Faith-based disaster, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept 19 2005

[Coastie for Truth]

That the Federal Emergency Management Agency mismanaged the Hurricane Katrina relief effort is old news. But there's more to FEMA's failure than simple bungling. The Bush administration's core belief that faith-based organizations can do the job better than the government or experienced nonprofits has compounded the problem.

Immediately after the hurricane, there were only two secular organizations to which FEMA's Web site urged that contributions be made; all the others were faith-based. What's worse, in at least some instances, FEMA relied on faith-based charities to spearhead the emergency-relief effort, regardless of whether they had expertise. Case in point: Tulsa, Okla.

Years before Katrina, a coalition of public agencies and nonprofit groups in Tulsa, led by the Red Cross, had devised a disaster plan. In the wake of Katrina, the coalition quickly developed a detailed strategy to aid the survivors who, it was anticipated, would be sent to Tulsa -- to provide help not just in the immediate aftermath but for the days and weeks ahead.

An estimated 1,500 to 2,000 hurricane survivors were indeed bused from New Orleans via Houston to Camp Gruber, a nearby National Guard facility. But in deciding which Tulsa agency to turn to, FEMA chose Catholic Charities -- which wasn't part of the coalition, had no relevant experience with long-term placement of disaster victims and whose mission is "bringing Christ's merciful love to people who suffer in our midst."

FEMA was so intent on relying on a faith-based group that it neglected to look at the state map: it initially contacted Catholic Charities in Oklahoma City, 123 miles away from where the storm victims were being housed. FEMA also shipped hurricane survivors to a youth camp for Southern Baptists in a remote corner of the state, a site described by the faithful as "the most prayed place." Meanwhile in Tulsa, because Catholic Charities lacked the necessary personnel for the assignment, local fire departments were enlisted to help in doing the job. While firefighters are trained to do many things, they don't know how to help victims of natural disaster start a new life.

:puke:

The writer closes with the observation that "it makes sense, in the wake of a cataclysm like Hurricane Katrina, for the government to mobilize nonprofits as part of the response. Using religion as a litmus test to decide who will provide relief is not only wrong, it's a surefire prescription for disaster."

[MnFats]

1. And the hits (read: f***ups) just keep comin'

I just want to see the book that will list minute by minute what happened, who did what (or did nothing) etc., like the kind that are coming out about 9-11 now. I hope there won't be too big a delay because I believe that will settle Bush's hash once and for all.

[marbuc]

4. What happened when, according to Factcheck.org

http://www.factcheck.org/article348.html

[neverforget]

2. Rely on charity, that's what the Repugs want or indentured servitude

with some praying to Jesus. :mad: :puke: :eyes: :crazy: :wtf:

[TaleWgnDg]

3. Hear, hear for the author of this article, David L. Kirp,

Hear, hear for the author of this article, David L. Kirp, professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley!!

Stuff like this must be stated, and stated LOUD and OFTEN until mainstream America sees it as reality!

Faith-based initiatives/programs are unconstitutional, unworkable, and w/o any track record of efficiency! Government social programs delivered through American taxpayers monies given to religious institutions is just another hair-brained failure of George Walker Bush!!

Faith-based initiatives/programs are a throw-back to the times in America where there were only two classes of people, the upper and the lower classes, wherein the upper classes "donated" to charities for the lower classes. Voluntary trickle-down to the nth degree as well as class segregation at the same extreme. There were no government social programs to effectively assist those majority of Americans in need. It wasn't until President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) said "no more must the majority of Americans put out their hands to receive the largess of charities" did America finally turn our country around to a middle class environment. George Walker Bush wants to roll-back the clock and do away with America's government social programs and tax base to fulfill those programs. And, he is using the religious institutions of America in a frontal attack on the Separation of Church and State as a means to that end.

Hurricane Katrina demonstrated to all that George Walker Bush's "faith-based initiatives/programs" do not work.


.

[marbuc]

5. I thought Reaganomics demonstrated the failings of trickledown

economics pretty well. This merely reinforces this failing. When will they, and we as voters learn?