[GCFL-discuss] Oooops!

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

greenBubble, you seldom talk without knowing what you are saying, and you
live in New York. So I will leave standing your statements about what
happened in your home town and what role your mayor played, until I take
the time to research the subject thoroughly. I may not do that, its not
high on my list of priorities.

But you don't live in New Orleans. Based on the news coverage we all have
access to, there was indeed a short period when the sidewalks were dry,
the worst of the storm had passed, and the city seemed to have survived.
Some hours later, the levees gave way, and that produced the really
unparalleled horror we've all seen on TV.

BEFORE the storm, the mayor gave voluntary evacuation orders. AFTER the
storm, I'm not sure its true that he could have anticipated what was
coming. The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for most of the water
works in the area. Did they know what was coming next?

Why not mandatory evacuation? He wasn't sure he had the authority, and
for good reason. Americans are an ornery bunch, and we all cling to
rights we are sure no gummint people have authority to take from us. We
disagree about whether it is the right to abortion, or to carry firearms,
to graze cattle until all plant life is dead, or dump poisons into the
water supply for families downstream, or any number of other things, but
we all cling to something. The right to stay in your home no matter what
some government official proclaims is one of the more universal claims.

Lack of arrangements for evacuation of people without cars is a weak
point, and one I take personally, since I have no car, and have found
that even in every day life,bbbb businesses and other institutions
increasingly plan locations, landscaping, access, etc. on the assumption
that EVERYONE has a car, just as everyone has two feet, a mouth, a nose,
etc. But that is a weakness at all levels. 

A recent TIME article, while doing somewhat premature and shallow
critiques of four officials from local to federal, including the mayor,
acknowledges that evacuating 80% of the population of the city would be a
major feat, considering that everyone had to go at least 80 miles away.

I am not actually a great fan of the mayor. He was never high on my list
of rising stars to watch for or place confidence in. I'm not impressed
that he has done a great job. But I don't think much of jumping all over
him for "not acting." To be a general, you have to have troops to
command. To be a mayor, you have to have a city to direct. Alternatively,
he could have set up a "New Orleans in exile" encampment somewhere and
organized the people of the city into some sort of entity or other. That
would have been remarkable and impressive. He was in fact overwhelemed,
but most people in his position would be.

Speaking of plans, I doubt the city had a plan for what to do if someone
hijacked airliners full of jet fuel and flew them into a major
skyscraper. If it had, hundreds of fire fighters would be alive today --
but I hardly think the city can be blamed for failing to anticipate this
event.

There WAS good reason to anticipate this flood, several years ago, and
there were in fact very realistic scenarios about it. Fourteen billion
dollars in 2000 might have prevented it. That wasn't exactly in the
mayor's jurisdiction to take care of.

People are singling him out because he got on the radio and said what his
remaining constituents in the city were also saying. It needed to be
said. At that time. That time is over. It is more than a little silly to
single him out for petty taunts.

Siarlys