Monday, September 05, 2005
Blame and Partisanship Amid Disaster
Unimaginable disasters occasionally happen. 9/11 happened. In theory, could we have caught a break somewhere and nabbed Atta and deferred the attack? I suppose so. I suppose we could have built better levies in New Orleans too. But government simply cannot protect us from every potential disaster. Nor is our reasonably decentralized federal system designed to be a perfect, immediate responder to local disasters.
There is something uniquely American about improving our systems in response to danger or disaster. Or reaching out and helping those affected by a disaster. But it just seems so utterly wrong and out of place to be assigning blame for things about which the information really doesn't yet exist, in a chaotic circumstance. It's like blaming the White House and the local cops and firefighters for the attack and collapse of the WTC. Or FDR for the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. It's just wrong. Period.
It is impressive I think how different people in different towns have stepped up to help the dispossessed of New Orleans. Wouldn't it be amazing if folks could drop the politics for a second and focus on the massive effort and undertaking required to help these people and rebuild this region? That afterall is the news...not the political BS.
Watch how we recover...
3 Comments:
By 
Papa Ray, at
Mon Sep 05, 01:04:00 PM:
Yea I agree, and I even see it here in our little town. Kids from LA and MS are coming here with their parents. Most have relatives here, but some are staying at the local Hilton free of charge, for how long I don't know. But their kids are being enrolled in school here.
I know there have been several activities here to raise money for charities and that many here have given thousands of dollars. Also, our own local teams from various agencys have gone down there to assist. Truckloads of supplies have already left here with many more going to them and to Houston and San Antonio and Dallas.
Its a state wide effort. Texans are not people that set around and talk and complain, they act, make it happen and are glad to do it.
You can always count on us.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
By 
, at
Mon Sep 05, 06:09:00 PM:
Dear Cardinalpark,
I take great pride in the civilized behavior that our spokespeople emulate.
I sent out an email last night, MTP's Tim Russert was last straw, I asked
blogs to organize a list with emails addresses of the Republican party so
that private citizens like me could let them know that they should stand up.
The facts are the facts, and if you have seen the photos of the school buses left parked, in addition to all the municipal emergency equipment not moved out
of harms way (SOP for responsible local governments prior to hurricanes)
and read the New Orleans' Plan, signed by Mayor Nagin how can you
not want the Republicans to point these out.
It is to STOP THE LIES again. Our gentlemanly manners must not prevent
us from getting the facts out. That is not assigning blame. Here are the
facts and the timeline. Let the citizen decide.
The Left Stream Media is hiding the facts, they know the conclusions
the average common sense citizen would come to.
They show Abu Ghraib - not the inundated school buses.
Perhaps you are a Democrat and so would like the victim of the smear
of President Bush to stand. I do not want our party to sink to the level
of the Lefties, but it should be against our nature and our values to accept
a "victim status" and not assert the "Facts, Mam, just the facts."
Sadly at times the high road is so high it is over the heads of those that
have a right to know the facts.
By Cardinalpark, at
Tue Sep 06, 08:18:00 AM:
I have great confidence that it will become clearer and clearer to folks that the ultimate responsibility for the slow response lay with the local authorities. It is publicly acknowledged that a mandatory evac notice was only given as a result of a personal appeal from Pres Bush. It is also known that the locals rejected federalization of the the coming disaster.
I have no desire to allow the MSM to perpetrate another fraud. I simply believe that ultimately the facts will emerge and become clear, and snarking amid the chaos is unbecoming to all parties. Frank Rich is both inelegant and foolish. And people, at least the substantial majority, will come to understand that...I believe. I did read the Tribes post, and see many things worth agreeing with.
Thanks.
For what it's worth, I've been around long enough to have seen the MSM try to dismantle Reagan and ultimately accede to his greatness...eventually. That's where I suspect things will go with the current President as well, but we will have to see history books rather than the idiocy written daily in the traditional MSM.
