[IP] more on Levees down after funding cuts
Begin forwarded message:
From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk@xxxxxxx>
Date: August 31, 2005 11:56:09 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, Sashikumar N
<sashikumar.n@xxxxxxxxx>, Dave Burstein <daveb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] Levees down after funding cuts
1. Some of the levees/floodwalls in New Orleans are going to end
up holding water *in*.
2. As everyone knows by now, New Orleans is shaped like a big bowl,
and that bowl is rapidly filling with water. Has anyone seen a
calculation yet on what effect the weight of all that water will have?
3. All that water has picked up an incredible assortment of chemicals.
(Nearly) the entire city is soaking in that soup; it may stay that way
for quite a while, providing ample time for those chemicals to leach
into, well, everything. How does that get cleaned up?
4. Thinking the unthinkable: does any politician have the guts to
suggest that maaaaaaybe the idea of NOT rebuilding in place should
at least be on the table for discussion? After all: this is going
to happen again; it's only a question of when.
5. The hubris of those who speak in terms of "controlling" natural
forces, even with abundant evidence of their incredible power all
around them, never ceases to amaze me.
Men may dam it and say that they have made a lake,
but it will still be a river.
It will keep its nature and bide its time,
like a caged wild animal alert for the slightest opening.
In time it WILL have its way; the dam, like the ancient cliffs,
will be carried away piecemeal in the currents.
---Wendell Berry
---Rsk
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