|
September
19, 2005
Whether it's advisable or not, there was really never any doubt that the
city of New Orleans would be rebuilt. When it is, the experience of Hurricane
Katrina will doubtless also ensure that the levees surrounding those areas
below sea level are improved to withstand stronger storms and higher water.
Along with
the clean-up and the plans for restoring and rebuilding those parts of
the city that were destroyed by wind or water, many in officialdom are
also preoccupied with what the Bush administration calls "the blame
game." Some are calling for investigations; others are skipping right
to the punishment phase for those they believe responsible for the devastation
(or at least for the failure to adequately mitigate it).
I've decided
that the best way to handle both building and blame is to combine the
two into one neat, efficient, and eminently suitable package. Here's my
idea: We build a wall around New Orleans to keep out the water - and then
we put certain people behind it and lock the gates to keep them out of
the rest of the country.
In no particular
order, here are those I believe deserve to be sequestered for the rest
of their lives and why:
New Orleans
Mayor Ray Nagin, who failed on so many levels that it's tempting to suggest
he actually be made into a part of the wall rather than merely locked
up behind it!
First
and foremost, Nagin failed to have an adequate evacuation plan in place.
He oversees the city and its emergency management teams, thus the buck
stops with him. Mayor Nagin - as well as officials at other levels -
were well aware of
the havoc a sizeable storm could wreak on New Orleans. (Critics
now allege that even those plans
that were in place weren't followed by the mayor.) Later, when there
was still time to evacuate those who'd been unable to leave earlier,
Nagin had it within his means to transport thousands by using school
buses. He declined
to do so, asking that more comfortable Greyhounds be provided instead.
The school buses stayed parked where they were eventually rendered unusable
by the rising flood waters.
Meanwhile,
Nagin got on national television and shouted to all who would listen
that the federal "cavalry" was slow to arrive. He should have
checked in his own back yard before accusing anybody else of failure
to do their jobs: the New Orleans police force endured rampant desertion
by its officers. Adding insult to injury for those volunteers and law
enforcement from other areas who worked so tirelessly, Nagin then asked
that the police be
given Las Vegas vacations at FEMA expense (FEMA declined; Nagin
promptly said the city would pay for the trips, and he was backed up
by his police superintendent).
Nagin's
shortcomings were more than underscored by...
Louisiana
Governor Kathleen Blanco, whose indecisiveness alone cost any number of
lives.
While
Mayor Nagin was busy pointing his blame game finger at President Bush
and FEMA, Governor Blanco was busy actually causing or exacerbating
some of the worst problems plaguing the city of New Orleans. The Red
Cross was poised to enter the city with a convoy to the Superdome (where
thousands were later the victims of extraordinarily unhygienic conditions
and a lack of food and water), but the state's Department
of Homeland Security refused them admittance. (Ironically, the supplies
were blocked because DHS was afraid people wouldn't be as anxious to
leave if their needs were met while Mayor Nagin was busy ensuring that
there was no way for them to do so.)
Mayor
Nagin later moved his finger to point directly at Governor Blanco after
it was made clear that the president had already offered immediate aid,
but the governor wanted "24
hours to make a decision." In fact, at least some
federal resources were ready to go even before the hurricane struck.
But there's a legal requirement (which prohibits the federal government
from simply steamrolling over a state's authority - a novel idea, that)
that the governor call and ask for help. Blanco didn't. Mayor Nagin's
much lambasted "cavalry" was, in fact, ready to ride; but
in the absence of permission to deploy, it was stymied.
With
or without Blanco's blessing, questionable (at best) action was being
taken by...
New Orleans
Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass III, whose blatant disregard for
the Constitution or even humane behavior is appalling.
Forget
any temptation to suggest Compass be an integral part of the
wall: I'm actually suggesting it. Among other things, Compass was personally
- either directly or indirectly - responsible for such atrocities as
the shooting of pets
in front of their owners if those owners refused to evacuate because
of their loyalty to their animals (as an aside, I'm one of the people
who would not, for any price or reason, desert my pets - they go with
me, or I stay with them, period).
