Excellent article by Marianne Williamson. The "heads up" comment is mine....
http://www.mwblog.com/journal/archives/2005/09/reckoning_in_ne.php"Regarding the abysmal response of our government to the hurricane’s aftermath, there is a lot of talk right now about accountability. Some argue we should have the discussion today, while others argue that that discussion should wait for a more propitious time. But there is a danger in waiting, for a governmental status quo has talent for co-opting criticism as long as it can buy enough time. Passions cool; memories become revised and faded. Six months after a disaster, the government appoints an independent commission to find out what really happened but by the time the commission releases its final report there is not much sense that too many people are listening. The people are exhausted by then; they’re trying their best to move on.
And the status quo knows this; that’s part of its game. Do whatever you want; act horrified and remorseful for a minute whenever too much suffering results as a part of your actions; then put off the accountability conversation until people are too tired to care anymore. This is not a new pattern in America. What might be new – what I sense might be happening – is that people are waking up to it now. And as soon as we wake up, then the pattern will end.
Abraham Lincoln said there is not too much evil any American government can perpetrate, as long as the people remain vigilant. He was referring to the fact that we have federal elections every two years, through which we can replace the entirety of the House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate. The ultimate accountability conversation is written into the U.S. Constitution; it is called elections. At this particular juncture, that means the mid-term elections of 2006."