Do all Americans eat cake?

I've, like everyone else, been watching the news endlessly. Katrina. Terrible, horrible, destructive Katrina. She is our Tsunami for all intents and purposes and after watching the number of dead climb, the picture fade more and more grim, I began to wonder what should I do? What CAN I do? I wish I were an emergency worker now because I feel so helpless, so glib sending a check to an organization that I barely know and only hope will distribute it properly. And then I hear the distant sound of American generosity marching to assist: Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Exxon, Office Depot, more and more are sending money and supplies to the area to help our fellow Americans. "Good, Good!" I think. We're doing what we do best, helping people in need. But I stop in my mental tracks. What about the rest of the world? Where are the sympathy statements from the nations of the world? A "We're so sorry, this is horrible" would be really nice right about now. And even better they could make those words actually mean something by sending people or supplies (I understand many aren't able to and should not). BUT! I forget we are AMERICANS. We don't need anything. We're all rich. We all drive 2 or 3 cars and have boats and eat cake. Or so the rest of the world thinks.

I heard something pretty funny on Fox (YES FOX NEWS). An email from a viewer said something to the effect of, France was going to send help but when they found they would have to deploy they surrendered. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony (despite the account being a jab) since it was in fact their royalty that originated the bobble-headed phrase, "Let them eat cake."

The sad truth is, the people who didn't leave New Orleans in a car and suffered the worst losses, of life or now mired in infested water, were probably the ones who COULDN'T, i.e. the poor, the sick, the elderly. So, if we're helping the least of these, they aren't eating cake, they're eating MREs. Like my husband.
Light a candle for all of them.