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NATIONAL DISGRACE:
Notes on New Orleans - 2005
By now I am quite sure that anyone who reads
this, will be quite knowledgeable in the events and circumstances
regarding Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
At the time of this writing, it is the
evening of the 5th day. What I have seen to this point deserves all the
negative descriptions you can think of. In short, it has been a National
Disgrace.
This, having been said, I want to try and
think a little bit beyond the immediate sphere of this disaster and its
consequences.
One of the first thoughts I had was: My
heavens, if one city can affect the entire nation the way that it has – it
would take but a handful of the larger cities in America being “hit” in a
major way, by any of the very real avenues of destruction, and basically
America would be removed from the World Scene for quite some time.
Following this, I begin to feel somewhat stupefied
when the realization hit that with all its has had going for it, a
nation such as ours could even remotely put itself in the position of
being rendered nationally ineffectual by such a scenario.
You mean to tell me that with all the brains
this country has produced and has, no one ever heard of what happens when
you put all your eggs into one basket? I would much rather our so-called
elected officials would spend the time they waste in approving (spelled
BLOCKING) individuals for certain offices simply because the individual
was chosen by a President of the opposing party, to coming up with plans
and projects that are actually beneficial to the country’s people.
I want to know why a country that can move an
army half-way around the world and then win a war in approximately the
same time this disaster has been going on – can’t show the same rapidity
within their own country?
I would hope that all these politicians that
love to think they know what their voters want, recognize reality and see
that by closing down military bases, just how badly they are damaging the
safety and security of our nation. And this does not even cover what the
closures do to the economies of the very ones that put them into office!
I am also very ashamed of some of my fellow
countrymen. In the midst of all this agony, misery, and loss – there are
those who, for some totally unfathomable reason, are shooting at what
rescue workers, etc., there are and trying their darndest to help. I would
call these people animals except that it would be far to insulting to real
animals.
Law Enforcement? Where? Now I have heard and
read so many horror stories of the New Orleans’ police system, et al,
BEFORE this disaster that there must be a grain of truth in there
somewhere. Still, what I heard of their actions thus far, it is more than
just a grain.
For any police officer, to tell a woman
asking for directions/instructions – “Go to hell. It’s every man for
himself.” – is an absolute disgrace to every dedicated law enforcement
individual throughout the nation, not just Louisiana.
SEPT. 4TH
It would seem that things are getting better,
but then again in the present context they could harder get any worse. At
least the National Government is getting its act somewhat together.
What has taken them so long, we will not know
for awhile. It just seems that the US has this extremely bad habit of
waiting until it gets it butt kicked before they do anything. It has
happened over and over again.
The prime example is how the US knew well
before hand that Japan was going to do something, and well before hand
that it was Pearl Harbor that they had in mind. Yet, we waited.
Well, it applies here as well. It is
extremely well documented that the officials of New Orleans, as well as
the majority of its citizens I believe, knew that the levees would not
withstand a Level 4 or above hurricane.
For years experts shouted this very fact to them
as the wizards of weather kept telling them a 4 Class was due. But
the officials kept putting it off because of their own personal agendas
they wanted to cover first; and the citizens let them get away with it
because upgrading the levee would more than likely have caused them an
increase in taxes.
Now, all you hear are screams of “Who’s to
blame for this!”
The answer? We all are: The officials and
citizens of New Orleans as put forth above…and the rest of American for
not getting them to do something about it, somehow – someway. I mean it
wasn’t like we had to convince them to move their city to Mars. The
solution was there all the time, and we/they chose to ignore it cause “it
will never happen to me/us syndrome”.
Well, it did and it had best serve as a
warning to all the cities and towns of America because each and every area
has its metrological or geographical disaster waiting in the dark hallways
of the future. And remember, the future is as close as the next second.
Are we so greedy that we will continue to
need hundreds, thousands killed before we apply “protective” measures,
instead of spending the money now, and those hundreds or thousands need
not die?
It does not make sense. I don’t have a clue
as to what the cost of upgrading the levees would have been, but most
assuredly it would pale in significance at what the final cost is going to
be after the recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans, et all, and then the
levees.
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HEYA!
