Trying to make some sense of it all
So I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days. First, thanks to David for discussing this with me. As always, emotions are always raw in the beginning, and my first gut reaction was to lay full blame on the federal government for the massive debacle in New Orleans and the surrounding areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. I recognize now just how much state and local officials did not do before the hurricane hit and what responsibilities they had afterwards. So there is a lot of blame to go around, and I don't think any official will come out of this unscathed when all is said and done.
There has been plenty of talk over the last few days about a congressional investigation. President Bush says that he wants to "lead" an "analysis" of what happened. Senator Hillary Clinton has called for an independent, bipartisan committee, along the lines of the 9/11 Commission. Personally, I'd support Clinton's idea, for a few reasons: recent history has shown that when this administration conducts an investigation, the end result is usually pinning a medal on some undeserving beureaucrat or political appointee or firing some lower level officials when the real culprit is sitting at the head of the agency pyramid. I also think Congress has a lot of other issues they need to focus on; which is NOT to say that this isn't important. But this type of investigation will take a lot of time and hard work- something that can probably be better achieved with an independent commission.
My main focus is not to lay blame, get it over with, and move on. I really want to know what went wrong. I want to know how we can strengthen the lines of communication between local, state, and federal officials. There's a reason why the Framers decided on the federalist system, but when disaster is poised to strike, there's gotta be a way around just waiting for the mayor or governor to pick up the phone and ask for help. When millions of lives are at stake, there has to be something that can be done, even if it means coloring outside the lines.
My background is management, so all of this fascinates me. It won't help to just introduce more bereaucracy and red tape into the system. The system needs reform, and it behooves us to do whatever it takes to figure it out. Katrina was the nightmare scenario for a natural disaster hitting New Orleans. There are other nightmare scenarios out there- some we've already though of, others that the imagination still has dared to paint. To me, there's no question. We have to be prepared for it all.
There has been plenty of talk over the last few days about a congressional investigation. President Bush says that he wants to "lead" an "analysis" of what happened. Senator Hillary Clinton has called for an independent, bipartisan committee, along the lines of the 9/11 Commission. Personally, I'd support Clinton's idea, for a few reasons: recent history has shown that when this administration conducts an investigation, the end result is usually pinning a medal on some undeserving beureaucrat or political appointee or firing some lower level officials when the real culprit is sitting at the head of the agency pyramid. I also think Congress has a lot of other issues they need to focus on; which is NOT to say that this isn't important. But this type of investigation will take a lot of time and hard work- something that can probably be better achieved with an independent commission.
My main focus is not to lay blame, get it over with, and move on. I really want to know what went wrong. I want to know how we can strengthen the lines of communication between local, state, and federal officials. There's a reason why the Framers decided on the federalist system, but when disaster is poised to strike, there's gotta be a way around just waiting for the mayor or governor to pick up the phone and ask for help. When millions of lives are at stake, there has to be something that can be done, even if it means coloring outside the lines.
My background is management, so all of this fascinates me. It won't help to just introduce more bereaucracy and red tape into the system. The system needs reform, and it behooves us to do whatever it takes to figure it out. Katrina was the nightmare scenario for a natural disaster hitting New Orleans. There are other nightmare scenarios out there- some we've already though of, others that the imagination still has dared to paint. To me, there's no question. We have to be prepared for it all.
posted by elanit | 7:22 PM
2 Comments:
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Yes, the Democratic Governor
of LA & the Democratic Mayor of
NO should have done a better job.
Neither is a Rudy Giuliani. Have
any blue states taken any refugees???
When the tragedy in NO had been
going on for many days now and will
probably last for many months in the
future. The total number dead will
probably never be known but
estimates are sure to come forth
in the coming months.
Remember that this city was living
on BORROWED time. It's 12 ft
below sea level and nothing but a
big empty swimming pool before
Katrina arrived. This was a surprise
to no one and has been predicted
for many many years.
Judge the government response by
comparing New York 911 to the
local Katrina devistation in NO.
Within 1 hour there were thousands
of New York police, and fireman
on the streets of New York. FEMA
did not show up for several days.
NO on the other hand had virtually
NO police or fireman working the
disaster, and many of them threw
down their badges and QUITE!
It is very evident that the corrupt
local and state government in
Louisianna was responsible for
immediate local response.............
NOT FEMA. The inept Democratic
Govenor and Democratic City Mayor
never responded to the crisis, along
with most of the State disaster agencies.
It was the City of NO's and State's
total responsibility to have manpower
on the streets of NO's immediately
after the flooding started.
It is against the law for any President
to order troops into a city or across
state lines without a request and
permission from the Governor of
that state.
A few facts are in order:
a.. President Bush declared Louisiana
a disaster area two days before the
hurricane struck the New Orleans area.
b.. President Bush urged New Orleans
Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov.
