Who’s To Blame For Katrina?
Ken Hughes
August 30, 2006
Who’s To Blame For Katrina?
There’s an abundance of blame being passed around for Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it caused. Most of the blame is being generated by political bias. When we look at the facts, there’s less reason for blame than just accepting circumstance. Katrina was something that hadn’t happened in this country for a long time. The public psyche wasn’t prepared for such a disaster. We must not forget the government is the people -- bureaucrats don’t come from the planet Pluto.
I suppose if we were just looking for someone or something to blame we could start with God for sending such a devastating storm to such a fragile area. If it weren’t for dykes, dams and flood gates New Orleans would be under water. It nestles in a ravine several feet below Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi river, the first invitation for disaster.
The first blame, of course, will be directed at President Bush. The Thursday and again on Friday before Katrina hit land the President suggested the area should be evacuated. In Cuba Castro can tell the people what to do and they do it. In America the public can virtually give the president the finger and that’s basically what they did. A great deal was made of blacks being the victims and, of course, that’s political hogwash. It's black, anti-white rhetoric that President Bush was being told by those in charge things were under control when they weren’t. One can only go by what they know.
Hundreds of vehicles filled with relief aid where being held up in Baton Rouge waiting for permission to go to New Orleans. Hundreds of School Buses sat idle in parking lots in New Orleans that could have evacuated thousands of people. Neither of these where choices the federal government had the authority to make work. The Louisiana National Guard waited for orders from the Governor that came too late. These were decisions the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans should have been making. FEMA is not a first response organization. They are designed to come in and sweep up after the disaster is over. Only one agency, the United States Coast Guard, acted without bothering for the political decisions to be made.
The Katrina disaster was years in the making. New Orleans has expected a hurricane of this magnitude for years. They discussed it for years and that was all they did. New Orleans should have but didn’t have an evacuation plan in the works. It had been discussed but never implemented.
New Orleans is over 300 years old. It was first settled by French Traders and Caribbean Buccaneers. A French system of political graft and corruption was established that’s lasted through the years.
We live in a Nation of choices. To say the government didn’t do enough is not understanding how a democracy works. The Constitution rather than granting the government powers, was designed to limit the powers of government. The majority of the power was given to the states that don’t seen possible considering the authority the courts have assumed over the past 75 years. The problem with the American public is that they’re willing to let others do their thinking for them. We hear all too frequently of nonexistent laws assumed to protect us from this thing or that only to find there are no such laws and we’ve been had by our own ignorance.
God and the founding fathers established a life and a political ideology that required man to think. God gave men the brains to think and analyze with and the founding fathers wrote a set of rules based on a belief in God that, if followed, would allow man to self-govern and live in peace with his neighbors both domestic and foreign. Rather than follow Gods laws and the founding fathers' advice, lesser men have chosen to insert their own beliefs. These liberal thinkers don’t realize it’s not words that make great nations it the actions of great men that make a great nation. It’s mans willingness to die if need be to protect right from wrong.
The naysayers are being heard now but what about later when the barbarians are at our front door? There’s absolutely no question they’ll be blaming someone else for not protecting them, for not convincing them of the threat in advance. Liberals only see the world by looking to the past for answers, this is the 21st century the answers are all in the future.
Ken Hughes ken-hughes@comcast.net
There’s an abundance of blame being passed around for Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it caused. Most of the blame is being generated by political bias. When we look at the facts, there’s less reason for blame than just accepting circumstance. Katrina was something that hadn’t happened in this country for a long time. The public psyche wasn’t prepared for such a disaster. We must not forget the government is the people -- bureaucrats don’t come from the planet Pluto.
I suppose if we were just looking for someone or something to blame we could start with God for sending such a devastating storm to such a fragile area. If it weren’t for dykes, dams and flood gates New Orleans would be under water. It nestles in a ravine several feet below Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi river, the first invitation for disaster.
The first blame, of course, will be directed at President Bush. The Thursday and again on Friday before Katrina hit land the President suggested the area should be evacuated. In Cuba Castro can tell the people what to do and they do it. In America the public can virtually give the president the finger and that’s basically what they did. A great deal was made of blacks being the victims and, of course, that’s political hogwash. It's black, anti-white rhetoric that President Bush was being told by those in charge things were under control when they weren’t. One can only go by what they know.
Hundreds of vehicles filled with relief aid where being held up in Baton Rouge waiting for permission to go to New Orleans. Hundreds of School Buses sat idle in parking lots in New Orleans that could have evacuated thousands of people. Neither of these where choices the federal government had the authority to make work. The Louisiana National Guard waited for orders from the Governor that came too late. These were decisions the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans should have been making. FEMA is not a first response organization. They are designed to come in and sweep up after the disaster is over. Only one agency, the United States Coast Guard, acted without bothering for the political decisions to be made.
The Katrina disaster was years in the making. New Orleans has expected a hurricane of this magnitude for years. They discussed it for years and that was all they did. New Orleans should have but didn’t have an evacuation plan in the works. It had been discussed but never implemented.
New Orleans is over 300 years old. It was first settled by French Traders and Caribbean Buccaneers. A French system of political graft and corruption was established that’s lasted through the years.
We live in a Nation of choices. To say the government didn’t do enough is not understanding how a democracy works. The Constitution rather than granting the government powers, was designed to limit the powers of government. The majority of the power was given to the states that don’t seen possible considering the authority the courts have assumed over the past 75 years. The problem with the American public is that they’re willing to let others do their thinking for them. We hear all too frequently of nonexistent laws assumed to protect us from this thing or that only to find there are no such laws and we’ve been had by our own ignorance.
God and the founding fathers established a life and a political ideology that required man to think. God gave men the brains to think and analyze with and the founding fathers wrote a set of rules based on a belief in God that, if followed, would allow man to self-govern and live in peace with his neighbors both domestic and foreign. Rather than follow Gods laws and the founding fathers' advice, lesser men have chosen to insert their own beliefs. These liberal thinkers don’t realize it’s not words that make great nations it the actions of great men that make a great nation. It’s mans willingness to die if need be to protect right from wrong.
The naysayers are being heard now but what about later when the barbarians are at our front door? There’s absolutely no question they’ll be blaming someone else for not protecting them, for not convincing them of the threat in advance. Liberals only see the world by looking to the past for answers, this is the 21st century the answers are all in the future.
Ken Hughes ken-hughes@comcast.net
Print
Email
