Hurricane Katrina: The heroes, and the goats
Disasters can bring out the best, and worst in a civilization. Fortunately, we've seen far more of the former. Here are just a few of the best, and worst brought forth by hurricane Katrina...
Heroes
Private charities: The Red Cross, Salvation Army, churches, and all the others have proven that the real answer to almost any problem is best left to the private sector. Private charities were on scene almost immediately with food, water, and essentials. In government vs. private sector, the private sector has about the same winning percentage as the Harlem Globetrotters do over the Washington Generals.
The American people: Digging deep, as always, in time of crisis. There isn't a finer breed on the planet than the folks in the melting pot. Though so much of the bad behavior gets reported at times like these, it's heartening to know that if tragedy strikes any time, anywhere, Americans will turn out in droves to help. Freedom is a great thing. We're free to not care about any of this if we choose, and knowing this adds to the sincerity of American generosity.
John Travolta and Kelly Preston: Hollywood often takes a lot of heat for their incessant preachy leftism, and we'll get to that soon enough, but it's only fair to point out the good to come from Tinseltown. Travolta and Preston, the actor/actress husband and wife team, flew in tons of supplies in their personal 747. Hopefully staunch environmentalists will cut Travolta and Preston some slack for using a vehicle that burns approximately a gallon of fuel every second, contributing to the global warming that caused the hurricane in the first place.
Hillary Clinton: Yes, that's right, Hillary Clinton. Hillary has called for a 9/11 style commission to figure out why government response was, in her opinion, a failure, as it often is. This is the woman who thinks the federal government is the oracle, the magic 8-ball, the Wizard granting everybody their wishes. Sure, Hillary’s only being critical of the government because Bush is president, but by drawing attention to the federal government’s gross incompetence and negligence, Hillary may be single-handedly driving a stake through the heart of her dream of national health care. Thanks Hil.
George W. Bush: It takes a big man to accept responsibility for the failings of others, especially when they're from the other side of the political aisle and pointing the finger of blame back at you. Bush takes a lot of “below the belt” hits, but when you’re so far above some of your critics, that’s about as high as they can reach.
A caller to the Rush Limbaugh program: An African-American woman, 55 years old, summed up the local response in Louisiana better than anybody I've heard so far. "I'll bet they had those buses runnin' on election day!" Booya!
Bangladesh: One of the world’s poorest nations managed to come up with a cool million-dollar donation for victims of hurricane Katrina. I’d almost feel guilty accepting this one, but it’s the thought that counts, and we won’t forget it.
Goats
LA Governor Blanco and N.O. Mayor Ray Nagin: Prime examples of why Democrats should stick to what they’re best at, which is causing problems and blaming as much of it as possible on Republicans. For Blanco and Nagin, mission accomplished.
Sean Penn: The actor, just back from Iraq and Iran, headed to New Orleans with a personal photographer to continue his quest to go down in history as Jack Kerouac with a lobotomy scar. Penn's mission was noble-- to take his boat and pluck people from the water. This may have earned him a “hero” spot. However, the boat was apparently made from the same material as Penn’s intellect, because the craft, like his logic, quickly sprung a leak and sunk. What a fitting tribute to the late Bob Denver.
The Price is Right: Early last week, one of the showcase prizes on The Price is Right was a trip to New Orleans and a boat. Whoops! The "previously recorded" demon strikes again. You'd think they would have pulled that particular episode, which was probably taped a month or two ago, prior to airing. I have a feeling that somebody over at CBS in programming is being kerplunked naked down the Plinko board over this one.
Celine Dion: Appearing on Larry King Live, Dion proved that, though her heart will go on, her brain won't. Concerning looters, Dion said: "Oh, they're stealing 20 pair of jeans or they're stealing television sets. Who cares? They're not going to go too far with it. Maybe those people are so poor, some of the people who do that they're so poor they've never touched anything in their lives. Let them touch those things for once."
They've never touched a vacuous French-Canadian singer either, I'll bet. I pray to the Gods of idiocy that looters are someday in Dion's mansion so we can say the same thing to her... we'll see how understanding she is then. I'm sure she'd point that out after the cops left and the charges were filed.
