The Dutch Uncle: Did Anyone Learn the Responsibility Lesson From Katrina?
Slightly over one year has elapsed since Hurricane Katrina savagely slammed the Gulf, taking billions in property, 1,500 lives, and the morale of the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and every other place that the storm’s wrath let her force be known.
The real story of Katrina—a tale of governmental folly at every level, political backstabbing, and the absence of accountability is rarely told. The truth is that Katrina was a horrendous chapter in the nation’s history, and one which left many innocent victims dead and even more without their homes, towns, and personal treasurers.
As news coverage of the one year anniversary fills newspaper columns and television news tributes, we are left to wonder—did anyone learn a lesson at all from this horrible travesty? The one thing that I have taken away from every Katrina recap in the media is this: someone is to blame and responsibility is no longer an option for anyone.
If you listen to the psychobabble of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, you would likely believe that the federal government, President Bush, and white America were all in cahoots, controlling the weather to maximize the storm’s impact, deny relief and rescue to blacks, and then stage a poorly planned rebuilding scheme.
Those who believe such a laughable set of ideas are either trapped in the multiculturalist “blame everyone else first” mindset or know very little of how the world works.
First, all must understand that George W. Bush did not engineer a response that intentionally left one group of Americans from being “saved” from Katrina’s wrath. President Bush did, on the other hand, make the repeated promise during the 2004 campaign that if reelected, his administration would protect Americans from harm.
Although it would be impossible for the Bush Administration to prevent a hurricane, people still have the right to believe a campaign promise from the man who was reelected with a historic-sized vote. President Bush’s response to Katrina has been less than stellar for the past 12 months, leaving many to wonder whether or not he was paying attention at all.
Second, the situation in New Orleans was made worse by the Lord of the Windbags, Ray Nagin, who demonstrated that it is possible to turn any issue into a race war. Nagin’s frequent playing of the race card (the only card in his deck) has also led to growing numbers of minorities who believe his spin and hype. As a result, portions of black America believe in the Kanye West/Ray Nagin idea that white folks don’t care about black people—another preposterous presumption.
Third, the news media should have realized their responsibility to filter out stories which attempted to turn this awful catastrophe into another political crusade for the Jesse Jackson crowd by reporting facts rather than racial finger pointing.
Fourth, our wonderful elected “leaders” around the nation (Bush, Nagin, Kathleen “The Napping Governor” Blanco) have given a complete pass to the people of New Orleans for their abrogation of responsibility in the wake of a pending storm of death.
People had days upon days to prepare for the storm and to get out of Dodge. Instead of being responsible for themselves and their families, they relied on the word of government elites who said that they would be safe. For this delay in evacuating, people have themselves to blame. Politicians, rather than stressing individual responsibility, have decided to pander to the people who chose not to save themselves in hopes of scoring political points.
Two recent examples of such embarrassing pandering come to mind. Writing for Yahoo! News on August 24, Mira Oberman concluded that for those who grew up in New Orleans, the shock of Katrina confirmed their fear that “the government does not care about black people,” and quoted an angry community leader who then blamed all of New Orleans’ problems both pre and post Katrina on white bigotry.
Perhaps in the most disturbingly reprehensible display of politicking, DNC boss Howard Dean sent out a partisan missive blasting the Republicans for the poverty of pre-Katrina New Orleans and for their “inept” response to the disaster. Then, in a show of statesmanship that surely has left George Washington spinning in his grave, Dean asked brainwashed Democrats to donate books to school children in Louisiana.
These examples illustrate the larger problem facing the entire nation, and why I doubt that any lessons were learned from Katrina. The lesson of responsibility was lost on a Commander-in-Chief who promised security, on the race-baiting Nagin who blames his failures on everything else but his own meager leadership, on a media which cares more about dividing America than getting to the root of the problem, and on a people which chose government dependence over self-reliance.
May we all take a moment to remember the old-fashioned notion of responsibility, Katrina’s disregarded victim.
Nathan Shrader can be reached at nathanrshrader@yahoo.com.
———–
“Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State. They forget that the State lives at the expense of everyone.”
– Frederic Bastiat (1801 - 1850), French statesman and author.
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To be honest I agree with the majority of the article - lots of people made mistakes in the days leading up to and following the hurricane. Governmental structures and services failed at the most basic level and most Americans were permanantly disabused of whatever illusions they had had about our government\'s ability to handle a large-scale urban disaster, especially in the post-9-11 world. Misinformation was a major factor in the initial response and remains one today (I read in another article which discussed Spike Lee\'s new HBO documentary about the disaster that many New Orleans/9th ward residents remain convinced that the explosion sounds they heard during the storm were not the sounds of the levees being breached naturally but the sound of the National Guard intentionally destroying them, sacrificing the poorer sections of the city in order to save the wealthier ones). And you would think in a day and age when everyone and their mothers has a cell phone or a PDA or at the very least internet access that the President, the head of FEMA and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security would be at least as well informed as CNN or the New York Times.
