(no subject)
Accusations and finger-pointing are becoming frustrating pastimes this week, and i am not up for muddling through in true new orleans fashion. there are distinct levels of responsibility, and consequently, shameful levels of complacency.
our government is one of hierarchy, and those immediately responsible for new orleans are our mayor and our governor. they have failed their city in tremendous fashion. an excellent example of this failure is the superdome which was designated as a shelter, a place of relief. this "shelter" was not in any way prepared to actually shelter it's occupants. the governor and the mayor played a game of "let's cross our fingers" and the city suffered. they knew the worst case scenario, as i believe we all did. for the last four years i have heard it said over and over: a category three will inundate the city and the levees will break. why were they not prepared for this? what good is wishing the levees stronger or the city higher? now they are whining and reacting petulantly, pointing fingers at everyone else. that higher levels of government, such as the president, were not immediate in their allocation of resources, was the result of a pause that was owed to the leaders of the state. washington was determining their response while assuming that the governor and mayor would be implementing their plans. too bad they didn't have one. nagin, blanco, and the criminals now waving their true colors are the ones who have let us down. realize this: it is not washington that is responsible to have a worst-case-scenario plan for each possible disaster in each city, that would be ineffectual foolishness. blanco and nagin; they can be credited with much of the superdome and convention center tragedies, un-evacuated hospitals, the lack of care for the displaced, and their failure to make known to higher ups that the construction of the levees should not be determined by cost-effectiveness. again, washington is not responsible for micro-managing our cities, that is why we have governors, mayors, congressmen, et cetera.
j.jackson has said that difference between those who lived and those who died in this disaster should not be a matter of race. it is not. it is a matter of the same complacency exhibited by blanco and nagin. i believe many remained in the city out of stupidity and out of an attitude of "someone else will fix this for me". this behavior pattern is a familiar one if you have lived in new orleans or any other major city; a rampant sentiment of "fix it, mommy" victim-playing.
i maintain that new orleans, like many cities, is one segregated by finances. many people, white, black, otherwise -- some but not all as foolish as those people just mentioned -- were not able to leave because they represent some of the most poor in our city: they did not have transportation. mostly they were black; as said, new orleans is segregated right along the poverty line. they were forced to cross their fingers alongside blanco and nagin, who had the means but not the will to help them. this tragedy is not about race, it is about willing and unwilling victims. still others hoped to take advantage of the resultant chaos. this latter group can also be held responsible for the absolutely shameful happenings over the last week. they are the looters, the rapists, the gunmen. they are not people transformed by tragedy, they are criminals with an opportunity.
criticisms are easy to make when everything is going wrong. i believe that the guilty are those that knew that everything could go wrong in just this way, those that didn't mind if it did, and those that hoped someone else would just make it go away. new orleans did not press the self-destruct button, it just watched and let somebody else do it.
our government is one of hierarchy, and those immediately responsible for new orleans are our mayor and our governor. they have failed their city in tremendous fashion. an excellent example of this failure is the superdome which was designated as a shelter, a place of relief. this "shelter" was not in any way prepared to actually shelter it's occupants. the governor and the mayor played a game of "let's cross our fingers" and the city suffered. they knew the worst case scenario, as i believe we all did. for the last four years i have heard it said over and over: a category three will inundate the city and the levees will break. why were they not prepared for this? what good is wishing the levees stronger or the city higher? now they are whining and reacting petulantly, pointing fingers at everyone else. that higher levels of government, such as the president, were not immediate in their allocation of resources, was the result of a pause that was owed to the leaders of the state. washington was determining their response while assuming that the governor and mayor would be implementing their plans. too bad they didn't have one. nagin, blanco, and the criminals now waving their true colors are the ones who have let us down. realize this: it is not washington that is responsible to have a worst-case-scenario plan for each possible disaster in each city, that would be ineffectual foolishness. blanco and nagin; they can be credited with much of the superdome and convention center tragedies, un-evacuated hospitals, the lack of care for the displaced, and their failure to make known to higher ups that the construction of the levees should not be determined by cost-effectiveness. again, washington is not responsible for micro-managing our cities, that is why we have governors, mayors, congressmen, et cetera.
j.jackson has said that difference between those who lived and those who died in this disaster should not be a matter of race. it is not. it is a matter of the same complacency exhibited by blanco and nagin. i believe many remained in the city out of stupidity and out of an attitude of "someone else will fix this for me". this behavior pattern is a familiar one if you have lived in new orleans or any other major city; a rampant sentiment of "fix it, mommy" victim-playing.
i maintain that new orleans, like many cities, is one segregated by finances. many people, white, black, otherwise -- some but not all as foolish as those people just mentioned -- were not able to leave because they represent some of the most poor in our city: they did not have transportation. mostly they were black; as said, new orleans is segregated right along the poverty line. they were forced to cross their fingers alongside blanco and nagin, who had the means but not the will to help them. this tragedy is not about race, it is about willing and unwilling victims. still others hoped to take advantage of the resultant chaos. this latter group can also be held responsible for the absolutely shameful happenings over the last week. they are the looters, the rapists, the gunmen. they are not people transformed by tragedy, they are criminals with an opportunity.
criticisms are easy to make when everything is going wrong. i believe that the guilty are those that knew that everything could go wrong in just this way, those that didn't mind if it did, and those that hoped someone else would just make it go away. new orleans did not press the self-destruct button, it just watched and let somebody else do it.