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to order the
mandatory evacuation that was issued
on Sunday, August 28.
c.. First responders to a disaster are
always state and local emergency
agencies. FEMA is there to supplement
the state and local activities.
d.. The hurricane threatened an area as
large as 90,000 square miles covering
three states. Immediate relief could not
possibly have been delivered to all the
places that required attention.
e.. An AP photo showed a large fleet
of New Orleans buses soaking in six
feet of water. The mayor apparently
had the means to evacuate many of
the folks who ended up stranded at
the Superdome and the convention
center.
f.. FEMA began its activities almost
immediately, not expecting the magnitude
of the flooding, the non-response at the
city and state level, and the anarchy that
resulted.
g.. The local and state governments had
rehearsed for a different scenario. Disaster
drills in New Orleans had taken place, but
with a false assumption that the levees would
hold.
Both the law and protocol prohibit the president
from ordering military
***
You have a riveting web log
and undoubtedly must have
atypical & quiescent potential
for your intended readership.
May I suggest that you do
everything in your power to
honor your encyclopedic/omniscient
Designer/Architect as well
as your revering audience.
As soon as we acknowledge
this Supreme Designer/Architect,
Who has erected the beauteous
fabric of the universe, our minds
must necessarily be ravished with
wonder at this infinate goodness,
wisdom and power.
Please remember to never
restrict anyone's opportunities
for ascertaining uninterrupted
existence for their quintessence.
There is a time for everything,
a season for every activity
under heaven. A time to be
born and a time to die. A
time to plant and a time to
harvest. A time to kill and
a time to heal. A time to
tear down and a time to
rebuild. A time to cry and
a time to laugh. A time to
grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones
and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a
time to turn away. A time to
search and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to
throw away. A time to tear
and a time to mend. A time
to be quiet and a time to
speak up. A time to love
and a time to hate. A time
for war and a time for peace.
Best wishes for continued ascendancy,
Dr. Howdy
'Thought & Humor'
P.S. The vultures of the venomous left
are attacking on two fronts, first that the
president didn't do what the incompetent
mayor of New Orleans and the pouty
governor of Louisiana should have done,
and didn't, in the early hours after Katrina
loosed the deluge on the city that care and
good judgment forgot. Ray Nagin, the mayor,
ordered a "mandatory" evacuation a day late,
but kept the city's 2,000 school buses parked
and locked in neat rows when there was still
time to take the refugees to higher ground. The
bright-yellow buses sit ruined now in four feet
of dirty water. Then the governor, Kathleen
Blanco, resisted early pleas to declare martial
law, and her dithering opened the way for looters,
rapists and killers to make New Orleans an unholy
hell. Gov. Haley Barbour did not hesitate in
neighboring Mississippi, and looters, rapists and
killers have not turned the streets of Gulfport
and Biloxi into killing fields.
The drumbeat of partisan ingratitude continues
even after the president flooded the city with National
Guardsmen from a dozen states, paratroopers from
Fort Bragg and Marines from the Atlantic and the
Pacific. The flutter and chatter of the helicopters
above the ghostly abandoned city, some of them
from as far away as Singapore and averaging 240
missions a day, is eerily reminiscent of the last days
of Saigon. Nevertheless, Sen. Mary Landrieu, who
seems to think she's cute when she's mad, even
threatened on national television to punch out the
president -- a felony, by the way, even as a threat.
Mayor Nagin, who you might think would be looking
for a place to hide, and Gov. Blanco, nursing a bigtime
snit, can't find the right word of thanks to a nation
pouring out its heart and emptying its pockets. Maybe
the senator should consider punching out the governor,
only a misdemeanor.
The race hustlers waited for three days to inflame a
tense situation, but then set to work with their usual
dedication. The Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson,
our self-appointed twin ambassadors of ill will, made the
scene as soon as they could, taking up the coded cry that
Katrina was the work of white folks, that a shortage of white
looters and snipers made looting and sniping look like black
crime, that calling the refugees "refugees" was an act of linguistic
racism. A "civil rights activist" on Arianna Huffington's celebrity
blog even floated the rumor that the starving folks abandoned in
New Orleans had been forced to eat their dead -- after only
four days. New Orleans has a reputation for its unusual cuisine,
but this tale was so tall that nobody paid it much attention. Neither
did anyone tell the tale-bearer to put a dirty sock in it.
Condi Rice went to the scene to say what everyone can see
for himself, that no one but the race hustlers imagine Americans
of any hue attaching strings to the humanitarian aid pouring into
the broken and bruised cities of the Gulf. Most of the suffering
faces in the flickering television images are black, true enough,
and most of the helping hands are white.
Black and white churches of all denominations across a wide
swath of the South stretching from Texas across Arkansas and
Louisiana into Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and
Georgia turned their Sunday schools into kitchens and dormitories.
In Memphis, Junior Leaguers turned out for baby-sitting duty at
the city's largest, most fashionable and nearly all white Baptist church,
cradling tiny black infants in compassionate arms so their mothers
could finally sleep. The owner of a honky-tonk showed up to
ask whether the church would "accept money from a bar."
A pastor took $1,400, some of it in quarters, dimes and nickels,
with grateful thanks and a promise to see that it is spent wisely
on the deserving -- most of whom are black.
The first polls, no surprise, show the libels are not working.
A Washington Post-ABC survey found that the president is not
seen as the villain the nutcake left is trying to make him out to be.
Americans, skeptical as ever, are believing their own eyes.
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