Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Things Learned From the Katrina Debacle
I personally endured a great loss during Katrina. I feel that the responsibility for this debacle lies with the combined incompetence of the Mayor, the NOPD, the State of Louisiana, FEMA, and the President.
I also learned several things from this occurrence. First, I learned that we cannot depend on a Mayor who is more interested in the business community than the people he was primarily elected to represent. Second, that New Orleans cannot function with a Police Chief that had to be sent to charm school to learn to speak coherently. Obviously, he should never have been promoted above a patrolman. Third, I learned that we have an ineffective Governor who is not respected, and finally the dumbest President in modern U.S. History.
I hope a few others learned something too. I hope, for example, the people of St. Bernard Parish learned a bit of a lesson. It’s interesting to see them on TV begging for trailers and in FEMA lines for the same handouts they “block voted” to deny to minorities, whom they considered so far below themselves. It calls to mind the old adage “what goes around, always comes around”. It’s really strange how things happen, isn’t it?
My feelings of bitterness stem from my experiences, but I have met many others that suffered the same or a similar fate.
New Orleans is now at a pivotal point in its history. I have just about made up my mind that if the people of New Orleans are stupid enough to reelect Mr. Nagin, I will be one of the first to leave.
My association with the present Mayor goes back a long way. In 1968, I was a graduate student and teaching assistant at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where Ray Nagin was an undergraduate. Being from New Orleans, we all knew each other. When he ran for Mayor, I felt an association, despite the fact that I was never his political confidant. In essence, I supported him when he was elected. Now I realize that just because he could run a monopoly cable company, he was not the person New Orleans needed as Mayor.
He dedicated his first three years to tearing down the house that Marc Morial built, but he didn’t build a better one to replace it.
I realize that Ray Nagin, Eddie Compass, Governor Blanco, or President Bush could not have prevented Hurricane Kartina. But they sure could have reacted to it more sensibly. There is no doubt in my mind that, had the evacuation been run more efficiently, my Mother would be alive today.
Yes, I suffered a very great loss. But the greatest loss for many others may lie ahead if we don’t vote to really change things from New Orleans all the way to Washington, D.C.
Contributed by T.R. Aspie
I also learned several things from this occurrence. First, I learned that we cannot depend on a Mayor who is more interested in the business community than the people he was primarily elected to represent. Second, that New Orleans cannot function with a Police Chief that had to be sent to charm school to learn to speak coherently. Obviously, he should never have been promoted above a patrolman. Third, I learned that we have an ineffective Governor who is not respected, and finally the dumbest President in modern U.S. History.
I hope a few others learned something too. I hope, for example, the people of St. Bernard Parish learned a bit of a lesson. It’s interesting to see them on TV begging for trailers and in FEMA lines for the same handouts they “block voted” to deny to minorities, whom they considered so far below themselves. It calls to mind the old adage “what goes around, always comes around”. It’s really strange how things happen, isn’t it?
My feelings of bitterness stem from my experiences, but I have met many others that suffered the same or a similar fate.
New Orleans is now at a pivotal point in its history. I have just about made up my mind that if the people of New Orleans are stupid enough to reelect Mr. Nagin, I will be one of the first to leave.
My association with the present Mayor goes back a long way. In 1968, I was a graduate student and teaching assistant at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where Ray Nagin was an undergraduate. Being from New Orleans, we all knew each other. When he ran for Mayor, I felt an association, despite the fact that I was never his political confidant. In essence, I supported him when he was elected. Now I realize that just because he could run a monopoly cable company, he was not the person New Orleans needed as Mayor.
He dedicated his first three years to tearing down the house that Marc Morial built, but he didn’t build a better one to replace it.
I realize that Ray Nagin, Eddie Compass, Governor Blanco, or President Bush could not have prevented Hurricane Kartina. But they sure could have reacted to it more sensibly. There is no doubt in my mind that, had the evacuation been run more efficiently, my Mother would be alive today.
Yes, I suffered a very great loss. But the greatest loss for many others may lie ahead if we don’t vote to really change things from New Orleans all the way to Washington, D.C.
Contributed by T.R. Aspie
