|
[Editor's Note: This week, Hershel has some insightful, provocative,
sometimes intemperate observations and information on the recent disaster
-- observations you may not have heard expressed by the mainstream press.
(That's what Hershel does.)
But, actions speak louder than words. We encourage you to contribute to the
relief effort. Our recommended charity is the Salvation Army. You can
contribute here.]
Several observations came to my mind as I watched the disaster along the
Gulf Coast and Mississippi unfurl. My mind wandered along several
veins:
You cannot compare the magnitude and human response to this disaster
side by side against any other. It is unique.
For instance, Hurricane Andrew (1992) or Hurricane Charly (2004) --
either one -- as destructive as they were, affected directly, at most,
4-5 million people. Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath has directly
affected at least 12 million people. The magnitude of Katrina and its
aftermath make comparisons of little value.
On the whole, Americans are the most compassionate, the most generous
people on earth. Do not let anyone convince you otherwise. Americans,
one at a time, will dig the Mississippi delta out of this mess.
The big issue here was not the hurricane itself; it was the failure of
the levees that were supposed to protect New Orleans. Without that, this
would have been a terrible hurricane aftermath, but a manageable one. It
was the breaks in the levees which spun this disaster out of control.
Everyone who knew anything about the levees knew that this was a
disaster waiting to happen. New Orleans -- three words: BELOW -- SEA
-- LEVEL. The levees were built to withstand a category three
hurricane. Did they think that a category four or five hurricane would
never hit? This is not George Bush's fault. This is a fault of local and
state government. The failure did not occur last week; it began thirty
years ago. And every local and state government leader since then who
failed to focus attention on this disaster waiting to happen must accept
responsibility.
|
Contrary to the screams of the detractors, rescue helicopters and trucks
carrying supplies did arrive on Monday. Were there enough
of them? Of course not. (How many would have been
enough?)
Sure the federal government responded too slowly. Hey, it's the
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! That is one of the hallmarks of federal
government. Anyone who knows the first thing about federal government
knows that. It is always been thus; it always will be. The government
does not respond quickly enough to anything. The higher you go in
government, the slower the response is. Fact of life.
That is all the more reason that you should not rely on the federal
government.
The fact that the liberals and the press (along with the willing federal
bureaucracy) have led you to believe that the government is the solution
to any and all social problems causes people to focus their anger at the
president. That is wrong, of course; but that is how we have been
conditioned.
Sure, you can blame President Bush, if it makes you feel better. Yeah,
go ahead.... let it out. Hate Bush, hate Bush, hate Bush. There; better
now?
What you won't hear in the mainstream press is that before the hurricane
hit, President Bush implored Louisiana Governor Blanco to issue a
first-ever mandatory evacuation order for New Orleans. That act alone
probably saved tens of thousands of lives (most of them blacks, by the
way).
|
|
|
When you want to accomplish something, the bureaucracy is our worst
enemy, and it is always in the way. Why didn't FEMA (the Federal
Emergency Management Agency) respond more quickly? Well, by law, FEMA
cannot respond until it receives a specific request from a state
government. Why didn't FEMA provide support to private hospitals? Well,
because, by law, FEMA can provide support only to public hospitals, not
private ones. Why weren't these bureaucratic limitations overridden
faster? Please! Asking that question shows that you do not understand how
the federal government works.... or how inefficient it is.
|
|
But the truth is... it's the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Bill Clinton
could have bitten his lower lip sooner and harder; but substantively, he
could not have done any more or any better. This is a bureaucracy issue,
not a presidential issue.
President Eisenhower noted with disgust that, when he commanded an army,
he would give an order, and things happened -- immediately. But as
president, he would give an order to the bureaucracy... and 30 days
later, nothing had happened.
During the Cuban Missile crisis, President Kennedy shouted in anger that
he had ordered the missiles in Turkey to be removed several times... yet
nothing happened. Missiles in Turkey were one of the reasons the USSR
sent nukes to Cuba in 1962.
