I received this email yesterday and thought I would pass it along:
One of the largest storms in history hit New Orleans on Monday. Chaos broke out on Tuesday and Wednesday. There was flooding, small arms fire, looting, massive destruction, loss of all utilities and city services. By Thursday and Friday the situation was being stabilized. By Saturday, law and order had been restored; we were receiving pictures of New Orleans residents bowling in Baton Rouge, being placed on cruise ships, and arriving safely in Houston, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. Ten days later, their children have new clothes, new books, new haircuts, and they are heading for school in Houston. Thousands of responders have secured the city and efforts are underway to re-engineer and permanently improve the city drainage system. Whether you choose to see success or failure here is largely a matter of your personal point of view and a reflection of your level of personal experience. Personally, I think this is an incredible success story, and I believe that the rapid rescue of New Orleans is additional evidence that we live in a great country.
I agree 100%. We've had a great natural disaster and in less than a week it has been brought under control.
No other nation in world history could have done it.
It is strictly posturing by politicians and other hustlers to say derogatory things about the relief effort.
Yes it could have been done better or faster or more cheerfully or in a more culturally sensitive way or more environmentally friendly way or whatever.
All the Monday morning quarterbacks always show up after somebody else did all the work.
Nice post, good CitizenJ.
You are right, of course. But that is not the "story". Cynically the press has never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
I agree that it was a success. However, for the next disaster, the OLD MEDIA should not be allowed in.
Oprah and Dr. Phil? Geez!
The OLD MEDIA was totally disgusting. I watched a BBC mini-documentary about the disaster and I thought it was written and produced by Michael Moore-on.
But how can that be when President Bush forgot the poor Americans in New Orleans? (sarcasm intended) No, you will never hear about what GOOD he did. You will only hear these same people saying it wasn't enough or as fast as they wanted it. I think it is going well. Things are going along as good as possible and if everyone would just set back and look at the WHOLE picture and the WHOLE timeline, I say Bush is doing great.