Friday, August 25, 2006
Katrina mon amour
Well it is late August and so it is time once again to revisit the Super Dome in New Orleans. Democrats and critics of the Bush administration are lining up to criticize the rebuilding the efforts the same way they did the rescue effort.
Gale's attitude is a simple one, after all he is a simple man. He says "Those people ought to suck it up, you'd think they were the only people on the planet that anything bad ever happened to." How insensitive of him. When he was a kid Gale was in a blizzard, a real honest to God deep snow blizzard. Dad went out to dry and dig out the road and did not come back for dinner. His Mom sent him out to look for his Dad and Gale found him dead under the tractor, it had rolled over on him because he could not see the ditch. That was a disaster and no one came to help but the neighbors.
Neighbors. Remember them?
Once upon a time when faced with disasters people did not wait for the people in DC to come to the rescue, they helped themselves. Why was this time so different? I am sure the sheer scope of the disaster played a part in the domestic soap opera that engulfed the coverage of Katrina, but the number one culprit was politics.
Now the charge will be made that Bush has not done enough to rebuild. Well once again, the locals are supposed to carry the ball here as well. They are the ones who decide what neighborhoods will and will not be rebuilt, who will and will not get building permits and septic permits etc. Nor should we overlook insurance companies slow to pay claims and ever ready to charge fraud.
But once again it seems the locals can not get it together to do what everyone else in the region is trying to do and that is move on. Nagin has proved himself incapable of making the tough decisions, again.
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4 comments:
coisty:
The folks in Missisippi had the casinos. They are not the military, but they are organized.
I think the historic parts of New Orleans should be preserved, but a lot of the rest of it might be better off done away with.
Terrye,
What I am about to say I said the other day in much the same way over at Belmont Club.
As one who went to college with GWB, and who fretted endlessly when he was elected in 2000, then voted for him in 2004, as one who has come to deeply admire the man in many ways, but is constantly exasperated by many of the things he does, it astonishes me that people on both sides of the political spectrum, and many in the middle, attribute such preternatural power to the man.
Hey, he is just one human being, who is trying to do his best with a whole slew of absurdly difficult problems.
The world is the world, and will remain the world in January, 2009, when Dubya steps off the stage.
What -- or whom -- are people going to blame for their diffculties then?
Jamie Irons
jamie:
No kidding. I do not defend Bush because I think he is perfect, who is? I defend him because people are blaming him for things no single human being can control...and that sits a bad precedent. Some folks on the right think this trend will end when a Democrat is in the White House, but I am not so sure.
I am beginning to think the problem is the public and its ever growing expectations.
I grew up in a time when it was just not the responsibility of the President to make everyone rich or happy or contended or beautiful or immortal or whatever it is people expect today. And this kind of need creates cynicism because it is unrealistic.
"What -- or whom -- are people going to blame for their diffculties then?"
There won't be any change. All difficulties will remain the responsibility of the Republicans, anything good that happens will have been caused by the Democrats. The best thing would be that Jeb were elected - it would save on changes to the template and the savings could be very important, given the rapidity with which the assets of those who own and maintain the template are disappearing.
Which is also the Republicans fault. Just remember - when you hear a baby cry, look for the Republican who pinched her.
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