It's easy to sit back and say "Bush should have done more" or "the Feds should have moved faster" after the fact.
However, take a look at what Bush's record over the past five years and tell me that he isn't proactive or motivated to help people in a time of crisis.
Knee-jerk reactions aren't needed here. Take a look at all the factors that caused this and see that NO was a disaster waiting to happen and when the disaster hit, the state and local leaders did nothing to help their citizens. And to take this a step further, it's up to the people of LA and NO to take a little bit of PERSONAL responsibility for their own lives and the lives of their children.
If you live in a city that is built BELOW sea level, and there's a hurricane coming, and you don't have a car, and you can't get a ride out of town, and you can't get to a shelter, and you have half a brain.... go to the store, buy $20 worth of bottled water, some peanut butter, crackers, batteries, and whatever else you may need to make it through a few days without electricity or water.
Damn, I live in PA, at the top of a hill, nowhere near a flood zone but when there's a bad rainstorm or snowstorm coming, I make sure we have enough supplies in the house so that we don't starve if we can't get to the store.
Common-friggin'-sense. If you ignore the threat, you aren't a victim, you're an idiot.
It is more difficult to make those comments before the event happened. I did say the Sunday morning that Nagin declared a mandatory evacutation, that we should have sent in military aircraft to evacuate people.
However, take a look at what Bush's record over the past five years and tell me that he isn't proactive or motivated to help people in a time of crisis.
Never said that. We are talking about this crisis. I don't doubt his motivation to help people. He understood the nature of the threat by declaring the whole Gulf Coast a disaster area before the storm hit to facilitate assistance.
If you live in a city that is built BELOW sea level, and there's a hurricane coming, and you don't have a car, and you can't get a ride out of town, and you can't get to a shelter, and you have half a brain.... go to the store, buy $20 worth of bottled water, some peanut butter, crackers, batteries, and whatever else you may need to make it through a few days without electricity or water.
Sure people should be personally responsible. Kids, the infirm, aged, and sick should not be held to that standard. There was also a mindset that this was just another example of the government crying wolf. The last time NO had been hit by a major hurricane was 1969 with Camille. Whatever they did or did not do, they deserve assistance.
Damn, I live in PA, at the top of a hill, nowhere near a flood zone but when there's a bad rainstorm or snowstorm coming, I make sure we have enough supplies in the house so that we don't starve if we can't get to the store. Common-friggin'-sense. If you ignore the threat, you aren't a victim, you're an idiot.
Does that same rationale apply to folks who build there homes on fault lines, e.g., San Andrreas fault?