Compass
also issued orders to confiscate firearms from citizens in direct defiance
of the Second Amendment and the Louisiana
State Constitution (where exceptions for emergencies are not made),
rendering them helpless in the face of those not so easily coerced into
giving up their weapons. In a New
York Times article, Compass is quoted as saying that, "Only
law enforcement are allowed to have weapons." I've personally seen
video footage of door-to-door weapons searches and handcuffed citizens
(ABC News) and an elderly woman being tackled to the floor after obeying
a request by the police to show them her gun - and which she was handling
at the time in a perfectly safe and non-threatening manner (Fox News).
After
all of this, if we can't cement Compass into the wall we're building
around New Orleans, can we at least send him to Las Vegas with the rest
of the police force? Hopefully, he can spend his time there wondering
how best to exact discipline on...
New Orleans
Police Department officers who deserted their posts in the time of their
city's greatest need.
Yes,
many were worried about their own families and homes - but they signed
on to do a job made even more important in emergencies like this one,
and they failed to live up to their end of the contract thus causing
added burdens to the families and homes of those they were sworn to
protect. For those officers who stayed on the job, I have nothing but
sympathy and praise with a couple of notable exceptions: Those who shot
beloved pets and those who participated in the confiscation of firearms
deserve no better than to be caged behind tall walls with...
Looters,
snipers, and other criminal elements
While
it's tough to argue against the "liberation" of food and water
in what turned out to be siege circumstances, can anyone explain to
me the legitimacy of stealing televisions in a city which is now - and
which is likely to continue to be for some time - without electrical
power?
One of
the most horrifying reports to come out of the beleaguered city of New
Orleans involved shots fired at rescue workers or reconstruction experts.
Those snipers who took potshots
at helicopters, who prevented
or delayed hospital evacuations by firing on those engaged in the
process, and who ended up in a gun battle with police after firing at
Army Corps of Engineer workers are subhuman. If the police (or National
Guard) were given
shoot-to-kill orders, then it's those snipers that should be at
the top of the list for a bullet.
Some
reports on CNN are claiming that there were "mutilated bodies"
found in the Convention Center (several photos were actually shown on-air),
and that there were rapes, attempted rapes, assaults, and other crimes
committed in the Convention Center and the Superdome. Once identified,
those people who committed these crimes should be prevented from preying
on anybody but each other ever again.
The blame
in these instances is obvious and deserved, but there are always those
who will try to place blame via stupidity or political expedience, like...
Robert
F. Kennedy, Jr. who blames President Bush and Mississippi Governor Haley
Barbour.
Kennedy
apparently thinks that Bush and Barbour, together or separately, are
God. After all, it's their fault Hurricane Katrina existed in the first
place! In actuality, Kennedy blames
the pair for failing to support the Kyoto Protocol thus failing
to mitigate global warming which, in his opinion, caused the hurricane
in the first place. He also, believe it or not, suggests that a memo
from Barbour that was critical of the Kyoto Protocol may have caused
the hurricane to turn toward Mississippi at the last minute. And
speaking of God and causes, let's not forget about...
The
far right fundamentalist Christian contingent that figures New Orleans
got pretty much what it deserved.
Several
anti-gay groups are crowing about the fact that a regularly
scheduled homosexual event was just days away when Katrina hit;
others suggest that the city's
decadence brought down the wrath of God. These people are apparently
not believers in biblical Christianity. If they were, they'd recall
that God said he'd spare an entire city for the sake of a single righteous
man - and surely there were more than a few innocents who died or who
are suffering thanks to Katrina! They'd also remember that Christians
are exhorted not to pass judgment.
If
ever there was a place for judgment - and a place it was most seriously
lacking - it's in the persons of...
Michael
Chertoff and Michael Brown, whose claimed lack of knowledge and subsequent
action (and inaction) will likely be the focus of the blame game for some
time to come.
Although
some aspects of federal government was poised to action (the military,
for one), the primary agency responsible to deal with such disasters
- the Federal Emergency Management Agency - wasn't. Both FEMA Chief
Michael Brown and DHS head Michael
Chertoff claimed they had no idea that there were people in desperate
straits at the New Orleans Convention Center despite extensive television
coverage of their plight. Isn't it Chertoff's job to know what's going
on? If he can't figure out a slow moving storm and a relatively slow
moving flood, what on earth could we expect from him in the event of
a surprise WMD attack on US soil?
Lack
of communication and an unclear chain of command were serious issues;
so, as it turns out, was Brown's utter unqualification for his position.
