[GCFL-discuss] Oooops!

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

Frank, there is no comparison between what Rudy Guliani had to deal with,
and what the mayor of New Orleans had to deal with. Guliani had at his
disposal police and fire departments that lost less than 10% of their
total complement -- I believe a good deal less than 10%, but I am trying
to err on the side of not minimizing it. For the families concerned, and
their colleagues, it was horrendous, but the city government was intact
and had substantial forces at its disposal. More important, most of the
people of the city were sleeping in their own beds, had functional
kitchens stocked with food, and had jobs to go to the next morning --
even if everyone was in a state of shock over the horrendous losses in
their city.

The Mayor of New Orleans had control of not one street, not one
functional office, there was no part of his city that was not
disintegrating. Think if some sort of disaster hit the entire country at
once -- none of us would be rushing to the aid of New Orleans. What makes
it possible to act is that a large population somewhere is NOT
overwhelmed, and therefore is able to extend a helping hand. No part of
that intact population was under the jurisdiction of the mayor of New
Orleans.

With five of the top eight positions in FEMA held by political appointees
having no experience in disaster relief, its not surprising that response
was so slow and inadequate. The mayor did give credit where credit was
due, e.g. to the Louisiana national guard general who took charge and
started to get things done once he was sent in.

Perhaps the mayor should have gone out on the street, rounded up any cops
he could find, and taken personal command of what was being done in a few
blocks. But what about the rest of the city? I saw the mayor of Chicago
on TV saying that teams from his city were ready to go, just waiting to
be called. The Mayor of New Orleans might have called and said "Never
mind the feds, we need you now" and made some arrangements. I don't like
the profanity either, but I am sitting in a comfortable efficiency with a
roof that doesn't lead and a refrigerator that is plugged into a working
electrical grid, so I am not going to complain.

Siarlys


P.S. Oh, another "different perspective." Who and what is Robert
Tracinski? He sounds like a spider spinning webs from very doubtful cloth
to me. I would want to know something of his credentials, how much time
he spent where, etc. What IS this guy's motive?

Of course there are people in the world who think the sole purpose of
everyone else around them is to provide for their every need. (I could
add that these people come in very rich and very poor varieties, and
morally there is little difference, but we can save that for another
time). But what we all saw on live TV from New Orleans could happen to
ANY of us, if what we had to work with was sufficiently overwhelming.

The very fact of living in a city (and 90% of us would of necessity die
if we tried to "go back to the land" -- that lifestyle can't support so
many people per acre no matter how hard we try) means that your existence
depends on a whole complex of things being in place 24/7. People can take
initiative if they are totally cut off, provided they have a source of
food, a clean river to obtain water from, etc. A single man can live
under a tarp in a demolished neighborhood, if not too many others are
trying to live within half a mile of his campsite. In the middle of a
dense urban area with no water, no police, no housing, no food, and yp to
your neck in water that is both biologically and chemically hazardous...
desperate people ARE a security problem, no matter who they are, how
polite their upbringing, or what they normally act like at other times.

This is the first time an entire American city has totally ceased to
exist as a functional entity. Without our familiar infrastructure, we are
nothing but a mob. I go along with sweeping aside petty psychoanalysis by
a Canadian journalist, but the rest of that article was equally
contemptible.