But leaving all that aside, I must take issue with one of the author\'s points: that the New Orleans residents who didn\'t manage to leave the city in time bear responsibility for their plight, and that this lack of acceptance of personal responsibility is one of the major problems in hindering the recovery from the storm. While I completely agree that those residents who had the means to leave the city but chose not to have no one to blame but themselves for whatever happened to them, it is both insensitive and irresponsible to place any blame on those residents who were either too poor, too sick or too old to evacuate without assistance. Those people are exactly the kind of folks that the city, the state authorities, and the federal government should all have shared responsibility for, but, as is generally the case, those most vulnerable and in need were left out hanging when disaster struck. When they needed government the most, government failed them, and still a year later there is no plan in place, no structure created to catch those people who so often fall through the cracks. If another hurricane or terrorist attack struck there is no guarantee that the federal government or other state and local authorities would be ready or able to help, and that\'s really scary.
I agree with the argument, but would like to point out two things First, it\'s hard to learn the lesson of responsibility when no one was there to assume responsibility to begin with. To the author\'s point, the residents of New Orleans had days to evacuate, however the majority of those that were stranded (whom chose to leave their homes behind) were in all probability, poor and ill-equipped to evacuate. It\'s hard to place blame on them if they had no means to evacuate. I would therefore say that the mantle of responsibility fell on the government at the local, state and federal level. For those that cannot get themselves out of harms way, the government MUST assume that responsibility.
Second, it is generally agreeable that Bush did not solely engineer the response to the Katrina disaster. It would be unfair to place that burden on him. However, as the President of the United States, he is responsible for hiring the management that was responsible for the response. Thus, as one president once said, \"the buck stops here!\" Instead of taking responsibility, he let the controversy surrounding Mr. Brown fester until he had no choice but to resign.
In the end, no lessons were learned from Katrina and the blame game goes round and round.
To be honest I agree with the majority of the article - lots of people made mistakes in the days leading up to and following the hurricane. Governmental structures and services failed at the most basic level and most Americans were permanantly disabused of whatever illusions they had had about our government’s ability to handle a large-scale urban disaster, especially in the post-9-11 world. Misinformation was a major factor in the initial response and remains one today (I read in another article which discussed Spike Lee’s new HBO documentary about the disaster that many New Orleans/9th ward residents remain convinced that the explosion sounds they heard during the storm were not the sounds of the levees being breached naturally but the sound of the National Guard intentionally destroying them, sacrificing the poorer sections of the city in order to save the wealthier ones). And you would think in a day and age when everyone and their mothers has a cell phone or a PDA or at the very least internet access that the President, the head of FEMA and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security would be at least as well informed as CNN or the New York Times.
But leaving all that aside, I must take issue with one of the author’s points: that the New Orleans residents who didn’t manage to leave the city in time bear responsibility for their plight, and that this lack of acceptance of personal responsibility is one of the major problems in hindering the recovery from the storm. While I completely agree that those residents who had the means to leave the city but chose not to have no one to blame but themselves for whatever happened to them, it is both insensitive and irresponsible to place any blame on those residents who were either too poor, too sick or too old to evacuate without assistance. Those people are exactly the kind of folks that the city, the state authorities, and the federal government should all have shared responsibility for, but, as is generally the case, those most vulnerable and in need were left out hanging when disaster struck. When they needed government the most, government failed them, and still a year later there is no plan in place, no structure created to catch those people who so often fall through the cracks. If another hurricane or terrorist attack struck there is no guarantee that the federal government or other state and local authorities would be ready or able to help, and that’s really scary.
I agree with the argument, but would like to point out two things First, it’s hard to learn the lesson of responsibility when no one was there to assume responsibility to begin with. To the author’s point, the residents of New Orleans had days to evacuate, however the majority of those that were stranded (whom chose to leave their homes behind) were in all probability, poor and ill-equipped to evacuate. It’s hard to place blame on them if they had no means to evacuate. I would therefore say that the mantle of responsibility fell on the government at the local, state and federal level. For those that cannot get themselves out of harms way, the government MUST assume that responsibility.
Second, it is generally agreeable that Bush did not solely engineer the response to the Katrina disaster. It would be unfair to place that burden on him. However, as the President of the United States, he is responsible for hiring the management that was responsible for the response. Thus, as one president once said, “the buck stops here!” Instead of taking responsibility, he let the controversy surrounding Mr. Brown fester until he had no choice but to resign.
In the end, no lessons were learned from Katrina and the blame game goes round and round.