As many of you know by this time, the movie industry is making in a film in my neighborhood. The story is set in post-Katrina New Orleans, and watching the gyrations of Hollywood has been fascinating and fun.
Yet as much of an exciting personal event as this has become, it is difficult to avoid thinking about the real thing. Especially as, among the debris currently strewn up and down my block, there sits a refrigerator emblazoned with the sarcastic graffiti, 'Thank you W'.
Seeing as the tragic result of the storm was a lack of foresight on the part of state and local officials, the snide remark, though perhaps historically significant in light of actual events, seems greatly out of place. To be sure, I hold no grudge against the movie people for this, although I would not be shocked to discover that it reflects the general feeling of filmmakers towards our recent President. Just the same, the comments reflect nothing short of a knee jerk and indeed ungrounded attitude towards the federal establishment.
George W. Bush called a state of emergency a full two days before the hurricane made landfall. Why did the local officials, led by the almost comically inept Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, not begin evacuation preparations then? Why did the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans not fire up their emergency plans at that point? Washington was ready; why weren't they?
Further, the local officials had not for years allowed the Army Corps of Engineers to install flood gates at the mouth of the New Orleans levees, gates wanted precisely to allow overflow waters to be released into Lake Ponchartrain and thereby spare the city.
To blame W for the disaster is thus nothing less than hubris. It is interesting to note that soon enough after Hurricane Katrina the city of Denver faced a like crisis with an approaching blizzard, and acted accordingly right down to individual citizens. No one was harmed or displaced.
What Hurricane Katrina teaches us is that we need to look to as local of a level of government as possible, and right down to ourselves, for help when there is danger. We avoid our very duty to our family and our neighbors when we look beyond ourselves when threats are presented. Because, in the end, we will not be asked what others did for us. We will be asked what we did for ourselves.
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2 comments:
Come on booster. Remember George W's famous quote to that fine FEMA director who screwed things up as much as George...............
President Bush's disaster plaudit, "Brownie, you're doin' a heckuva job
That's part of the problem though, Bruce. Should the federal government even be involved in disaster relief? Such things are part of what lulls states into a false sense of security and causes them to often not prepare for issues as they should. Then Washington gets blamed when they shouldn't even be involved in the first place. We must remember the Principle of Subsidiarity my friend: everything should be done on as local of a level as possible. Only then can problems be addressed with the best potential saving of lives and property.
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