Whose At Fault in NO

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

The moderators SHOULD move this AND ALL OTHER New Orleans Posts to the PPP if they are weighing down the football discussion. However, thank you to SDS and the moderators for deciding to allow several posts on this catastrophe to remain on TSW as if there is an exception to the general practice this tragedy would seem to be one.

 

In terms of my trivial contributions, the one that I think is most worthwhile is a separate post somewhere here about how one can donate or volunteer to the Katrina effort with links to the Red Cross. I suggest that the moderators may want to pin this post or simply the Red Cross URL up for folks to connect to if they want to donate online or connect some other way.

 

The Internet is actually of value because it is not the real world at all. I hope folks wiill do some real world things by supporting and hooking up with the Red Cross, but as problems still exist there which need support big time, it is here in the Internet world that attention can turn to the next important step of figuring out who screwed up and what to change so the next cat 5 Hurricane hit or other natural disaster does not trigger the human disaster of the levee breaking and the flooding causing so much death and the breakdown of civil society.

 

Actually I think it is pretty clear who screwed up and though accountability does not seem to be in these days after the mistakes in Iraq, I hope some head roll as part of making it clear that those who accept the responsibility of being elected have to at least do the best they can and actually get some things right.

 

Those to blame strike me as:

 

1. NO Folk- This does not mean that those who are dead have only themselves to blame, but these events are a vicious reminder that in the end folks have to take care of themselves and their loved ones. This view DOES NOT release government from its responsibility to care for the sick, the elderly, the poor who were victims, folks who were tourists who had bad luck with canceled flights, and the 50% of NO children who live below the poverty line and are victims of decisions made by adults. However, personal responsibility needs to be a real thing and the first line of defense when folks cannot help themselves is from family and friends to give help.

 

2. The Mayor- The local buck stops with him as taking on the responsibility of running a sane local zoning and development plan whih prevents building on flood plains and loss of wetlands as marshes actually do lessen the damage of hrurricanes and the stress placed on levees. A similar sized hurricane Betsy hit the area 20 or so years ago and one of the reasons apparently it was far less fatal as due to bad development strategy which moved folks and their jobs closer to harms way and removed wetlands which were inadequate to stop this major storm but its loss made things worse.

 

The Mayor also took the responsibility to oversee the best workable evacuation and disaster plan and many of the sick and elderly who should have been moved immediately when the mandatory evacuation was ordered were simply not moved (and a few of their more able-bodied relatives stuck with them as well). I can see why the Mayor is whining now and the fact that he is has effectively got the state and feds to use their resources to stop people from dying. However, people are dying because he screwed up and I hope he pays for this somehow.

 

It also appears to be a travesty that he allowed for a development system which in essence stored the poorest, least educated, and also the parents of the 50% of NO chuildren who live below the poverty line in the most flooded low lands of town as cheap workers for the tourist industry.

 

The Mayor did not meet the obligations he voluntarily took on. The personal responsibility missing in Item #1 does not release the Mayor from his obligations.

 

3. The Governor- One of the stupidest comments from an elected official in the last few days was the plaintive bleatings of the Governor demanding someone else to send locked and loaded troops to LA prepared to shoot-to-kill.

 

The fact civil society had broken down to this level is just a sign of how badly the politicians had done in meeting their obligations to society. However, the implications of the government shooting to kill American citizens is something all of us should be worried about.

 

Police force is always a necessary thing in a civil society and I do not object to it being necessary for peace officers to have the option of the use of lethal force. However, it is only a sign of how badly out of control this situation became under our elected officials that the method of maintaining order ended up being something positively Soviet in terms of the government setting as a policy that it will use hunter/sniper teams to Americans first and then ask questions later.

 

It might be marginally different is she gave this order herself and then took steps to uphold American rights as much as possible, but she was even begging someone else to come in and set the rules of engagement and shoot-to-kill. I understand why one might have to do something like this, but advocating meansthat the official also must acknowledge the mistakes which led to this last resort solution and it would probably be appropriate for her to end her own life if an innocent, sick, or elderly American loses their life due to this order. it will not happen this way in an America where politicians make huge mistakes that our troops pay for with their lives but it is not good.

 

4. The Prez- I'm sorry about this as well but as Harry Truman once said the buck stops here and like it or not the mistakes here even if primarily the fault of the Mayor and the Governor also fall to the Prez

 

The guys he hired to do the job, (particularly at FEMA) just did not get the job done. Stuff happens and I do not think they should be faulted for the hurrican damage (not reining in the governor of states like MS who as a policy developed casinos on the shoreline which led directly to over 100 deaths of workers not under mandatory evacuation orders who stayed near their low salary jobs is another issue worthy of study).