Although Brown did admit that he'd underestimated the impact of Katrina,
his response after the fact was also seriously lacking. It later came
to light that Brown
knew at least 36 hours ahead of time that Katrina was going to be
bad and with storm surges that would present significant danger to the
levees and which would result in serious flooding, yet it quite literally
took days for his agency to do anything about the damage which - as
expected - did result. Brown
has since been relieved of oversight of the Katrina recovery effort;
the Coast Guard Vice Admiral now in charge is said to have hit the ground
running and things are now actually getting done.
Certainly,
there are many things that need doing in New Orleans. One of those things,
however, is not the race baiting of...
Rev.
Jesse Jackson, for whom - yet again - everything revolves around race.
Jackson
has been strongly critical of Governor Blanco (who is a white woman)
and George W. Bush (who is a white man), but he has defended
Mayor Nagin (a black man who, ironically, has been criticized by
his own black constituents as being too "corporate"). Jackson
says the levees aren't a local, but a federal matter (why should people
in California, who need to take earthquake precautions, contribute to
a city in Louisiana whose residents need to take flood precautions?).
He also says that evacuation isn't a local, but a state matter, and
that Nagin's decision not to use buses was determined because he had
nowhere to send the buses (that apparently didn't cross Nagin's mind
when he demanded Greyhounds instead). And when refugees do
have a place to go, Jackson says it's unacceptable if it's "too
far away."
Speaking
of refugees, Jackson has also demanded that the word not be used because
it's "racist" (sadly, a number of media outlets almost immediately
complied). In his own words, Jackson says that the word "refugee"
suggests those who are "subhumans or criminals." Personally,
I can't imagine that refugees from Afghanistan or those portions of
the world affected by the tsunami last winter would be particularly
appreciative of being called "subhuman," but apparently such
obvious bigotry is okay coming from the Rev. Jackson
The
Rev. Jackson has made a career out of blaming everybody who's not black
for the woes of anybody who is. But in the New Orleans blame game...
There's
more than enough blame to go around.
As
we reflect on the sad anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it's
impossible not to also recall that 9/11 was supposed to teach us how best
to respond to large-scale emergencies. We were supposed to learn about
improved communications and quickened response. Studies were conducted
to streamline chains of command and to set various advance plans into
being. And yet looking back at 9/11 and then at New Orleans today, it
seems there were some important lessons we missed all together, and which
might have rendered much of the other improvements less crucial.
Former
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was everything in New York that Mayor Ray
Nagin is not in New Orleans. He was decisive. He never whined or screamed
for help, but was publicly and humbly grateful for it when it came. He
wept at funerals and spoke eloquently at press conferences, yet he never
blamed anyone but those who had actually executed the attack.
New
York police and fire fighters were at least as overwhelmed and exhausted
as those in New Orleans. Yet far from deserting, they volunteered for
more duty. Some of them died in the immediate aftermath of the attack;
all of them were heroic; none of them gave up. New Yorkers were shellshocked,
but resolute. They didn't immediately bewail that there wasn't federal
assistance on hand. Instead, they stood tall and grieved even as they
resolved to recover and rebuild, with or without the rest of the country.
Katrina
was an act of nature rather than one of terror, but she was devastating
to all directly affected by her. Her assault of a metropolitan area in
the south, however, bore dramatically different results in the people
who endured her than did the attacks on New York City. In fact, it's the
more rural Mississippi residents - who had terrible damages and who bore
the brunt of the hurricane's fury - who have turned out to have something
in common with their northern neighbors.
As
some in New Orleans were descending into the very worst that humankind
can be, neighbors in Mississippi were already helping each other in the
clean-up process and quietly planning to rebuild. Maybe now that New Orleans
has somewhere closer to look than New York, those still in need of the
knowledge can finally learn the most important lessons of all. While government
has its duties, it's not government that will rescue us in the end. It's
personal responsibility, hand in hand with humanity, that will always
see us through.
Lady Liberty
is a pro-freedom activist currently residing in the Midwest. More of her
writings and other political and educational information is available
on her web site, Lady
Liberty's Constitution Clearing House. E-mail Lady Liberty at ladylibrty@ladylibrty.com.
Now available:
"Eternal Vigilance: The Best of Lady Liberty 2002-2004"
Exclusively from The Constitution
Clearing House. Visit today for news, commentary, and a patriotic
goodie shoppe.
|