"The U.S. had begun to deploy fifteen Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range
ballistic missiles) nuclear missiles near Izmir, Turkey, which directly
threatened cities in the western sections of the Soviet Union. These
missiles were regarded by President Kennedy as being of questionable
strategic value, as a nuclear submarine was capable of providing the
same cover with both stealth and superior firepower. On taking office in
1961, Kennedy ordered that the Jupiter missiles be removed."
--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
"By the time that the Turkish Jupiters had been installed, the missiles
were already largely obsolete and increasingly vulnerable to Soviet
attacks. President John F. Kennedy ordered the removal of all Jupiter
IRBMs upon taking office in 1961. The Air Force, however, delayed
removal and the President was infuriated to learn that they had not yet
been removed more than a year later. All Jupiter IRBM's were removed
from service by April 1963."
-- http://www.answers.com/topic/jupiter-irbm
George Shultz was once asked how he would compare management in the private sector, public
sector, and academics: "In the private sector you better be careful what you ask for because
people are going to go out and do it. . . . The government, you don't have to worry about that.
You tell people do something and you check back two months later and nothing's happened. But in
the academic world, you tell people to do something and they look at you strangely and they say,
'Who the heck do you think you are giving us orders?'"
|
Nonetheless, the president's public statements last week were miserably
pitiful. No question, he is a terrible public communicator. He is much
better in private and in smaller groups. I know that for a fact.
Fair or not, no matter what happens after this, what happened last week
will go down as a huge black mark on his administration.
Given the bureaucracy's inefficiency, is it any wonder that the
government hires private contractors to do so much of its heavy lifting
around the world? No, it is not any wonder to anyone who knows about the
federal government. Yell at Halliburton all you want, but their
performance record is far superior to that of the government. Halliburton
gets things done.... quickly. The federal government does not.
(On September 7, U.S. Congressman Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said just as much:
"My office became so frustrated with the bureaucracy that we often turned
to private companies. They responded more quickly and flexibly. ")
Maybe... just maybe... the government should have called Halliburton to
deal with the early stages of this disaster.
What you saw last week, folks, was a preview of the chaos that will
ensue after the next major terrorist attack. Suppose that Al Qaeda gets
ahold of a dirty nuclear bomb, or sarin gas, or 10 pounds of anthrax. Or
suppose they manage to dump a ton of poison into the water supply. And
suppose they manage to do it in three major cities simultaneously.
Imagine the same thing in, say..... Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los
Angeles at the same time. Imagine what happened last week, plus fear and
panic in every other major city in the country -- all at the same time.
Not a pleasant thought, huh? What do you think the odds are? Maybe it's a
pretty good idea we're fight them over there instead of over here,
huh?
|
Did you notice that the FIRST thing the vocal opposition
did was complain that this was all George Bush's fault. Yep; global
warming, which is George Bush's fault, caused this. Robert F. Kennedy,
Jr. said that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is to blame, since, as a
Republican advisor a decade ago, he recommended opposing the Kyoto
Protocol (a ridiculous proposal that the Senate voted against, 95-0,
during the Clinton administration). Quite a stretch, isn't it? Note that
all the opposition could say was that it is George Bush's fault and that
he should have acted sooner. All they have are complaints. How does that
help, and which side is politicizing this issue?
Yep.... they are quick to complain. It's all George Bush's fault. But
did you see any realistic, concrete suggestions from their side? Sure,
complaining is easy. It must be, 'cause they do so much of it.
Oh yeah... and the race card, too. Which side is playing the race card
here? Just watch -- or, look over there to the right.
The hate Bush crowd has falsely claimed that not enough valuable National
Guard troops are available in the country to assist in this disaster.
These are the same people who, for five years, have called George Bush
a chicken-hawk for serving in the Texas Air National Guard, while
"war hero" John Kerry was in Vietnam.
|
|
|
Kanye West on the NBC fundraiser Friday evening: "George Bush doesn't
care about black people."
Well, it took Jesse Jackson a bit longer than usual. But he was right
there:
Racism is partly to blame for the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,
the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, calling President Bush's response to the
disaster "incompetent."