 

However, it is a massive failure of an executive branch that took on the obligation to paid by our tax dollars to protect us, the sick, the elderly and the powerless to not get major relief columns into NO until 4-5 days after the storm is unacceptable as the Prez himself says.

 

Communications were down so this is a real issue, but given that the media seemed to get into the NO convention center where they filmed folks who had been sent their by local law enforment for days with no food or water also sent there and the dead bodies laid nearby being eaten by rats while the FEMA Director hears about this for the first time from the media simply means somebody screwed up big time.

 

Again, a lot of this was caused by a storm which was unpredictable, but the disaster has its rooks in the decisons of man which led to the flooding. It was not predictable but it was forseeable and in fact was forseen. Government did this anyway allowing rich folks to develop inappropriately.

 

Poor folks were allowed and encouraged under government policy to take these cheap jobs of last resort. Personal respomsiblity still exists, but it simply does not release elected officials from th Dems who ran the City and State to the GOP running the Feds from their responsibilities.

 

Its not PC inthis Administration but I hope there is some accountability for these mistakes or we will see similar mistakes from the next disaster or some terrorist attack again.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Awesome post!

[erynthered]

Awesome post!

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Thanks.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Thanks.

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You welcome.

 

I am not exactly the caliber of all the experts around here. Maybe that is why I am not afraid to speak out, even against the people I work for? Just a working man getting paid by the hour.

 

Things in the government can get pretty screwed up. To watch everybody pat themself on the back while people suffer bothers me.

 

We all want to be heros. Nobody wants to be accountable when things head south.

 

Is what I am thinking so wrong?

[erynthered]

You welcome.

 

I am not exactly the caliber of all the experts around here.  Maybe that is why I am not afraid to speak out, even against the people I work for?  Just a working man getting paid by the hour.

 

Things in the government can get pretty screwed up.  To watch everybody pat themself on the back while people suffer bothers me.

 

We all want to be heros.  Nobody wants to be accountable when things head south.

 

Is what I am thinking so wrong?

428688[/snapback]

 

 

No, and stop the bull /sh-- about listing to me. Keep speaking up. Dont hold back just because I suggested. You've had some good post throughout this ordeal E. Some of the best you've ever had. Some great common sense posts. Its when you get Loons like Mike posting his shiit that fry's my ass. Keep up the good work, peace.

 

 

Though, remember, I'll still tell you when you're full of shiit.

 

 

Hug the kids tonight Bro.....

[ExiledInIllinois]

No, and stop the bull /sh-- about listing to me. Keep speaking up. Dont hold back just because I suggested. You've had some good post throughout this ordeal E. Some of the best you've ever had. Some great common sense posts. Its when you get Loons like Mike posting his shiit that fry's my ass. Keep up the good work, peace.

Though, remember, I'll still tell you when you're full of shiit.

Hug the kids tonight Bro.....

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Thank you.

 

Again... I really don't mind the banter, diagreements, fights and what not. This is why I come here... To hear what people are thinking. I really don't want people to agree with me. I want the challenge of hearing differences.

 

Though the years I have tried hard no to get all sappy on people. Every one of you here has their own views which are often dictated by the choices they have made.

 

I may not be a hydraulic engineer but, what is going on there deeply disturbs me. That same water that flows through my hands in order to keep people clean, disease free and navigation flowing becomes water that surrounds NOLA.

 

I may have it easy at times but, I also work my butt off. I have walked the toes of levees, chopped through the poison ivy and thick vegetation of the Upper Mississippi River... I know what it is like and I know what to look for.

 

They will say that they have trained and competent people doing the job. For the most this is the truth. Throughout my years in working for the government one thing holds true. That is the higher-ups will NEVER TAKE THE FALL. They will do this while cutting everybody else and saving their own hides.

 

This past Monday, I fear it finally caught up with them. With such vital and life-protecting assets and liabilities around them they still feel the need to cut things to the bone. For what? All to save a buck. They will say that they are doing it for you... Saving the taxpayer unnecessary expense? Unnecessary expense protecting your own life and security? Huh?

 

On Monday, I prayed for NOLA. Mid-morning I was elated they made it out of the storm. All the while in the back of my head I feared the surge and would the levees hold? As predicted they couldn't stand the pressure. What made them go in those places when the water sloshed over?

 

They will say it just happened, bad design. Well, you know what... Bad maintenance, lazy upkeep can also do that. They will say that the levees were in good condition... Were they? We will never know… the weak areas were blown open... Washing any evidence into NO.

 

I hug my family often.

 

Sorry for the sappiness. I really should start a blog...