Google Search: Hurricane KatrinaThere are thousands, possibly millions, of posts about Hurricane Katrina from a thousand perspectives. Almost all agree that this is a terrible, inconceivable tragedy. Those not directly affected in Lousianna feel awful and are scrambling to help in any way they can.
I can't compete with those already published sentiments and I can't possibly improve on their elequence in expressing my profound grief.
But, I'm bloody mad that this has been allowed to happen. Yes, that's right, I said it: "allowed". Because everyone in political power from Mayor Nagin right up to Gee Dub the Shrub has actively allowed thousands of poor New Orleans citizens to become trapped in the city under a toxic stew of raw sewage, oil, gas and the putrefying remains of humans and domestic animals. Where a disasterous number have perished within the first few days of the hurricane's striking and where many more have been dying and continue to die a week later.
So, I gotta know: why were there people in the city at all by the time the hurricane hit? Aside from the handful of those who would, under any circumstance, refuse the leave their homes, of course.
I left a comment on a blog saying that this could have all been avoided with a little disaster perparedness and I was told that there was such a plan.
Was that the plan that relied on citizens owning cars which they could also afford to gas up and drive to dryer counties and states? Was that the plan that involved the assumption that the levees would hold?
Or, was it the plan that kept a fleet of schoolbuses grounded until they were flooded and therefore unreachable and undriveable? Was that the plan that left hospitals full of patients in their beds to wait for the elctricity to go off buildings to flood and become cesspools?
Or was it the plan that bolstered the strength of the levees? Was that the plan that included known shelters with disaster relief supplies and medical personnel? Was it the plan that included humane treatment for those unfortunate enough to be poor?
No, I think it was the plan that went something like: "After it's just the poor people left in the city with no information to help them mitigate the coming tragedy, we'll just wait around for the government and relief agencies to do something. What something? Uh, well, I don't know. We'll just have to see."
It was the plan that included the leader of the US - supposedly the most powerful nation on earth, the fighter for freedom and democracy - to set up a temporary food distribution site where he could be seen murmuring platitudes to poor, dehydrated, starving, sick New Orleans citizens for the press.
Seconds after the cameras were turned off, did the President linger to make sure he could reassure as many people as possible? No, he was whisked away to a new location. I bet those hungry hurricane victims were happy he dropped off those supplies! Nope! The distribution site was immediately dismantled and shunted to a new location so that the president could be seen "being compassionate" and "joining the relief efforts" (both in quotes as some news source somewhere must have said them and they are not reflections of what actually happened) in multiple locations.
No, it was the plan that DID NOT look like Florida Governor Jeb Bush's Hurricane Katrina disaster preparedness plan that included supplies ready and waiting before the storm ever touched land.
And everyone directly involved in the disaster is passing the blame. Citizens pass it to the municipality who pass it up to the state who, in their turn, pass it up to the feds. The feds are distributing the responsibility to FEMA and other disaster relief agencies.
And, in the end, no matter where the blame actually lies (and it's my opinion that it lies in differing proportions with everyone from the vicitims who didn't bother taking action as soon as the realised they lived below sea level in a particular location on earth prone to massive sea storms, to the municipalities charged with caring for its citizens, on up to the Shrub's government who hobbled the disaster planning and relief agencies) the one person who looks worst is George W Bush.
Thank goodness for that. As long as no one forgets this, the Republicans have really dug themsleves a nice deep hole.
Some have complained that those of us examining what went wrong and pointing our long fingers at various politicians are being jerks and should be rejoicing now that relief is finally arriving. But, if not for those who are complaining very loudly, this will happen again.
This is the wealthiest nation on earth. This is the most powerful nation on earth. This is the one nation with balls big enough to ignore the UN and the World Court and march into a country and bomb it to shit in the name of freedom, justice and democracy. So, why is New Orleans like a third world country?
Who will point the fingers now that the dead cannot? I say, get those fingers pointing, and howl, howl as loud and as long as you can, because this was avoidable.
His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, “Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?” and he said, “Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get you.” Somebody’s coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday… and she drowned Friday night.
