I haven't written anything in a while. It is not from a lack of something to write about. I just haven't had the desire. But after the cacophony of cackling about Katrina (Hey, kids! Alliteration is cool!), I just wanted to say a few things. A few nasty things. A few things that will have you reading agog. I watched internet streaming from New Orleans television stations WWL and WDSU for a solid week as the hurricane approached and in the horrible aftermath. The coverage was one of what was happening and what people should do. Then a few days after the levees broke, things started to turn ugly. Not ugly in terms of what was actually happening on the ground, but ugly in the rhetoric from politicians and pundits. It was weird, but suddenly the hurricane became George W. Bush's fault. The claims were that the federal response was too slow, that FEMA dragged their feet, that the president's leadership was lacking. Someone needs to tell New Orleans mayor Nagin and Louisiana governor Blanco that government starts at the local level. The primary responsibility for the safety and well-being of the citizens of New Orleans belongs to the city government. If the city needs more help than they can muster, then they appeal to the state. If the state needs assistance, they request it from the federal government. Anyone who knows anything about our system of government knows this. Of course many people do not, which is why hysterical accusations will work on some people. There is a satellite photo of a couple of hundred mostly submerged school buses parked in lots that were not used to get people out of the city. WHAT?!? It's one thing to be critical of action after a disaster, but it is entirely different to not take needed steps beforehand to lessen the impact on humans lives. New Orleans is a city of tourism. In addition to the school busses there are tourist busses all over the place. They could have commandeered busses and gotten people out of harms way. But that didn't happen. Ever after the president declared a state of emergency before the hurricane even hit. The mayor complained about the response time from the feds. He should know that it takes time to coordinate such a response. But he decided to play the blame game rather than to expose his own lack of action that may have ended costing lives. Governor Blanco was completely ineffectual. What was her response? To cry. In every press conference the week following the hurricane, she looked completely out of her element. There was very little leadership coming from Baton Rouge. National Guard troops are under the control of state governments. Her troops and her state Homeland Security office should have been the first responders. But she has to cover up her incompetence by blaming someone else. I have heard that the state National Guard is under some sort of orders not to discuss the timeline of relief orders and activity. Could the state government have been dragging their feet or crossing their fingers hoping for the best? Probably. I never have a problem criticizing the federal government for things and it's quite possible that FEMA was slow as well, although it looks as if they responded in the same manner as with other hurricanes. But a whole lot of things had to happen (or not happen) before their potential ineptitude to become a factor.
Things got ugly for me when Jesse Jackson strode to the microphones in Baton Rouge surrounded by a black caucus. (I don't know if it was the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus or one from the Louisiana state legislature. I think it might have been the latter.) Anyway, he called the president's visit of the devastation simply a ceremonial tour and that he had no compassion for the suffering. Then he started to play the race card. I know, I know. It is the only card he has. But I've always been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on a lot of things. But know I can acknowledge him for what he truly is, a race-baiting media whore. Others carried on from Reverend Jesse's lead by implying that federal response to the disaster was slow because the people who were in peril were mostly black. One of the most outrageous was from eminent scholar, oh, I'm sorry, rapper Kanye West during an NBC relief telethon. Here are the kind of pearls of wisdom that flowed from his fertile mind: George Bush doesn't care about black people; Government authorities are intentionally dragging their feet; The government has given troops permission to go down to New Orleans and shoot black people; America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible. There was only one thing he said that might have some credence. "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food." I think there is a nugget of truth in that, but who is writing these stories and photo captions? It's not George W. Bush. The current crusade of the left is to paint the president and his administration specifically and white people in general as being indifferent to the plight of the people in need. Trying to score political points with the corpses of disaster victims is so classy. Polls seem to show that these efforts have failed to convince the public of this have failed so far. The only suckers are the true believers, the psycho Bush-hating conspiracy theorists on the hard left. Some of these people, so seething with hatred, actually claim to believe that the levees were intentionally destroyed to flood the city. And I recently say a political cartoon by a German cartoonist (yes, I know) that had Bush while watching television coverage saying the following: "At least they're only niggers - Oh! - Beg your pardon, Condy..." The unmitigated gall of this cartoonist! Especially a German!
So here comes my shocking comment. It will come off as insensitive and in poor taste and heartless and in no way do I mean it that way. But if thousands of people end up dead in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, at least they were mostly poor and stupid. Okay, catch your breath and unclench your fists. I don't think that poor people should be put to death and I'm not saying that stupid life is unimportant. All life is important. And I do not inject race into the discussion either. You could just as easily replace a tornado for the hurricane and a run-down trailer park for the poor urban streets of New Orleans. But think about it. Would you rather have a thousand doctors or a thousand physicists or a thousand poor people die in a hurricane? Poor people are poor because of the decisions they make in life. Some people start out a little behind because of circumstances. Maybe mom is a welfare brood mother. Maybe dad skipped town. Life can start out pretty lousy for people when their parents are worthless. But we have free education in the government school system for everyone. We all have the same opportunity to apply our God-given abilities to be successful in our lives. Some people choose not to. Some girls choose to engage in behavior that leads to getting knocked up in high school and dropping out. Some boys choose to run in gangs rather than get real jobs. Some people buy big-screen televisions and spinner hub caps instead of saving money. They only way these people will become wealthy is through crime, an insurance settlement or the lottery. Otherwise they will be mired in poverty for the rest of their pitiful lives, blaming everything that happens to them on someone else. All I'm saying is that if someone is going to die in a hurricane, I would rather it be some of these failures. I don't wish death on anyone, with the exception of convicted killers and murdererous dictators. It's just that sometimes God has to wipe the slate clean.
"Now Jeff, you don't really mean that, do you?" Maybe not. But then again maybe.
And another thing...