Whoever thought of the debit card idea: FEMA and the Red Cross decided to hand out $2,000 debit cards to evacuees in Texas, which suddenly made hurricane Katrina have something in common with Woodstock: A lot more people claim to have been trashed there than actually were. You can now buy Louis Vuitton bags at pawn shops all across the south.
France: In comparison to Bangladesh’s $1 million donation, France sent tents and tarps. You would think they could cough up a little more. Apparently they don’t even feel the responsibility to pay for the cleanup of their quarter of New Orleans. I guess we shouldn’t expect much from a country that won’t even give Lance Armstrong his pee back. The heroes and the goats in the hurricane Katrina disaster—there will be many, many more in the days to come.
Doug Powers is a columnist and author from Michigan. His new book, "'Because That's the Way God Decided to Do It!' - A Conservative father fields confusing questions from his confused kids about a confusing world", is now available. Read a sample from each chapter or purchase the book here. For daily comments, check out Doug's blog.
4 Comments:
An addition to your Heroes list.
http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sep2005/a090905ms2.html
Iraqi Soldiers Donate to Katrina Victims
Iraqi soldiers collected 1,000,000 Iraqi dinars for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
By Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq
TAJI, Iraq, Sept. 9, 2005 — Iraqi soldiers serving at Taji military base collected 1,000,000 Iraqi dinars for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Iraqi Col. Abbas Fadhil, Iraqi base commander, presented the money to U.S. Col. Paul D. Linkenhoker, Taji Coalition base commander, at a Sept. 5 staff meeting.
Iraqi Col. Abbas Fadhil
“We are all brothers,” said Abbas. “When one suffers tragedy, we all suffer their pain.”
The amount of money is small in American dollars - roughly $680 - but it represents a huge act of compassion from Iraqi soldiers to their American counterparts, said U.S. Army Maj. Michael Goyne.
“I was overwhelmed by the amount of their generosity,” Goyne said. “I was proud and happy to know Col. Abbas, his officers, NCOs and fellow soldiers. That amount represents a month’s salary for most of those soldiers.”
Abbas read a letter he wrote after giving the envelope to Linkenhoker.
"I am Colonel Abbas Fadhil; Tadji Military Base Commander,” Abbas wrote. “On behalf of myself and all the People of Tadji Military Base; I would like to console the American People and Government for getting this horrible disaster. So we would like to donate 1.000.000 Iraqi Dinars to help the government and the People also I would like to console all the ASTs who helped us rebuilding our country and our Army. We appreciate the American's help and support. Thank you."
Great list, to which I've linked.
All great deeds by the American People.
Now that Dubya has admitted fault in the Katrina episode, everybody can admit what some knew all along. Dubya and his Republican administration are at fault, for this, and many things due to their backward and misguided political philosophy and public policy.
What does he mean? One might ask.
Well;
Dubya and his administration was able to respond at all because more conscientious and prudent administrations before him maintained policies of good governance.
This Republican adminstration was busy eroding all of the resources required to enable responsive government in order to give tax breaks to the rich and break Federal and State Governments according to a corporatist, anti-government ideology.
For example, April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Joe Allbaugh, one of Dubya's cronys from texas and then Head of FEMA, confirms that FEMA will be downsized.
Joe said: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
Well there 'ya have it. The Republican failure is a result of Republican policy decisions.
And how about this?
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."
Add to this good ole Republican incompetence (plainly demonstrated in Iraq) and we have a nation struggling with the consequences of widespread devastation and death even as new stories continue to emerge about the federal government's various failures - relief supplies sent to non-existent staging posts, resources pumped into Texas and the Carolinas but not into Louisiana or Mississippi, families split up and flown to different parts of the country, in some cases without any advance knowledge of where the evacuees were being taken, and on and on.
Weren't the French responsible for NO being built on unstable groud in the first place? After all, it was a French colonial city.
As for ghost, nice potshot. Hope it helps you sleep at night. BTW, I'll forward your kudos to Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin. They can sleep at night too knowing that Bush Almighty is at fault here.
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