"Today, as the President comes to Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi for
his ceremonial trip to look at the victims of the devastation, he would
do well to have a plan more significant than a ceremonial tour," Jackson
said on Friday. "His whole response is unacceptable."
Playing the race card to its fullest, Jackson questioned why Bush has not
named blacks to top positions in the federal response to the disaster,
particularly when the majority of victims remaining stranded in New
Orleans are black: "How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and
trapped in the suffering?"
"It is that lack of sensitivity and compassion that represents a kind of
incompetence."
So, on top of everything, the president was supposed to employ racial
quotas, huh?
They kept up the drum beat, long after the water had drained. On September 22, Democratic
Representative Charles Rangel said of the president: "George Bush is our Bull Connor."
Theophilus "Bull" Connor was the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, In 1963, he turned fire hoses and
attack dogs on blacks, including Martin Luther King Jr., demonstrating in favor of equal rights.)
Oh yeah; this is both accurate and helpful.
|
|
Get a Job!
You don't have a job? You can't make a living? Go to Louisiana or
Mississippi. Become an electrician, a plumber, a painter, a wallboard
installer, a roofer, a landscape worker, a paver, a builder, a
contractor, a carpet installer, an interior decorator, a heating and air
conditioning contractor, a window installer, a laborer, a wall covering
installer, a welder, a carpenter, a truck driver, a brick layer....
Katrina has laid a layoff-proof career at your doorstep -- not a job, a
career! Oh, and how many of those jobs do you think will
be outsourced?
Never, ever complain to me that you cannot find a job. Never!
Gas This
The high price of gas is a temporary problem. Yeah, I paid $46.50 to
fill up the Mazdamobile last Thursday. The price will come down -- not
to a dollar a gallon. But it will come down.
By the way, we do not have a problem with the supply of gasoline, per
se. We have a problem with the distribution of gasoline. Government
regulations requiring a myriad of blends, and the inability to look for
new sources of oil and other sources of energy has made us dependent on
not only foreign oil, but also on the Gulf Coast. The eco-terrorists are
to blame for that. You want to get angry at someone? Get angry at the
eco-terrorists.
Houston opened its hearts and its doors to accept the new homeless. By
December (and probably a lot sooner than that), they will regret having
done so. The new homeless have their hands out and will expect to have
everything given to them. By December, it will be instinctive.... and
pretty much irreversible.
A large number of those persons bused to Houston, Birmingham and
elsewhere will never return to New Orleans. They will become the new
homeless of Houston, Birmingham and elsewhere. Get ready for it.
They had no food; they had no water.... but most of the homeless and
helpless seemed to have access to plenty of cigarettes. I guess we all
have priorities, huh?
Over the past decade, the crime rate in most every major city in the
country has gone down. In New Orleans, it has gone up. New Orleans has
always been a dangerous, corrupt city. The lawlessness following the
breaks in the levees should not have come as a surprise to anyone in the
know.
Last year, Lou Riegel, the agent in charge of the FBI's New Orleans
office, described Louisiana's public corruption as "epidemic, endemic,
and entrenched. No branch of government is exempt."
I am as non-violent as the next guy. But if the local police had shot to
kill the first looters on Tuesday morning, the looting would have ended
by Tuesday evening... and lives and property of law-abiding citizens
would have been saved.
You are What You Say
There is a ad on radio for a vocabulary-building product that claims,
"Whether it is fair or not, people judge you by the words you use." It's
true. Your words convey your intelligence and your stature. Those who
speak well get more and better attention than those who do not. Fact of
life. Did you hear those helpless and homeless whom the media interviewed
last week? Did any of them ever speak a single complete, grammatically
correct sentence?
|
This will give you an indication of the tone and level of the leadership
in New Orleans. Late last week, Mayor Ray Nagin had this to say this
during a local radio interview:
"You look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their
freaking necks."
"They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over
with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of g--- [expletive deleted] --
excuse my French -- everybody in America, but I am pissed."
