Begin forwarded message: From: Tom Jackson <tom_jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: September 6, 2005 6:24:35 PM EDT To: 'Dave Farber' <dave@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Blame the government...whoever that is.....; Pardon the screed – for IP if appropriate.I thought my ability to be outraged was nearing exhaustion – until I read this….
President Bush and Congressional leaders vowed today to find out what went wrong in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, with Mr. Bush declaring that "bureaucracy's not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people."
The posting on the NY Times web site continues…..On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, the chairwoman and the ranking minority member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said hearings would be held. "Government at all levels failed," said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and chairwoman of the panel, who appeared with the ranking Democrat, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.
"It is difficult to understand the lack of preparedness and the ineffective initial response to a disaster that had been predicted for years, and for which specific, dire warnings had been given for days," Senator Collins said.
So bureaucracy and government are the problem?Well, yes. The government eviscerated FEMA to build “Fatherland Security”. The government slashed spending on dikes. The government is led by a man who “couldn’t foresee” the situation in New Orleans. The “bureaucracy” is busy sending troops and hundreds of billions of dollars to support a boondoggle of a war, but wastes days and days before sending troops to Americans in need – and then sends troops with the order to “shoot to kill”.
I don’t think the “government” is the problem. I don’t think “bureaucracy” is the problem. The problem is that the people running the government, the people running the bureaucracy, won’t take any responsibility for anything.
A good starting point would be for Bush, Collins, Lieberman, and about 48 other Senators to admit their incompetence, or to put it more kindly, indifference. Rather than more Republican anti- government rhetoric, more scape-goating, and more spin, why can’t the responsible parties simply stand up and admit to errors? Failure to do so is every bit as shameful as the needless human suffering in New Orleans.
Our elected and appointed governmental officials will find structures and processes and people to blame, but they will never admit that their skewed priorities and contemptuous disregard for the poor and the sick among us are the root causes of the post-Katrina tragedy of New Orleans.
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