Fury, Rage, Sadness, Embarrassed, Ashamed
These are feelings we have had in recent days. To one degree or another we had one or more of these emotional reactions but Katrina has forced us to really look seriously at what is happening in our America. I have felt for a long time it would take some major catastrophe to make us study the status quo. This hurricane, with the tragedy of New Orleans, could be that event. Perhaps not even the storm but the reactions to it and the ignorance beforehand.
Ignorance beforehand: FEMA being downgraded and subordinated to Homeland Security. Natural disasters made second to terrorists. Wetlands trashed despite constant warnings of their importance to ecological systems. Resignation of the Chief of Army Engineers over drastic reductions in funding of levee support. Prior to 9/11 warnings of the three prime disaster probable in America, in which New Orleans was ranked first. Climate warming increasing the frequency and severity of hurricanes. Concentration on terror, a long time danger, created a false premise for invading Iraq. All these caused shifting priorities in men and money.
The consequences are dreadful. At the critical time does the C in C fly to the side of the victims? Does he join his larger family, the citizens of this country? As in his flight from Crawford to Washington in support of the politics of the Terry Shiavo case. No, he flies to San Diego to con WWII veterans into equating their war with the one in Iraq. Fund raising makes the day. Our President also admitted that he never considered the levee’s would be breached, a statement contrary to all advice and published warnings before. He should have flown straight to New Orleans to the Heart of the Disaster.
The chorus aka, Chertoff, et al, said all was under control by his Department of Homeland Security. Minions were dispatched everywhere to show the flag for the actions of our government. Cheney was strangely silent, probably bunkered with Rove; Dennis Hastert, our Speaker of the House was quoted with suggesting the trashing of New Orleans. He quickly backtracked when it became obvious that his Illinois farmer constituents need the Port of New Orleans to ship their produce. Duh! Still Hastert wasn’t present for the vote for relief in Washington. He had a fund raiser to attend. I suppose Rumsfeld could only reflect how “Stuff Happens”. Even Bill Clinton, the so-called ‘black president’ had to chime in support of Bush’s innocence. Or is it ignorance?
His administration is embarrassing in its incompetence. One is ashamed of its ’spinning’ those who have ‘bought’ its messages. I have raged over the obvious lack of concern for our dark-skinned fellows suffering days without food, shelter, clothing, even water. Furious the administration and the legislature would even think of repealing the estate tax at such a time. One might favor such a repeal on principle, but at a time like this the South needs every penny that can be sent.
I feel sadness at the state of our nation with leaders such as what we have. Not only George W. Bush and his satraps; where is the opposition? Are the Democrats creating anything we can hope for?
Carpe Diem
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4 Responses to “Fury, Rage, Sadness, Embarrassed, Ashamed”
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Oh, dear Michael, I expected about that - - - easy, easy comments to make, with your fairly uneven sense of how a disaster can hope to be managed - especially one of this proportion. The total destruction covered 90,000 square miles - the size of Great Britain, or Minnesota. You pick which example you like best!
The law that has been in place since early in the 19th Century (Posse Commitatus) says the military cannot come into a state to do law enforcement UNLESS THEY ARE INVITED BY THE STATE (read Governor). It doesn’t apply to the Coast Guard, which is why they got in there faster than the other services. In the most basic class offered on Emergency Management and Disaster Mitigation, we are taught that ALL direct responsibility for any emergency lies with the local jurisdiction - either the Mayor or the County executive if it is an unincorporated area. The chain goes from the mayor to the State to the Feds. (If you are a municipality, you advise your County, but they are not in the direct legal chain.)
The request for help can all happen in five minutes or less if necessary, but that is how it is done, and no amount of foot-stamping or potty-mouth comments by the incredibly inept Mayor of New Orleans or the Governor who can’t make up her mind will change that. If Congress chooses to change that, I’m guess there would have to be a Constitutional Change.
The fact of the matter is, Mr. Bush signed papers two days before the storm hit. The military began to organize, but the Governor calls out the Guard for her state! There is no way around that! They answer to her….period. The full-time military answers to the Commander-in-Chief, but they cannot come into the state until they are asked by the governor. That is just how it is, and if she was paying attention, she would know that. We’re talking “Governor 101″.
