The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The GOOD:

Meet Deamonte Love, Age 6
and the Children He Saved


The LA Times:

In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

...Deamonte volunteered his vital statistics. He said his father was tall and his mother was short. He gave his address, his phone number and the name of his elementary school.

He said that the 5-month-old was his brother, Darynael, and that two others were his cousins, Tyreek and Zoria. The other three lived in his apartment building. The children were clean and healthy — downright plump in the case of the infant, said Joyce Miller, a nurse who examined them. It was clear, she said, that "time had been taken with those kids." The baby was "fat and happy."

Later, more details emerged:

Deamonte began to give more details to Derrick Robertson, a 27-year-old Big Buddy mentor: How he saw his mother cry when he was loaded onto the helicopter. How he promised her he'd take care of his little brother.

Thankfully, the mothers have now been found and they've all been reunited:

Late Saturday night, they found Deamonte's mother, who was in a shelter in San Antonio along with the four mothers of the other five children. Catrina Williams, 26, saw her children's pictures on a website set up over the weekend by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. By Sunday, a private plane from Angel Flight was waiting to take the children to Texas.

But, how they got separated is every parent's nightmare: The helicopter came and there wasn't room for all. The helicopter personnel told the mothers to put the kids on board and they would return for the mothers.

The helicopter never returned. The kids went flown to Baton Rouge, and the parents ended up in Texas.


The BAD:

International Newspaper Headlines.......... what the world thinks of Bush!

England: The Week Bush Failed America
Scotland: Bush Panics and Sends in the Marines and Katrina Reveals Truth About U.S. Poverty
France: Le Monde Editorial: Catastrophe Sparks New Debate Over Wisdom of Iraqi War; Le Figaro: A Distressing End to Bush's Summer Vacation
Italy: Storm Reveals Leader Who Divides America
Germany: German Minister Says Part of Blame for Katrina Goes to Bush
India: (Reuters) 'Bush doesn't care about black people, shame on America' and U.S. South Drowns in Bitterness
Australia: Survivor's Fury at Relief Effort



The UGLY:

RAPIDS PARISH, La. - A caravan of African American leaders and three busloads of evacuees travelled three hours northwest of New Orleans on late Saturday.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters tried to deliver the roughly 150 evacuees to the Louisiana National Guard Armory in Rapids Parish which was already sheltering about 600 evacuees.

The group was turned away by the president of the Central Louisiana Chapter of the American Red Cross. Leeann Murphy said there wasn't enough room in the armory. Then a white man emerged from the shelter saying he "didn't want murderers or rapists there". It wasn't clear whether the man was staying at the shelter.