On open letter to all media and elected officials of the USA

[boston bean]

My 59 year old mom wrote the following and will be sending to everyone she can possibly think of. I am so proud of her.

Open Letter to all media and elected officials of the USA:

Mother Nature is the cause for hurricane Katrina, this is true. The total destruction, devastation, chaos, horror, injury and loss of life in New Orleans are the fault of our government. I do not mean the local New Orleans government or the State of Louisiana’s government. There were warnings that just such a disaster was imminent and there were even monies appropriated to strengthen the levees in New Orleans. Part of the responsibility falls with the media for not repeatedly telling us what scientists and government officials have known for years. The media failed to keep us informed that this administration diverted these much needed monies elsewhere. Why? After last years hurricane season surely we should have been screaming blue bloody murder to fix those levees! Yes, you have failed us.

My heart is broken. I never thought I would see the day when our government was so inept, callous, and filled with self righteous indignation. The buck now, today, stops at the bottom here in the USA. The Federal Government bears no responsibility. The dog at their homework, it was someone else’s fault; they could have never imagined that would happen, etc. Their own denial system allows them to believe their own excuses and untruths. This is now the way for our government to be unaccountable to its people. I cannot ever recall any other president say by word or action that the buck stops any where but with him. In my 59 years I have never seen or heard ANY (democratic or republican) president not accept responsibility when things go wrong on their watch. Although Katrina is a natural disaster and no ones fault our governments refusal to think out side the box and prepare for all possibilities is a disgrace!

We are the richest and most developed country in the world? Please show me how this is true, show the rest of the world. Since the year before 9/11 we behave in the most childish and negligent manner on this globe. Everything is someone else’s fault; we could not foresee, etc. Hogwash! Did we go stupid overnight? We depend on our government to protect us, to foresee events, to be proactive. I had always felt at least physically safe, I no longer do. I am terrified that this administration has tunnel vision and cannot see beyond their own agenda. I feel this whole country is in peril while this administration at the helm. Oh, I had such high spirits at our strength right after 9/11. I had such hope, that we would take care of our own and strike back at those that would dare invade and kill us. We did a good thing by going to Afghanistan, by going after those who attacked us. We showed the world who we really were! I was so proud of the red, white and blue, our nation, our people and our government. What happened? Instead of continuing along with this great accomplishment by securing our homeland, protecting our borders, insuring our rights to fair paying jobs (or even any job at all for some), making healthcare affordable to all, enforcing our immigration laws, etc., we were duped by our government and by our media also. We were lulled into a false sense of security. Shame on you both! Together you made us red and blue states, together you helped divide us as a nation, together you are creating a country of rich or poor, together you are creating a “New American Dream” the haves and the have-nots. Neither the twain will meet if this does not stop soon. The government, organized religion and the media have the duty to unite this nation not divide it as they have been doing for political purpose since 9/11. STOP the labeling of us as red or blue! We are one nation, one people. United we stand divided we fall! We pay taxes for our government to take care of us ALL but most especially the lest fortunate amongst us, not vice versa.


Let me make it clear that fault lies with all elected officials when it comes to national security. You should all be minding the store. Not a one of you is excused! So go ahead if you must and convince yourself that there is nothing your one little voice could do. Convince yourself that you cannot know everything. Sorry, corporations and courts don’t allow us citizens that same break, it goes…. Could or should have known! If it is too much for you to handle then get out of the kitchen. I am sure you are being paid quite well for all the responsibility you hold. I know many try hard and that is appreciated. But, lately there are too many things that are simply not acceptable!


Let me once again speak my mind. Yes, we all like to hear a nice heart warming story from the media. We like to see poor countries getting richer, imprisoned countries being freed and all kinds of progress for the whole world. It helps our souls to feel love and hope. It sets a great example of what we want to strive for. However nice those stories are, it is more important for us to see and hear what is wrong. How else are we to conquer the wrong or help right the error. We the people expect the fourth estate to keep us informed with the truth (not some opinion) on matters that require us to take action. We thank you for making us feel good sometimes but more importantly we demand that you inform us of the possibility of a wrong! We have the right to know (so we may choose to do or not to do something about it). It is your most solemn responsibility to report wrongs and horrors to us. You are the people’s fourth estate and no one else’s, not even yourself.

