After the Storm: The good, the bad, the let's-shoot-them-now

WSJ.com OPINION JOURNAL ^ | Thursday, September 1, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT | Peggy Noonan

[Siobhan]

Katrina is a huge and historic story. The human cost, the financial cost, the rendering uninhabitable of a great and fabled American city--all of it amazing. A quick look at the good, the bad, and the let's-shoot-them-now.

• The governors. Political leadership in times of crisis is a delicate thing. You have to be frank about the fix you're in without being demoralizing. You have to seem confident without seeming out of touch with reality. You have to be human without indulging all your very human emotions. Rudy Giuliani set the modern standard on 9/11, and in a way that is not remarked upon. All his public statements were brilliantly specific. He told you exactly what resources were on their way to do what and where and why; he told you the No. 4 subway had been diverted west and then south until 11 a.m. Saturday; he told exactly which blocks were closed off and for how long; he told you New York would come back and then he told you why and how. His leadership was a masterpiece of specificity. That he had the facts at his command left people feeling: Thank God, someone's in charge, I can take care of me while he takes care of the city. That's what people want in a time of crisis.

[Siobhan]

Peggy makes sense of the madness:

As for the tragic piggism that is taking place on the streets of New Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it is unforgivable, and I hope the looters are shot. A hurricane cannot rob a great city of its spirit, but a vicious citizenry can. A bad time with Mother Nature can leave you digging out for a long time, but a bad turn in human behavior frays and tears all the ties that truly bind human being--trust, confidence, mutual regard, belief in the essential goodness of one's fellow citizens.

There seems to be some confusion in terms of terminology on TV. People with no food and water who are walking into supermarkets and taking food and water off the shelves are not criminal, they are sane. They are not looters, they are people who are attempting to survive; they are taking the basics of survival off shelves in stores where there isn't even anyone at the cash register.

[Siobhan]

ping

[freeangel]

Save for later

[konaice]

Louisiana's Gov. Kathleen Blanco was shakier, but she can recover. She wore her heart on her face, not always helpful in a leader in crisis. In her early news conferences she looked concussed. Her presentation seemed scattered.

This is apparent on every TV appearance she makes. She is not cut out for this job. Her state needs a leader, and she's not nearly up to the job.

[fml]

I wonder if the cruel and stupid young people who are doing the looting know the power they have to damage their country. I wonder, if they knew, if they'd stop it.

They are not all young, cruel and stupid yes. Would they stop if thy knew - I doubt it, they don't care.

[expatguy]

Overseas the papers are all focused on the anarchy and looting rather than the tragedy. It is a shame.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[Siobhan]

ping

[cyborg]

Odd. I don't recall American papers doing that with the tsunami.

[cyborg]

thanks....Peggy Noonan is great stuff.

[Siobhan]

If this part of the story grows--if cities on the gulf come to seem like some combination of Dodge and the Barbarian invasion--it's going to be bad for our country.

ping

[HiTech RedNeck]

But the third world can do no wrong.

[cyborg]

I guess :(

[SLB]

I am not impressed with any of the local government heads from Alabama to Louisiana at the state or city level. They have not instilled the level of confidence in having a plan and the ability to execute it that Rudi did. Rudi is too liberal for me in several areas, but at least he had a plan and the ability to convey it to the people. Granted, the MSM is the source for 90% of what we get, but what I am seeing is a breakdown in local government to include the LEO.

[Siobhan]

I hope Congress and the president are watching, and I hope what they see will have some impact on their decision about whether go forward with or rethink the base closings. . . . They should look to New Orleans for proof of how important a local military presence can prove to be, even in dramas caused not by man but nature.

Giant bump and ping

[DB]

Well I think the Governor is significantly responsible for the looting to the degree that we've seen it.

She should have called for Marshal law immediately. She should have sent in the National Guard the morning after the storm with shoot to kill orders and announced as much via low flying helicopters with loud speakers.

Then this mess would have been contained from the get-go.

She was weak kneed when it counted and this is the result.

[beyond the sea]

She should have called for Marshal law immediately. She should have sent in the National Guard the morning after the storm with shoot to kill orders and announced as much via low flying helicopters with loud speakers.

I understand your zeal, the looting shows the growing base character of so many of our citizens. It is disgusting, and no one should be afraid to say it. But I'm afraid if those orders of yours would have been made, a lot of the wrong people, along with the looters, would have been shot.

******

By the way.......... why are so many of those people down there so FAT?

[tkathy]

Rudy is a great leader.

The entire democrat leadership in LA is horrible. They need to elect some strong Republican leaders.

[beyond the sea]

As for the tragic piggism that is taking place on the streets of New Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it is unforgivable, and I hope the looters are shot. A hurricane cannot rob a great city of its spirit, but a vicious citizenry can. A bad time with Mother Nature can leave you digging out for a long time, but a bad turn in human behavior frays and tears all the ties that truly bind human being--trust, confidence, mutual regard, belief in the essential goodness of one's fellow citizens.

****

Say it again, Peggy.

[Siobhan]

ping

[DB]

Not likely.

The National Guard people are well trained. They understand the difference between food and CD players. They could have even organized the distribution of that food in an orderly manner.