How Do We Get From Here To Perfect

This past month has been all about hurricanes. The devastation caused by Katrina was beyond belief in a country that prides it’s self in preparedness. We’re a Federalist Nation, that means responsibilities are spread out among, villages, cities, counties, states, and national government. No one agency has total responsibility, no one agency can be charged with blame for lack of performance. As I see it the one group that gave an outstanding performance is the Sate of Texas. The public doesn’t get it. No agency can invade another state without an invitation from that states governor. When their assistance was requested the Texas National Guard become the cavalry charging in to the rescue. Louisianans Governor hesitated for days before bringing in all the assistance available. Was it confusion or arrogance, we’ll never know for sure.

One group too be held accountable for misrepresenting the situation is the national media. They played and replayed footage of only African Americas wading to safety. They gave the impression all of New Orleans was underwater. They over estimated the death tolls. The media was as spooked as the victims they were reporting on. It is fair to say the entire emergency planning system failed in New Orleans, if in fact they had one. For years local newspapers have been reporting on the need for elevating the levees. The federal government pumped millions of dollars to pay for rebuilding levees. It seems the money always went to other projects. Canal locks, Casino’s, parties, etc. This information was available to the national media, Michael Jackson and Natalee Hollaway took president over useful news. Misspent tax dollars don’t seem to carry the same weight as child molesting.

Wasn’t the reason the founding fathers gave the media unlimited freedom to publish government misdoings?

After shouldering much of the burden of Hurricane Katrina, The Great State of Texas did a 180-degree turn and effectively evacuated nearly 2 million potential victims of hurricane Rita. Now come the second guessers. One report I read asked the question “Why didn’t the state of Texas use roadways to move people out of the way?’ I would say traffic jams from Galveston to Dallas was a very good use of highways. We are talking about 2 million people. The Governor of Texas is to be commended for his foresight making sure as much as could be, was covered and not left to chance. For his ability to have the right people, in the right place, at the right time, and have them perform as they did in two disasters.

Critiquing the aftermath of any disaster is always a good thing. Some will do it in hopes of making improvements; others will do it with males. There’ll be lessons worth learning from both sides. It’s obvious politics was the prime factor in the failures of Louisianans Governor to act when assistance was offered prior to the Hurricane coming ashore. New Orleans had the recourses to evacuate the poor from the low areas of the city. They didn’t use them, [hundreds of school buses and city buses] they waited for someone else to save them. The Mayor of New Orleans says it was the responsibility of the federal government to bring busses, and leaves it at that with no explanation of why he didn’t act. The Governor of Louisiana said, “It’s hard to get people to work on Sunday.”

The speculation still dominates the issue, the cost, the government’s responsibility for costs. How much of the cost should be born by the victims, lest the entire American population becomes victims of the costs. Oversight, that prevents inevitable corruption, who will decide? These are questions we’ll be asking far into the future.