I know you hear all the time that you the media only report the bad things that are happening in Iraq. As well you (mostly) should. We need to know what is going wrong so that we can work (maybe with just our vote) to right that wrong or demand change. We will have plenty of time for the heart warming stories and be glad to celebrate them when the time is right. Can we get the (any) job done right first? What do you think the American people need to hear more? Certainly not that one family has running water while not hearing of the hundreds of hardships others are bearing. What shall we do sing merry for the one family or work hard to help the hundreds bearing hardship? We cannot know the things that go wrong in any war unless you tell us and tell us the full truth. Omission is one of the most egresses lies. Ignore those who want you to omit truths. Ignore those who would have you lie. Ignore those that prefer you not bring up “that” subject. Do your duty and report on all things that we the US citizenry has the right to know! You do not get elected for a reason…….so do your jobs and stop pandering to politics!

The truth about what has and is happening in Alabama, Mississippi and most especially Louisiana falls squarely at the feet of this commander in chief and his self chosen administration. The buck should no longer stop at the little guy! It should stop where it stopped for all presidents before this one, with him. There were plenty of warnings, there was much discussion on the unsafe conditions of those levees, there was much money appropriated for upgrading and repairing them. Please spare us the nimble lectures on not playing the blame game. Lives have been lost due to poor leadership. If the pot is black lets call it that!


Below are some articles and clippings I have read on the subject of Louisiana’s Levee system. I apologize for not being able to recall and give credit for all I have collected:

) advised that the three worst catastrophes which could strike the U.S. would be a terrorist attack, a hurricane hitting In 2001, before 9/11, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA New Orleans, and a major earthquake in San Francisco. The Houston Chronicle, in Bush’s home state, called the New Orleans scenario potentially “the most deadly of all.”

National Geographic, in an eerily prescient article, described in detail the impact of a major hurricane striking New Orleans – including Lake Ponchartrain spilling over a breached levy to flood the city with waters contaminated by toxic chemicals. Such an event could result in 50,000 deaths, National Geographic predicted. The President’s statement, “I don’t think anybody anticipated that the levees would be breached,” rings false.

Scientists have repeatedly warned that global warming is heating up waters in the Gulf of Mexico, giving rise to bigger and more frequent hurricanes. After four hurricanes struck Florida last year, Louisiana politicians pleaded with Bush administration officials and the Republican-controlled Congress for adequate funds to shore up sinking levees and study how to best protect the Big Easy from a major hurricane strike. But Bush approved only 20% of the funds needed for vital engineering projects to save New Orleans. Funds that might have saved the city were spent instead on the War in Iraq, where many of Louisiana’s National Guardsmen are also deployed.

Most Americans don’t realize that the President has shifted FEMA to the Department of Homeland Security and slashed FEMA funds, dramatically reducing the agency’s ability to respond to future catastrophes, either natural disasters or terrorism attacks. Further, his appointment to head FEMA has been implicated in mismanagement of funds following the Florida hurricanes – hardly a comforting thought to survivors of other disasters.

And Another:

What took the National Guard so long to get to the disaster area? They were waiting for Bush to show up. Shame he couldn't have gotten there earlier, it probably would have saved some lives.

Is someone going to try to tell me that it's a coincidence that the convoy of trucks arriving at the Superdome is happening at exactly the same moment Bush is hovering around in his helicopter?

They could have dropped food and water to these people by helicopter days ago.

And Another:
In the United States, newspapers asked;
"How could the government have been so unready for a crisis that was so widely predicted?" The Washington Post, adding that experts had "issued repeated warnings for years about the city's unique topography and vulnerability."



And Another:

It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.
-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.





New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.
Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars. (Much of the research here is from Nexis, which is why some articles aren't linked.)
In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain,

The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project manager. That project consists of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.
The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in the president's 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is needed.
"The longer we wait without funding, the more we sink," he said. "I've got at least six levee construction contracts that need to be done to raise the levee protection back to where it should be (because of settling). Right now I owe my contractors about $5 million. And we're going to have to pay them interest."
That June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don’t get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can’t stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn’t that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can’t raise them."
The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.
The 2004 hurricane season, as you probably recall, was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans City Business this June 5:
The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are included in a Corps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9 million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little else.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricanes. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:
.
But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.
The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late.

Washington knew that this day could come at any time, and it knew the things that needed to be done to protect the citizens of New Orleans. But in the tradition of the riverboat gambler, the Bush administration decided to roll the dice on its fool's errand in Iraq, and on a tax cut that mainly benefited the rich.
And now Bush has lost that gamble, big time. We hope that Congress will investigate what went wrong here.
The president told us that we needed to fight in Iraq to save lives here at home, and yet -- after moving billions of domestic dollars to the Persian Gulf -- there are bodies floating through the streets of Louisiana. < Snip>
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002331.html

[teach1st]

1. Give your mom a hug from me...

..and kick.

[boston bean]

2. Thanks, I will!