Now, the Mayor, who loves to alternate between whining and his famous potty-mouth, should have known - in fact, he says he knew - that he had thousands and thousands of people too poor, too ill, or with nowhere to go - and they would be stuck in the City. He had at his command in excess of 500 government-owned buses, which he never moved. They are still in the parking lot where he left them, of course very wet parking lots now! Yet, he screeched at the President for not sending enough buses the very first day. His buses weren’t good enough? Maybe he forgot he had them? Whatever.
Had he attended any classes or attempted to learn about Emergency management, he would know that he is in charge of the disaster in his jurisdiction and it is NOT a responsibility that can be dished off to someone else. It is part of the oath you take as mayor. A good example is the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. The mayor is the ultimate decision-maker even when it is a federal facility in his city that is the site of the tragedy. Governor Keating of Oklahoma continues to call to mind how well he worked with the mayor of OKC when that happened. The mayor had all the help he could use, but at the end of the day, the decisions were his. Period. Same thing in New York on 9/11. Giuliani worked well with Pataki, but it was Rudy’s situation to be responsible for. No one else’s.
Both Mr. Nagin and Mrs. Blanco have made no attempt to hide the fact that they don’t like each other. At first, they seemed more interested in throwing spit-balls at one another than hunkering into their problem du jour. They both should have taken a cue from the former mayor of New Orleans - Marc Morial (and like Daley, the son of a mayor). Marc was SO good at Emergency Management and Disaster Mititgation that when I was in N.O. for the U.S. Conference of Mayors Summer Meetings about 4 years ago or so, Morial taught one of the classes, and he was excellent! I know then that N.O. had a good Emergency Plan - we used it in class. I don’t know if the current mayor has ever attended any Emergency Management classes - in a recent article in the paper he was quoted as saying he “…is a self-made millionaire and I don’t believe in asking the government for anything.” Ooops.
There for a few days, no one even knew where he was! He had no press conferences, he showed no leadership and he was holed up in the hotel next door to the city hall. Well, that’s ok, I guess, if he felt safer there, but how pathetic when they finally got the 200+ people out of that hotel, he made sure that they went TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE - so much for fairness and compassion for the downtrodden of his city who had been waiting for uncounted hours to be evacuated from that terrible place! Bet he didn’t expect that to be caught on camera! Hah! It happens.
When the governor and the mayor both got around to issuing their separate Emergency Declarations, they didn’t match and they were issued on separate days. The police had no backup support from their mayor. Today - Monday - by the Police Chief’s admission, was their first organized press conference. Common sense says he should have had at least four PER DAY, so the residents and the staff clearly understood what the ‘leader’ expected of them.
His little potty-mouth diatribe against the President on national television accomplished nothing but to make the whole country understand he’s not real bright. I don’t care how much you don’t like someone - if they have what you want, and you’d like them to incline towards you, you don’t get a whole lot by being nasty. That isn’t even politics - that’s just common sense, and the way he did it was just plain stupid! Of course, President Clinton was smart enough to not side with that kind of idiocy.
Mrs. Blanco complains about the National Guard but maybe doesn’t even realize she is its Commander-in-Chief. When she was asked to sign the papers to federalize the Louisiana Guard, she refused! Well, dear governor, you can’t have it both ways! Pick one!
What is the old canard “Better to be thought a fool than speak your mind and leave no doubt!” - Nagin needs to learn the job.
This might all be anything from funny to hopelessly infuriating, but the fact here is that the mayor and the governor ought to
#1. Learn their respective jobs
#2. Understand manners and protocol
#3. Repair what they can with the feds.
This time people died who didn’t have to die, because two people’s egos couldn’t get out of the way to do the job right.
I give all the credit in the world to Chicago’s Mayor Daley. Even in all the years with a Republican governor here in Illinois, he worked hand-in-glove with Springfield and with the local suburban mayors. We practiced together, we worked out plans together, we lobbied Springfield and Washington together and at the end of the day, Daley understands his role!
Were Hastert’s comments inelegant? Yes - but more than just Denny are asking what should be done - should we knowingly rebuild below sea level, or should we acknowledge the rape of the wetlands, understand that the Creator still makes water flow downhill and gravity still works, 100% of the time. Maybe higher ground in the nearby region would make more sense. Should he have said it when he did? Probably not. But it is a fair question.
