Posted on 09/03/2005 6:54:45 AM PDT by RKV
The disaster of New Orleans, unspooling minute by minute on our TV screens, has been wrenching - in one particular way even more gut-twisting than Sept. 11.
You could watch the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and feel horrified at the sheer violence and destruction of it; angry at the murderous evil of Mohammed Atta and the other hijackers; heartbroken at the awful suffering and loss. But there wasn't any cause to feel embarrassed and ashamed.
Those are the emotions evoked by sights of the massive lawlessness in New Orleans in the days after the storm and the inability of anyone to stop it. Katrina unleashed a catastrophe of nearly unimaginable proportions, confronting government at all levels with enormous challenges. That the reaction to the hurricane initially seemed uneven and slow is understandable, but even allowing for the hellish circumstances, the breakdown in civil order has been stunning.
Without order, which government exists to protect, nothing else is possible. Not even rescue operations, as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has learned. On Wednesday night, as the city descended into an urban dystopia straight out of the 1981 film ''Escape From New York,'' he had to command nearly all the city's 1,500 police officers to focus on re-establishing law and order instead of saving endangered people.
Everyone understands desperate people getting food or water by any means possible. Plundering tennis shoes and TVs, as a small thuggish minority has done, is another matter. And the problem is that there is no such thing as a little chaos. Once a climate of disorder is set, it has a logic of its own. First, it was stealing tennis shoes, then it was taking potshots at a helicopter arriving to evacuate people from the Superdome. Goons stole a bus from a nursing home and threatened its residents. Rescue workers report that rocks and bottles have been thrown at them and shots fired their way.
Unfortunately, the urban revival that had swept much of the country mostly left New Orleans behind. The atmosphere of lawfulness that stood New York City in good stead after 9/11 and during the 2003 blackout - although those were much less far-reaching disasters was never established. The city never had a Rudy Giuliani. Even as murder rates continued to decline in other cities in recent years, the murder rate in New Orleans crept up. The police were plagued by allegations of corruption and brutality, and, according to The Associated Press, only had ''3.14 officers per 1,000 residents - less than half the rate in Washington, D.C.''
Law enforcement, of course, is primarily a state and local responsibility, but in the age of the 24-hour news cycle, people look to the federal government and the president to solve any problem on their TV screens. Already the question is being asked if the feds could have jumped in sooner (the National Guard is now arriving in force). If President Bush pays a political price for the images of lawlessness that have played out in New Orleans, it will be the second time looting has hurt his cause.
The other, of course, was in Baghdad in 2003. It is a matter of consensus now that the rip-the-place-apart looting in the initial days after the fall of Saddam Hussein set the occupation off on the wrong foot. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explained the looting away at the time as the natural exuberance of a newly liberated people. One wonders: Has anyone in the administration read their Hobbes? Or does he not make the ''compassionate conservative'' reading list?
New Orleans has provided a corrosive lesson about government. At all levels, government is overbearing and nagging, paying for people's prescription drugs and telling us whether we can smoke in restaurants or not. But when it comes to its most elemental task of maintaining order and protecting property, it might not be up to the task when it is needed most.
Keep that in mind and buy a gun, just in case.
Just Google "Africa and cannibalism" and spend the rest of today reading what you find.
If, God forbid, we experience something like this, those who have managed to keep (fill in the blank) behind closed doors will be out on the street with no social pressures to keep it in check. The "what do I have to lose" factor comes into play.
We all would be surprised at the vermen crawling out from under the rocks.
Do your own research. That is what the internet is for.
A search of your name shows you have asked that question 14 times on fourteen different threads.
Is there a reason you have posted the same question 14 different times?
Maybe he's hungry?
Well, we're making important inroads but we still need to increase the audience! I'm astonished by the crap on outlets like CNN and in my area newspapers, the L.A. Times, for instance. We have a long battle ahead.
But we're finally winning! :)
And yes, WE are to blame. WE are the ones who let this entitlement mentality thrive. WE are the ones who permitted this lawless underclass to prey on us. WE are the ones who laid down our arms and who looked away sheepishly while generations of parasites squandered the American legacy of independence and self-reliance. None of that could have happened if WE had stopped it.
We all know the reason the looters weren't shot on sight: it would have been a racial nightmare. Even now, the bloviators are posturing and pontificating, trying to turn this into a race issue. Who are these people that they can intimidate an entire nation into accepting anarchy rather than risking their wrath? They're people WE empower every time WE cave into their PC demands.
WE tolerated "affirmative action." WE tolerated Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and Lou Farrakhan and all the rest of those predators. WE continue to tolerate legislators who steal our money to feed gangsters, welfare breeders, and the very people roaming the streets of New Orleans now.
Hold yourself blameless if you want, but unless you were out actively fighting these cancers, you were complicit in their success.
That's not to say there are not acts of heroism coming out of this tragedy. People in Texas and surrounding states have opened their homes and hearts to the refugees. Rescuers are working beyond human endurance to retrieve the stranded and bring in supplies. There are going to be a thousand stories of sacrifice and nobility to emerge once these waters recede, to offset the disgusting scenes of looting and plunder.
But this never should have happened. Not in America. Not in MY America. Not in OUR America.
Good on yer, IronJack. Your message needs to be printed on posters and distributed to every streetcorner in America. Johnson's Great Society doomed this country to a cultural paralysis that will keep us impotent and ineffective until We The People cure it.
Your ability to read 132,000 postings in less than an hour is most impressive, but to comprehend no more than you did proves that a person will only believe what they want to believe.
You bring out a very imprtant point that has rarely been mentioned throughout all the looting reports and justifications.
Leaving a simple note or trail of what one took.
I suspect a fair number of the franchises have battery operated self-checkout stations. No mention of that option in emergency planning, but instead there has been an onimous omission of any conscientious concern for property rights.
That omission speaks volumes to what American society has become.
Actually, I was out there fighting. I registered to vote on my 18th birthday and was in the first class to do that. I have been active in politics for years. I used to write my senators when you had to use a pen or a regular typewriter. I regularly wrote editorials all of which were published. I have never missed a chance to vote. So Yes, I have done my duty.
I did all the same things. They weren't enough. We failed. This is the price we pay.
Its OK.
I can understand how my post might be misinterpreted.
Its hard for people to understand "How can God allow such a thing to happen?"
I had a son born with severe birth defects. Its a natural thing to think. But when you find yourself leaning on the Lord more closely, and the warmth and love that comes from that, you realize that His blessings come in many ways.
My family is praying for all of the people in N.O. Even those who are living for themselves at the detriment of others. We are praying that they will come to realize the error of their ways.
If your family has faith, this might turn out to be one of the greatest things that ever happened to them. That might sound hard to believe, but I believe it to be true.
What else were we supposed to do, go to Washington with an AK-47?
Utter tripe.
He posted it 14 times; if he's so interested I wonder why he doesn't know his correct name?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.