Posted on 09/02/2005 11:54:28 AM PDT by TIADaily.com
It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster.
If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild.
Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.
But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.
The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.
The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.
The man-made disaster is the welfare state...[read on]
(Excerpt) Read more at tiadaily.com ...
Good job.
bump
Wow!
I have been to New Orleans once. I visited the French Quarter. My Step Son's wife had a boy at a hospital in New Orleans. He warned us about the crime in New Orleans and to stay out of the Bourbon Street area without being very aware of the criminal predators there who prey upon people. That this has happened is no shock to me. That vicious criminals were simply released shows incompetence on the part of New Orleans officials and a corrupt Government there locally.
That prepositioned supplies were not placed there prior to the Hurrican hiting shows that FEMA was not prepared nor on alert. The lesson here is that it is much less costly to be prepared and to spend the money to mitigate damages rather than cope with a natural tragedy made worse by lack of preparation and planning.
California Officials are you listening? This may be California after a magnitude 9 earthquake. Best invest in planning ahead of time and get ready. When the veneer of civilization is stripped away prepare to defend yourself from the Predators. You cannot rely on incompetent Government Officials to do the right thing or the prudent thing for that matter.
"What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them."
It's all about values.
This sums it up exactly.
Big Time BUMP
As I posted on another thread:
Responsibility starts with the individual.
When the individual has had no responsibilities other than standing around with both hands out stretched for a government handout, this is to be expected.
Most of these people have become worthless drones who have been bought off for their votes at the price of their independence.
Catastrophe happens and none of them clamor for hot-wiring a car/bus/school bus and getting out, just loot a grocery store for a couple of boxes of Cocoa Puffs and complain that the government isn't doing enough, for them; fast enough, for them.
The Great Society. Brought to you by the DNC - Decades in the Making!
OMG someone actually got it. It is a man-made disaster in man-made city.
BUMP
Oh, man...Bingo!!!
Liberals rejoice!
It's not as If the NAACP disaster relief fund got there before anyone else Did.
I have been to New Orleans once. I visited the French Quarter. My Step Son's wife had a boy at a hospital in New Orleans. He warned us about the crime in New Orleans and to stay out of the Bourbon Street area without being very aware of the criminal predators there who prey upon people. That this has happened is no shock to me. That vicious criminals were simply released shows incompetence on the part of New Orleans officials and a corrupt Government there locally.
That prepositioned supplies were not placed there prior to the Hurrican hiting shows that FEMA was not prepared nor on alert. The lesson here is that it is much less costly to be prepared and to spend the money to mitigate damages rather than cope with a natural tragedy made worse by lack of preparation and planning.
California Officials are you listening? This may be California after a magnitude 9 earthquake. Best invest in planning ahead of time and get ready. When the veneer of civilization is stripped away prepare to defend yourself from the Predators. You cannot rely on incompetent Government Officials to do the right thing or the prudent thing for that matter.
Good column, with a lot of truth written within.
Of course, the Dims will blame the 'evil Republicans', even though it is by their own lust for power that has brought this all about.
It can't be repeated enough! You may get it, but it may take longer for some (like DU infiltrators) to get a clue.
Bob ol' buddy you were surprised but a few million of us
have seen this coming. Welcome to the semi United States
of PC.
Very well said. Perhaps this ugly spectacle can prompt some massive overhaul of the welfare system, something good can come out of it.
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