Now, as to your statement, re: the President not flying to the area immediately, a little reflection on that would answer your own question. First of all, he publicly stated he wanted to go sooner, and Governors Barber and Reilly recommended against it until security could be better organized. He bowed to the wishes of the two governors. The first few days were NOT an opportune time for him to be there. Had he gone, his detractors would have excoriated him for that, too. Why was he there interfering with the rescue efforts. That is a no-win situation.
Could FEMA and DHS do a better job? Of course they can! Should changes be made to take into account a tragedy of this size? Without question! But until those changes are made, those in charge better know the rules and play by them, because that is all we have.
In the meantime, the American spirit once again comes to the surface, we learn to ignore those who are so bound up in their own egos that they cannot be of help, and we cheer on the bus loads of kids who willingly hopped on a bus and rode south from hundreds of different churches and synagogs to be helpers - they will help these dear souls pull through this unspeakable tragedy. Faith-based America will make the difference. I know you don’t like that, Michael, but I don’t see Atheists and Agnostics United out there helping.
One thing those of us who work (or worked) in Emergency Management know is that you will NEVER be judged as having done a good job. You can only do “less bad” - by definition, if you were doing a ‘good job’, there wouldn’t have been a disaster to react to. So, you learn early on that you will be criticized down to a nubbin, and that is part of the price you pay being in public office. If your defense is to blame others, that then becomes part of your ineptitude. People holler and scream and complain and whine and insult and rage and all those things - sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes out of sadness or anger or whatever the emotion or combination of emotions is at the time, but the fact of the matter is, no one is in this business without the desire to help other people and to do their very best. Sometimes the combination of people and situations makes the end of the game something no one hoped for, but to ascribe less than good intentions to people who have given their life to public service is unfortunate - unfortunate indeed. And, the other unfortunate part is that usually those that holler and insult the loudest are the ones who have done nothing to help or to make it better - only to villify and complain….and that’s too bad.
Posted on 05-Sep-05 at 7:10 pm | PermalinkTrying to pin a poor federal response on the states and municipalities just furthers the embarassment. The hurricane was tracked by NOAA, the flood protection maintained and reviewed by the Corps of Engineers… C’mon, the Feds dropped the ball. It would have probably been dropped under Clinton, too, but one of the joys of winning the presidency is that whatever problems happen on your watch are YOUR responsibility, regardless of decades of bipartisan neglect of the levees. Bush should just own up to poor planning and response on this one, and pledge to fix things for the NEXT TIME.
Posted on 07-Sep-05 at 9:24 pm | PermalinkMICHAEL, I UNDERSTAND YOUR POLITICAL FURY. THE REPUBS OWN THE HOUSE, THE SENATE, THE WHITE HOUSE AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.
IT IS LIKELY THAT THEY WILL DOMINATE NATIONAL POLITICS FOR DECADES TO COME.
AND REMEMBER, THEY ARE THERE BECAUSE THE PEOPLE SPOKE, NOT BECAUSE THEY SLIPPED IN DURING THE NIGHT.
THE FOLLOWING EDITORIALS TRY TO CORRECT ALL THE POLITICIZED RHETORIC SPEWING FROM THE LEFT. HOW SAD THAT AT THIS TIME IN OUR GREAT HISTORY, WE ARE STILL NAME CALLING.
I’LL BET THE VICTIMS OF KATRINA FEEL REAL GOOD HEARING ALL THIS.
THE LEFT NEEDS TO DUMP GUYS LIKE DEAN WHOSE APPARENT TASK IS TO SAY TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE AND POLICY. WOULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WANT TO HAVE THIS EGOCENTRIC LEADING THE PARTY, LET ALONE RUNNING FOR THE TOP JOB IN THE U.S. WHICH ESSENTIALLY MEANS THAT HE WOULD BE RUNNING THE BIGGEST BUSINESS IN THE WORLD.
WOULD YOU WANT HIM RUNNING YOUR COMPANY?
BUT HE IS THERE AND HAS BECOME A SOLITARY WAIL IN THE WILDERNESS OF VERMONT.
