[IP] NYT op-ed: Waiting for a Leader
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From: "Paul Saffo"<psaffo@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: 01/09/05 10:34:34 AM
To: "Dave Farber"<dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: NYT op-ed: Waiting for a Leader
New York Times Editorials
September 1, 2005
Waiting for a Leader
George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday,
especially given the level of national distress and the need for
words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this
administration, the president appeared a day later than he was
needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an
Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice,
generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He
advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash,
grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.
We will, of course, endure, and the city of New Orleans must come
back. But looking at the pictures on television yesterday of a place
abandoned to the forces of flood, fire and looting, it was hard not
to wonder exactly how that is going to come to pass. Right now,
hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern
and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent
peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and
throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given confidence
that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought
under control at a moment when television has been showing long lines
at some pumps and spot prices approaching $4 a gallon have been
reported.
Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen
in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been
one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor
yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness -
suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.
While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate
needs, the nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so
inadequate. Publications from the local newspaper to National
Geographic have fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in
this beloved city, which is below sea level. Why were developers
permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that could have
held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered
off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some
of the gaping holes in the area's flood protection?
It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily
announced, America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this
crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are
right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of
future hurricanes. But since this administration won't acknowledge
that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/opinion/01thu1.html
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