiet compared to how it was late last week. They're also starting to get some evacuees - at least half a dozen arrived over the course of my shift, including a woman from the eastern side of New Orleans who was pretty damn cheery and nice and polite for someone who spent almost two days trapped in her attic.

And honestly, except for the one rude, haughty woman who came in and demanded to speak to a particular person - regardless of the growing group of people who also needed attention - I left there impressed with the general kindness of strangers. Who knows, these are very well the same people who cut you off on the freeway, litter on your front lawn or talk on their cell phones (loudly) at the restaurant, but today (and yesterday and the day before and so on) they came in and donated money (cash, checks - always apologizing that it's not more), picked up donation cans, tried to figure out what they needed to know to be deployed to the disaster areas or simply walked up to the front desk and said put me to work, I'll do anything.

Elsewhere, there is a growing debate on the use of the word "refugees" to describe those who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina:

"It is racist to call American citizens refugees," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, visiting the Houston Astrodome on Monday. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have expressed similar sentiments.

Others have countered that the terms "evacuees" or even "displaced" are too clinical and not sufficiently dramatic to convey the dire situation that confronts many of Katrina's survivors.

President Bush, who has spent days trying to deflect criticism that he responded sluggishly to the disaster, weighed in on Tuesday. "The people we're talking about are not refugees," he said. "They are Americans and they need the help and love and compassion of our fellow citizens."

The 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention describes a refugee as someone who has fled across an international border to escape violence or persecution. But the Webster's New World Dictionary defines it more broadly as "a person who flees from home or country to seek refuge elsewhere, as in a time of war or of political or religious persecution."

The criticism has led several news organizations to ban the word in their Katrina coverage. Among them are The Washington Post and the Boston Globe.

"We haven't used the word since the beginning of the crisis," said Kenneth Cooper, the Globe's national editor. "Some of us had different reasons, but we all came to the same conclusion: not to use it."

The AP and The New York Times are among those continuing to use the word where it is deemed appropriate.

I hadn't thought about the political implications of the term until yesterday when Cory told me he'd heard a similar story on the news. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it - because in the strictest sense of the word, these people are seeking refuge and thus, refugees. But in a climate that's already fraught with race/class-related controversies and questions - well, add it to the list of things that are making this whole situation more than just a natural disaster. This is, I'd say, about the times and how they need to be changing.

Sorry all you people who don't want to say that this hurricane and its after-effects are political. It is, they are.

And they're all going to become increasingly more so as we sift through the debris.