I VOTED FOR GORE AND AM THANKFUL HE BLEW IT. GORE/9/11/AL QUEDA/AFGHANISTAN/IRAQ/IRAN/SYRIA/THE PALESTINIANS….IT ALL SOUNDS LIKE AN OXYMORON.
I AM GRATEFUL THAT HE OR THAT ELITIST KERRY ARE NOT IN CHARGE.
I AM NOT A REPUBLICAN OR A DEMOCRAT OR A LIBERTARIAN. I AM AN AMERICAN WHO VALUES OUR NATIONAL LIFESTYLE AND MY FAMILY AND WILL SUPPORT ANY INITIATIVE TO ELIMINATE THE SCUM THAT IS VERY DETERMINED TO DESTROY IT.
READ THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO ISLAM AND WITH THAT KNOWLEDGE DATING BACK 1600 YEARS RIGHT UP TO THE PRESENT, YOU MIGHT SEE THINGS A LITTLE DIFFERENT.
OUR NATION IS IN DANGER, BUT NOT FROM THE INSIDE.
ALAN
Subject: OFFBEAT NEWS KATRINA EDITORIAL EDITION
B/PR CHRONICLE 15-Sep-05
“Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others .†Danny Thomas
EDITORIAL:
With Danny Thomas’ quote in mind I have finally had the energy to look at Katrina and the aftermath. Like many of you I have donated money, offered my time and watched the tragedy unfold on my television set; read the reports of Katrina Survivors, many now Arizona residents as a result of Hurricane Katrina and I cry for my fellow Americans. Like many of you I am horrified by the fury and unpredictability of this storm; the damage in human loss as well as loss of human dignity; the loss in terms of dollars as the South continues to recover from Hurricane Ivan and other storms of 2004. So I have remained silent as fingers have been pointed and names called, trying to absorb all the information, from all sides and realize what happened and how to put it right.
There is a photograph in my hall of two very young people very much in love, on their honeymoon in the French Quarter. My parents were transferred there from Yuma; one can only imagine their delight! I am glad that they cannot see this destruction.
No one could have expected George W. Bush, the son of privilege, to inherit a presidency so rife with attacks of nature and terrorism against this wonderful country of ours. I was never more proud of him than when he stood on the rubble that was the World Trade Center, arm in arm with the steel workers and lifted our spirits with his simple words.
This week when he said, “I take responsibility…†for the Federal government’s failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina, I was reminded of another President not known for his rhetoric but for his “tell it like it is†style, Harry S Truman. President Bush was saying, “The buck stops here.†No man is perfect as President Kennedy admitted after the Bay of Pigs. It takes a certain amount of intestinal fortitude to say, I was wrong and I am sorry. “Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility,” Bush said during a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani Tuesday.
But there are others who need to take responsibility before the President of the United States. The Mayor of New Orleans who knew—or should have known—the number of people in each Parish who had no transportation, no means of leaving the Big Easy before the storm. He could have mobilized buses then, well in advance of the storm and rescued the elderly, the young; the weakest New Orleans citizens while there was still time to drive out of the city. Instead he waited. And people died.
John Bernard, a Louisiana insurance agent, added: “On Friday night before the storm hit Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling New Orleans Mayor Nagin and Louisiana Governor Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans and they said they would take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68 foot waves before it was destroyed.
President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening with his advisors and administrators drafting all the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act). Just before midnight Friday evening President Bush called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign the request papers so the Federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization. Governor Blanco responded that she did not think it necessary for the Federal government to be involved yet.
After the President’s final call to Governor Blanco she held staff meetings to discuss the political ramifications of bringing Federal forces. It was decided that Federal assistance would make it look as if the Blanco Administration had failed and they agreed that the Feds would not be invited.
Saturday before the storm hit President Bush again called Louisiana Governor Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Nagin requesting that they please sign the papers requesting Federal assistance; that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation.
After this personal plea from President Bush, Mayor Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but not a full mandatory evacuation, and Governor Blanco still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing Federal action.
