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Stuck on Stupid
Across the country, Americans have watched with helpless horror, stunned as the lives of millions in the Gulf coast region were plunged into a desperate state of misery in the face of a natural disaster unprecedented in our history. What Nature unleashed, however, is nothing compared to the misery inflicted by the massive incompetence of our own leaders and their feeble response to this disaster. We have discovered our federal, state and local governments will do very little for us in a national emergency and may actually go out of their way to further exacerbate our suffering.
And why? Because there is no one in command. Instead, a thousand pencil pushing mid-level managers who couldn't manage an orderly evacuation of a public lavatory in a shitstorm have been given the responsibility to protect the lives of ordinary citizens. Lord protect us from our own government agencies.
They waited for authorizations that never came, for paperwork that was never filled out, for help that never arrived. Through it all, there were heroes who defied the quagmire of red tape that impeded the rescue efforts. Mayor Nagin who had to tell the president of the United States to get off his ass and send help to New Orleans. General Honore' who plowed into New Orleans 4 days after the storm ready to make up for lost time--who ordered his troops not to point their guns at American citizens. Jabbar the 20 year old kid who hotwired a bus at the Superdome and drove 100 people to Houston only to be arrested for theft. The police and Coast Guard rescuers who stayed at their jobs throughout the ordeal. The medical professionals who worked under impossible conditions. The ordinary people who helped one another survive. These people are the heroes.
The president of the United States and his director of FEMA came to the area like real estate developers after the fact. Faced with all the human misery around him, the president could only speculate about what a great development opportunity had presented itself. He vowed to rebuild Mississippi Senator Trent Lott's beachplace and vowed to make the Gulf Coast area better than it was before. Like a carpetbagger, the president was so transparent in his desire to use the disaster to his advantage that he staged photo-ops to impress the world of his deep and sincere concern for his fellow Americans. Again and again, he stressed that re-opening oil refineries and other businesses were among his first priorities. The suffering of millions of poor victims seems not to have affected him at all.
For his utter disregard for the safety of Americans, for his incompetence and his inability to provide responsible leadership, he deserves to be fired. He failed to do his job. The question before us now is not whether he will accept responsibility for his inaction, for we know he won't, but will he step down and let others more competent take control?
Or will he flail about in a panic pointing the finger of blame at everyone but himself? Blame the opposition party for not fighting hard enough for the funding to strengthen infrastructure in our country. Blame career civil servants in lesser positions of power because they were left helpless by bureauocratic bungling largely created by his appointment of unqualified cronies to positions they had no expertise to fill. Finally, and most despicably, blame the victims themselves. For being poor. And sick. And unable to save themselves.
Yes, we are stuck on stupid, like white on rice.
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