The Ugly Truth About Why We Couldn't Save
THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS
Written for my kids and special friends who care.
I told the pastor after church... "Do you realize that if this were in the Old Testament days, this catastrophe would not be blamed on Pharaoh, but on an angry God? Do you see the Biblical themes in this destruction...the good perish with the evil, the gambling casinos tossed a half mile onto shore, the homes flooded, the people calling for God to save them... and in the end, blaming the government?"
I don't know about retribution, but I can tell you that New Orleans was until ten days ago, the hub of AIDS transmission, legalized (look the other way) prostitution... male and female, bookmaking, a hidden black poverty infrastructure on welfare and corrupt as rotten tomatoes officials, right up to the mayor. You can blame Bush, Cheney, anybody you want, but the hurricane was a category 4-5, and the levees broke... which really killed the city... without the latter, there would have been big damage, but not 100 billion.
We are living in an era in which "victimization" is popular and this event will top all others when it is all over. Yes, the incredible generosity of the American people in dollars and volunteer time, homes, jobs and clothing will be once again, above everything anyone expected... but down deep, there is a chasm between the blamers and the folks like me, who say, "Life is tough sometimes, and you have to rise above it." I will do all I can to aid the good organizations.... which are helping. But woe on those who will use this to batter a president and blame people who could not have predicted.
Law says local, then county, then state officials are in charge of these things. As of Monday... when it was hitting, CNN said, "There might be 20-30 dead from Hurricane Katrina". Nobody knew.
As a soldier who prepared for mass casualties for Tet I can say - you are NEVER well enough prepared. You can NEVER predict where your enemy will strike (especially hurricanes) and in this case, to have put resources IN PLACE in New Orleans...men, food, water, trucks...would have been utter folly... as they would have been destroyed and the criticism would be even worse. When it was over, getting there was nearly impossible for three days.
Many New Orleans people did not evacuate as told. The levees were 80-100 years old and Congress in 1997 voted down appropriations to rebuild and strengthen them. The pumps were vintage 1950. Electricity failed: no pumps. New Orleans is 12-18 feet below Lake Ponchartrain.... a huge lake. Add monsoon rain, a levee break and bingo... flooded. The hurricane was easy. The flood was the thing. Without the levee breaks, it would have been bad, but not horrible.
Looting: all you have to do is look at the Chicago Bulls victory in the NBA, and other sports franchise cities which have won... to see inner city trashing, overturned cars, burning tires and looting. Watts in LA was classic, and yet, in NYC when the lights went out in 1964 (?) there was no crime. My mom and dad walked from Manhattan home... 18 miles to Pelham, NY.... in the dark.
9-11 was different... police and fire were intact and sandwich stores 4 blocks from ground zero were serving ham on rye at the usual price. The essential underpinnings of society remained intact.
In New Orleans and Biloxi......... the essential underpinnings were corrupt from the start... police, mayor and contingency services. 30% of New Orleans police have fled and thrown away their badges. Murder was the norm in the Big Easy... 149 until the hurricane... one a day. The assistant to the mayor just shot himself in the head... committed suicide! They were rotten from the beginning. Yes, they had families and kids and homes destroyed, but they swore an oath to "Protect and Defend" and they bailed. I salute those valiant police and fire folks who have remained on their jobs while worrying about loved ones in shelters and flooded homes. They are the heroes, they stayed on task when their families were hurting but their code of loyalty enabled them to continue to serve.
I will not fault anyone. From the President to even the Mayor... nobody ever expected this. It was a "100 year storm"... Before you pounce... ask yourself... do you have six weeks of food, water, batteries, Coleman lantern fuel, sleeping bags, cereal, medications, bandages, radio, flashlight.... the bare essentials for survival for over a month without power, toilets or cooking facilities???? DO YOU??? Well, I DO. And I also have self-protective arms and ammunition... not for the innocent who have nothing, who stumble or come in droves to my property for whom I will offer shelter... but for those, who we have seen recently, would use this tragic event as a staging ground for robbery, rape and murder. My Second Amendment rights allow me to defend that which is mine and my family's. And I will do it to my last breath.
In the same token, I will give generously to those in need, to those organizations such as the Red Cross who come to the aid of the victims... regardless of their failures to follow orders or their inability to evacuate.
Finally, this is just another test of democracy; of our great nation to survive. We gave billions to the Asian Tsunami victims... America was 90% of the contributions. Aircraft carriers, Red Cross, Meals, plywood, bottled water... Wal*Mart, Pepsi, Caterpillar, churches...all chipped in... big time.
Tell me...where are those who we have saved before, now when we are in need... where is France, which we saved in two World Wars? Where is Germany which we defeated and graciously rebuilt with American taxpayer money? Where is Japan, which attacked us and in defeat, we granted democracy and freedom and became the second most powerful industrial power on earth? Where is Kuwait, whom we saved in 1992... giving back their fiefdom and oil wells and kingdom... with American GI's and blood. Who has stepped up? Israel. Great Britain. And Saudis will pump more...sure, at 68 dollars a barrel.
Don't go for the blame game. Don't let Jesse Jackson, the weasel Charles Shumer (D-NY) and that ilk suck you in. This is not politics. Like him or not, the President had no control. This is not of his doing. This is a natural disaster. Putting troops and helicopters in front of a Category 4-5 is crazy. It does take 4 days to get the thing going............ for a million people. Base your future judgment on WHAT WE DO.... the human stories of America will amaze you; folks taking in whole families, businesses giving employment to people with no jobs. WATCH THIS. IT WILL AMAZE YOU. I have seen it before. It is the American sprit. It still lives... give it a chance.
Blame is non-productive. Ask yourself... what can I do? Can I send 10 or 20 or more dollars to a relief organization? Can I go there for 3 weeks when it is safe and immunize or clear debris? Can I agree to a ½ % two year specific "hurricane tax" on my IRS and feel it is worthwhile?
When you sleep in your warm bed underneath your intact ceiling tonight... can you say, "Thank you Lord....my family is safe"?
Everyone has a wall, a challenge, a war, an illness, a time to step up. Think of something you can do... anything. And do it.
"Even as you have done it to the least of these, my children, you have done it also unto me" JESUS.
Or...the Golden Rule: so basic, so true: "Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you."