By the time that Federal troops and FEMA were able to get into the devastated city people had died from the flood, from lack of medical care and from bestial conditions in the Superdome. The Superdome was a last ditch chance on the part of New Orleans Mayor and Louisiana’s Governor to spare her people. They should have known, not the Federal government, that the building could not withstand a Level 5 Hurricane. They should have known that the amount of expected flood waters would have shut off the most basic facilities water and toilets. One Katrina Survivor in Arizona said he listened to the screams at night in the Superdome of women and children being raped and could do nothing as gangs roamed inside the once proud building.
Johnny Bernard continued: In frustration President Bush declared the area a National Disaster area before the Governor of the State of Louisiana did so he could legally begin advanced preparations.
The Katrina Survivors of New Orleans need to be asking some hard questions as do we all, but they better start with why Governor Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining states. Or maybe ask why Mayor Nagin keeps harping that President Bush should have commandeered 500 Greyhound buses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have more than 500 local school buses and the city transportation buses at his disposal but Mayor Nagin never gave the order to activate their use.
This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major city has all but been destroyed and thousands of people have died with hundreds of thousands more suffering, but it’s certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to blame for local corruption and incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their lives anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the mistakes to avoid them in the future.
And - don’t let anybody tell you it’s all Bush’s fault!!!†John D. Bernard, Jr.
Johnny Bernard also sent this note from a first responder, one of the many unsung men and women in the military, law enforcement, emergency services.
“Just finishing another long night, and heading to bed. Email has been hit or miss for a while with Cox, so yes this is a better way to chat. Not sure how much of this you want to pass along… so feel free to edit. And I’m far from being any kind of hero… The real heroes are these crazy CG Divers hanging from a cord, pulling people from their rooftops while some idiot neighbor in his crack house is shooting at them!
Glad to hear that you’ve passed the word along about some of the goings on here in Louisiana… obviously the major networks won’t tell you what should be told, and Fox is doing a good job about getting the real word out, but there’s so much more to the story that they just can’t report about… its not in the publics best interest to hear about the incredible number of murders that have been going on, or how the Green Berets are here on the roof tops at night with their night vision goggles. They’ve been taking out these looters and rapists one by one at night. The first couple of nights here they were capping about 20 or so a night, now it’s down to half a dozen a night… they’ve been cleaning out the city very efficiently. …it’s hard not to feel these punks deserve it.
The rest of the city is pretty much cleared out now, except for the corpses floating in the water. The airport has been our main staging area for the sick and injured ones. “Can you walk? Great… go to gate 5 please… and you sir, you need a wheelchair? Ok, get on this luggage cart and we’ll take you to gate 7! Just crazy!â€
There are so many of these people that probably have typhoid, or another bacterial infection that will end up dying that we’ll probably never know the true final death count. The open wounds they have on their legs and feet from the water burning them, are disgusting. We’ve even seen a number of cases of tuberculosis, too. Nurses were starting IV’s on each other just to stay hydrated when the water ran out. The bodies in the streets were being tied up to fences and lightposts by the Guard so they wouldn’t float away and could be retrieved later. Have you noticed how the news doesn’t show ‘Live’ aerial shots any more? Too many bodies floating… The only thing thicker than the stench that’s in the air are the flies! We looked around yesterday and thought we heard a low flying aircraft and wondered what in the hell these guys were doing flying so low only to realize it was a swarm of flies! I’m sure a lot of us will need therapy for years to come! I’d almost rather have gone to fight in Iraq than to see what’s happened here.
If they don’t tear down the Superdome and start all over with something new, I’ll never be able to walk into that place again. It might just be what the ‘Aints need to start winning, anyway!
Yesterday the Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up in Baton Rouge, and said, “Bush has NOT appointed a Single Black to head up this Katrina Relief, the Black Caucus and Black Leaders all over America are upset with him putting the Black Folks on the side and it is OUR people who are sitting on their roof tops waiting for Rescue, OUR people who are standing in line at the Superdome waiting on Food, Water and a Ride to a safe place, OUR people who have been locked down in Poverty…” and so on.
