[GCFL-discuss] Oooops!

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

Isn't what Frank ment is that a least  Guliani  did something instead of 
waiting around for somebody to act ???

Dave
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List" <gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net>
To: "Shirley Heit" <sdmheit at verizon.net>
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 9:49 PM
Subject: Re: [GCFL-discuss] Oooops!


> 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.
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