This is America...we help others, but can't seem to help ourselves this time
I keep seeing images of devastation and desperation in New Orleans, and keep wondering to myself where the help is.
Why do we keep seeing images of dead and dying residents holed up in shelters and on the streets, with no water, food, or rescuers in sight? What's wrong? I watch the news, but I just don't get it; am I missing something? Why, if help is not forthcoming, do they sit in the same places day after day, waiting for buses and relief that never comes? After all, if buses can trucks can get through, why couldn't they just go somewhere else? Can these people not simply leave their areas to go elsewhere for help? I mean, it's a shameful thing that aid and rescue hasn't come, but if it's not coming to you, perhaps you should go to it?
Unlike many on the Left, however, who want so badly to politicize suffering and disaster (and yes, even to blame this on global warming), I do not blame President Bush. He's one man, folks, and can only do so much. Congress has appropriated what, $10 billion for aid, at his request? What else can he do at this point? He's not God...he can't wave is hand and make it all better.
This one is on Mother Nature and her unpredictabilty, and was further complicated by the seemingly inadequate resources of FEMA. The aid is coming, but the disaster is of such massive proportions that it seems it can't be handled with any kind of solid organization or efficiency.
Also, the worst of human nature has come out in many areas of the city in the form of looting and violence, as we have all seen. This is further hampering the rescue efforts; "I really want rescued, so I'm gonna shoot at helicopters that don't come for me". Smart thinkin'.
I keep hearing people asking "why did they respond so quickly to 9/11, but this effort is so disorganized and slow?" Come on, folks--that's not a fair analogy....after all, New York wasn't completely blown away. This is one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the country....the only one I've heard it compared to was the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Can you imagine what it would have been like if something like this ever happened in New York?
I don't know why so many people are being left behind from this disaster; after all, things were handled relatively well this time last year in Florida.
I'd like to think that FEMA simply needs to reassess its ability to handle widespread catastrophe, but then the Florida thing comes back up, and I just don't get it.
What really bothers me, though is that what we're seeing now in parts of The Big Easy is a small taste what would happen in the event of a nuclear attack; an unchecked society devolving into chaos and anarchy. Looks like the sci-fi writers were right there. How sad for us all.