"I'm like, you got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get
every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their [anatomical
reference deleted] moving to New Orleans."
"I don't want to see anybody do anymore g--- [expletive deleted] press
conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences."
"Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too
doggone late. Now get off your [anatomical reference deleted] and do
something, and let's fix the biggest g--- [expletive deleted] crisis in
the history of this country."
"I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man."
"But somebody needs to get their [anatomical reference deleted] on a
plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now," he
erupted. "I don't want to see anybody hold anymore g--- [expletive
deleted] press conferences."
Then he added, as if to bolster his credibility:
"You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly."
(Way too late, as far as I am concerned.)
--
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/
Now, maybe he was speaking to his constituents; maybe he
was connecting with them. But if so, that's even worse. If that level of
discourse appeals to his audience, what does it tell you about his
audience? |
Despite all the negativity and misery to which we have recently been
exposed, this is still the greatest country on earth. For any
able-bodied, able-minded person in the United States, there is more
opportunity for success today than at another other time in history...
than in any other country on earth.
Empower Thyself
I cannot fix the government. I cannot advise the government. But I do
have a few thoughts for you, as an individual:
As I see it, the most important lesson that any individual can learn from
this is that YOU... not the government.... YOU are your
first line of defense. Do not rely on the government for ANYTHING
you can possibly do for yourself. Fair or not, that is the reality. Learn
it. Accept it.
That means... do not count on welfare, food stamps, the cavalry, or
anything. If you are obese (as so many of the homeless and helpless
seemed to be), you're a sitting duck. That is not the government's fault,
nor the government's responsibility. You -- fix it!
Always have an escape plan. You have no car? Quit smoking and save money
to buy a car. If you an adult over the age of 21 and you cannot afford a
bus ticket out of town, it is not the fault of the government.
Do not have children until you are able to support them if the worst
happens. We have seen that the government cannot feed your children when
the worst happens. That is YOUR responsibility. You do not have
enough money? Do not have kids. You do not have a secure home? Do not
have kids. If you have kids in spite of this, do not blame the government
when it cannot protect them.
Wherever and whenever you buy property, keep three words in mind:
BELOW SEA LEVEL. Buy on high ground, not on a low spot, and for
heavens, sake, not BELOW SEA LEVEL!
"God helps those who help themselves." Do not wait for the government;
help yourself.
And.... if you can read this... count your blessings.
|
|
Personal Stories of the Chicowitz:
Exploring My Roots: A Chicowitz History
A Trip to the Dentist
The Chicowitz Gets Dumped - Again!
Just Shoot Me!
He Sleeps with the Fishes
My Little Girl, Princess
Why am I Still Single?
The Plastic Surgery Saga
Our House is a Very, Very, Very Fine House... Not!
Middle Age and the Mazdamobile
Down for the Count
That Dirty Dancing
Me and You and a Dog Named Princess
Contemplations on the Hereafter
A Camping We Will Go
Travels with Princess - Part 1
Tool Time with the Chicowitz
The Chicowitz Goes Country
... and 120 other boomer stories
Win prizes in the BBHQ Weekly Trivia Contest
View answers to the daily trivia question
Access 18 books in our Trivia Library
Name that Tune
Name that Tune - the 70s edition
What's in a Number
What's in a Number - the R&R edition
The Name Game
Who Said That?
The Boomer Movie Quiz
All of the above, plus:
View lyrics to over 750 boomer-era songs
Search 750 song lyrics for a word or phrase
Search the title and artist of over 4,000 oldies
Access the BBHQ School Registry
Print the home page, 60s & 70s verbal collages
All of the above, plus:
Play 200 classic oldies from your computer.
View the lyrics as the song plays
Membership details here.
Terrific boomer memorabilia!!
Remember this?
Click here to own a memory of Woodstock; $9.00 including shipping.
"Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD),"
55 songs: 2 CDs and a DVD from their 2003 concert tour.
Click here to order this great
collection.
|
|
to
remind you to come back to BBHQ every Monday.