George Sell, the Anchorman for TV 9 News, responded: ‘Rev. Jackson, the Mayors of New Orleans and Baton Rouge are Black, the Police Chief’s of New Orleans and Baton Rouge are Black, the Head of the LA State Police is Black, the Head of the Army conducting the Army’s operation on the Ground in New Orleans is Black, the Congressman from New Orleans is Black and for the last 40 years, the leaders of LA have been members of the Democratic Party, YOUR Party, don’t blame us like you are doing, look in the Mirror, you pull the Race Card any time you don’t get your way, we are in a Terrible Crisis and right now we need to come together and here you come to Louisiana and holler Racism…it is NEVER EVER your fault, ALWAYS someone else, but here you are sitting High and Dry, why don’t you go out in to the waters where they are shooting at the Rescue personnel and help in the Rescue???’
Hats off to George Sell! This is a time to come together and work together, not the time to pull the race card!â€
Dave Hyatt of Colorado whose in-laws were in Mississippi (safe, thank God) sent this story: An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State
by Robert Tracinski http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026
Sep 02, 2005
It took four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can’t blame them, because it also took me four long days to figure out what was going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster.
If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city’s infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild.
Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicles, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists—myself included—did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.
But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.
The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.
The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over four days last week. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.
The man-made disaster is the welfare state.
For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency—indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.
When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New Yorkers to September 11).
So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?
To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington Times story:
“Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.
“The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire….
“Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders.
” ‘These troops are…under my orders to restore order in the streets,’ she said. ‘They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.’ ”
What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to speed away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Superdome?
Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them?
There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit—but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals—and wards of the welfare state. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep—on whom the incompetent Administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.
All of this is related, incidentally, to the incompetence of the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of the city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary.
No one has really reported this story. In fact, some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the chaos on American “individualism.” But the truth is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of individualism.
The man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans is the story that no one is reporting.
Source: TIA Daily — September 2, 2005 Robert Tracinski is the editor and publisher of TIADaily.com and The Intellectual Activist magazine. Source: http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026
With most of the national media just looking at an opportunity to “Bash Bush†again, the purpose of this editorial is to give a balanced sense of what actually happened in New Orleans. As an American I am proud of how “Red†Staters and “Blue†Staters have worked together to donate time, money (more than $200 million dollars in days), energy, clothing, supplies, etc. to our fellow Americans. I am touched beyond belief that in the first few days more than 60 countries around the world offered US aid. With the possible exception of 9/11 I can not remember that outpouring of support for US. It is only those on the Beltway and those in many of the major media outlets who are using this time when we should be coming together as a nation to heal to try to drive the wedge deeper in our national psyche. I hope that those of you who are perpetrating this can sleep at night. Yes, FEMA needs to be reviewed; yes, there were mistakes made but we have never had an incident of this scope in more than 200 years as a nation. Let’s stop playing the blame game—or put the blame where it belongs!—and move forward with caring for our fellow Americans in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Thank you!
Posted on 16-Sep-05 at 6:15 pm | PermalinkEveryone of your guests comments are well grounded in endless rhetoric-they too are trying to salvage the ‘America’ they once knew.
Unfortunately, all of your kind guests fail to readily respond to facts. The facts are now ALL out. So, what has been printed here before me-shows ignorance by your guests.
Ignorance and a sliver of intolerance-the best they can do because of a lack of sensitivity by putting one’s self there.
I’ve heard this before…but I don’t need endless prattle to let you know Michael, that you understand it fully…
The governors and mayors filed weeks before, we now know for fact. But because somebody said, “Get off your asses”, and by a prominent citizen whose color is black, really shattered those ignorant, sheltered, egotistical, shallow, no compassionate citizens.
Thousands of people helped…what’s up with the God-Fearing rhetoric that the Christian -Faith based is the only one helping-give me a break.
I keep on saying to you folks who are steeped in ignorance that when the World War’s came (WW1, WWII, WWIII), the disasters of 1906 in San Francisco, the Great Depression Era- the World did not come to an end and is not coming to end soon.
Stop hiding behind your dogma, religion, and whitehood-Get behind humanity…
Those who really believe in this WAR-I want you to join up and go to Iraq…those that care about people go and help without any strings attached.
Leave your own religions at home-really nobody but the ignorant or those that are forced will listen.
We are all saved by our works-never mind about your Christ or this or That. You are a person that is dependent on another person and down through the chain of humanity-nothing more, nothing less.
So, Michaels Friends,
Stop being ignorant…
Your friend,
Lyle
Posted on 21-Oct-05 at 8:58 pm | Permalink