I was watching sixty minutes tonight (9/4/05) and man did I get pissed off! It isn't bad enough that some "important" idiot blames a US president for a hurricane. That just shows how STUPID the man saying it really is, even if he IS a rich Kennedy!
OK. Let’s look at what happened, the WHOLE thing, not just the poor people that are dead. All right?
1.) Not one person in New Orleans was there because they were being forced to live there. This is America, we CHOOSE where to live. And we are actually free to MOVE anytime we choose to.
2) New Orleans has been below the level of the ocean for decades. Has ANY one done anything about it? NO! Not one politician, not one resident has ever taken it upon themselves to say with determination "WHOA! Let’s think this through! Let’s not keep building BELOW sea level. WE could have a hurricane and all die!"
3) NOW they HAVE a hurricane. Not a little one, but a category FIVE hurricane. That means your car can be blown over and shuffled around like a child’s toy. That means the wind can pick up a truck trailer and blow it across town. They had two days notice that the storm was coming their way. Did they leave town KNOWING THAT "TOWN" WAS BELOW SEA LEVEL?
NO!!!!!!!!! They hunkered down in their ramshackle houses, and their upscale expensive houses, their buildings that had been built in a community that believes building codes are something to be ignored, or bribed around, not complied with. It is common knowledge that a few bucks buys a pass when the building inspector comes around to "inspect" in New Orleans.
4) And these people that have used no logic at all in making the choices that could have saved their lives, believe that the levies were made without the inspectors being paid off! Somehow THAT part of construction in New Orleans was done right, no corners were cut building them, right? And the levees were strong and properly designed, properly constructed, and properly maintained! Right? Yeah right!
I have a bridge I want to sell to these people!
Do I feel compassion for them, with their problems and deaths and pain and suffering? OF COURSE I DO.
But that is what pissed me off when I was watching sixty minutes. The incredibly callus and smug 60 minutes guy, is intimating that the government was slow getting to New Orleans, and that it was the federal governments fault that people died.
HELLO! You people down there just had one the most destructive forces in the world strike your corrupt city. . . . . . AFTER being warned for two days. Too few people left. The levees, under the control of the local government failed. But that was the federal government’s fault? Right?
It is currently so fashionable to blame everything on someone else, and to NEVER take responsibility for our own actions.
So do I feel sorry for t hem? YEAH! But is it someone else’s fault that they died? I think not.
Now WE all get to pay to put a city back where it should not have been built in the first place, rebuilt as the inspectors get paid off and sub-standard levees are again rebuilt and repaired due to the same corrupt situation.
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4 comments:
Deni...
Stick to writing your sex stories because you apparently know very little about how a very large part of the rest of the country/world lives, or about hurricanes.
kc
I have to agree with kc on this one...stick to what you know,
because this subject is not something you know much about. Sure you have an opinion, but there are as many of those as there are people....Dar
Tell these Bozos to take a hike... I just stumbled on your blog and I don't know, yet, what kind of sex writings you have but you are right on about Katrina.
You are saying what a lot of politically correctly intimidated people are thinking!!!
Deni,
Now, now. You can't blame a hurricane. It is a naturally occurring weather phenomenon. We want to blame hurricanes because of the sluggish response of the government not because of a weather pattern.
Instead of blame constructive goals and barrier schemes should be considered. There is cynical derision and there is apathetic despondence. My fantasy 10-point plan is of the former. Not all of the points will ever be in placed or funded to my liking but hopefully enough of the points will be put in place.
1. A 50-mile no reclamation pristine area reserved for the most environmentally sensitive areas such as the mouth of the MS, the seagrass, vegetation area that slows down the energy of the waves.
A further 10-mile no build area along the shores to lessen direct human impact.
2. A concerted effort to rebuild and recompose the barrier islands dotting this proposed "no reclamation" area. With an eye towards promoting the natural sediments and marine life that first attracted Europeans to settle here. It could be transformed into a nature preserve of sorts. An area with as few human imprints as possible. Sort of like the Galapagos Island nature preserve where only biologists and other scientists can be present to be regulated as they visit those islands.
3. A strict quarantine on the scale of exploitation in this 10-mile area. I understand there may already be extraction activity presently but a strict observance scaling back extraction activity is the goal. By the various businesses intensely removing sediment and such it is creating weaknesses and gaps where the energy of a wave can escape.
4. A Dutch style lock scheme where the height of a wave can be measured. If the wave is deemed dangerously high, then the gates automatically close for the duration of such wave activity. The gates would be constructed in a sieve-like manner allowing fish and marine life to pass through unimpeded or minimally invasive.
5. Greater taxation of the businesses that harness the region's bounties so that it may pay for the programs of balancing the needs of tourism and industry.
6. An immediate moratorium on further extraction activities. To examine harnessing policies and patterns of the oil derricks and rigs. To monitor usage patterns on the extraction sites. To enforce the "leave it as you found it" laws.
7. To hire more ACE people. Hire more civilian engineers, outside consultants. Raise the salaries of the ACE. To allow them a lasaize-faire policy. To pump more money into the agency.
8. To overhaul the policies that govern the management of all public works sites (bridges, canals and locks). Sites that would directly be impacted should a category 5 or larger hurricane ever strike. Particular focus and attention should be paid to the quality materiel, workmanship, integrity, and lifespan of such public works, especially the locks and canals. The seawall that surrounds N-O should be included in this exhaustive study.
9. An emergency readiness and action plan proposition bill should be passed each hurricane season to determine if everything and all that could have happened occurred. Special Prop bills should be offered to voters who can then determine if a politician, given all that he/she knew of the impending disaster planned ahead. If they did not then they should be removed.
10. A state-wide disaster preparation plan should be locally practiced as part of a parish receiving federal aid. Practice it so much that everyone knows where to go and what to do and what to expect when the next big one comes around. Just like the intensity of the heyday of the atomic bomb drills of the 1950-60s.
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