Monday, September 05, 2005
Put the race card back up the sleeve.
There are many reasons why the federal response to Hurricane Katrina stinks, but it isn't because the residents are poor and black. That race card needs to be saved for a later date.
Our government had its opportunities to be prepared for a disaster like this and blew it. For years, our leaders knew the levee system in New Orleans wouldn't hold. They knew that thousands of residents had no contingency plan in case of emergence. They knew that they had to spend money to do something better. And in meeting after meeting, all they could do is shrug their shoulders and hope that it never happened.
There was always something else to spend the money on.
Now that the event took place, with no real plan or relief scenario spelled out, thousands of people that shouldn't have died, will.
The President and the Governor of Louisiana could have called for the National Guard much sooner. That way they would have been en route much sooner. This would have helped maintain law and order.
Just like our military in Diego Garcia, FEMA should have prepositioned necessary supplies and resources for an event just like this. They should have several such centers safely near our coastal regions likely to be hit hard by hurricanes.
The government could have stopped civilian transport, both bus and air, and put those resources to use for a last ditch mass evac, but they didn't.
It had nothing to do with poor or black. It was bureaucratic inefficiency at its worst. It was hoping it wouldn't happen, instead of realistically planning that it would.
We could have spent far less money to prepare, but now we will spend far more to rebuild.
President Bush should be harrangued, and his cabinet with him. He screwed this one up, and now we all pay a higher cost.
Don't play the race card on this one. The government just didn't care, not because of color or economics, but because it figured it had better things to spend money on.
Our government had its opportunities to be prepared for a disaster like this and blew it. For years, our leaders knew the levee system in New Orleans wouldn't hold. They knew that thousands of residents had no contingency plan in case of emergence. They knew that they had to spend money to do something better. And in meeting after meeting, all they could do is shrug their shoulders and hope that it never happened.
There was always something else to spend the money on.
Now that the event took place, with no real plan or relief scenario spelled out, thousands of people that shouldn't have died, will.
The President and the Governor of Louisiana could have called for the National Guard much sooner. That way they would have been en route much sooner. This would have helped maintain law and order.
Just like our military in Diego Garcia, FEMA should have prepositioned necessary supplies and resources for an event just like this. They should have several such centers safely near our coastal regions likely to be hit hard by hurricanes.
The government could have stopped civilian transport, both bus and air, and put those resources to use for a last ditch mass evac, but they didn't.
It had nothing to do with poor or black. It was bureaucratic inefficiency at its worst. It was hoping it wouldn't happen, instead of realistically planning that it would.
We could have spent far less money to prepare, but now we will spend far more to rebuild.
President Bush should be harrangued, and his cabinet with him. He screwed this one up, and now we all pay a higher cost.
Don't play the race card on this one. The government just didn't care, not because of color or economics, but because it figured it had better things to spend money on.
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