NOLA, Part II: In Which I Anger Many People
You bet your ass it is political. Yeah, I’m going there. I’m sick of all you self-righteous people who say that it isn’t proper to address the political issues at work right now in New Orleans and then sneak in your political jabs anyway. You want to make a political point, and indeed you made a political point, but you don’t have the balls to admit it. You offend more with your lack of honesty than with any callousness that your surreptitious comments might convey.
If you are easily offended, or impressed at your own pious statements of political neutrality on the issue, stop reading. I’m going to offend you. I’m not joking. Don’t bother leaving a comment if all you can muster is indignance. I don’t have the patience for your delicate sensibilities right now.
Let’s get a few things straight right now:
- There are important political aspects to this situation. The creation of a culture than has people shooting at police helicopters demanding rescue is a political issue. This didn’t happen in Sri Lanka during the tsunami, and isn’t happening in Mississippi right now. Why is it happening in New Orleans?
- There are many people who could have left town, but didn’t. These people could be stupid, stubborn, or ignorant, but it is a problem, regardless. There were many people who couldn’t leave, and I’m as sympathetic for their plight as anyone else. But anyone who knew of the danger, and could have left, but decided to stay put is to blame for the situation that they are in.
- People reveal their true selves by their actions when a crisis hits. Those who selflessly stepped up are heroes. Those who let fall their last remaining facade of humanity and used this crisis as an opportunity to terrorize, vandalize and victimize are the worst type of villain.
- I don’t want to hear your accusations of hard-heartedness. If I spend more than $15 in the next 3 days, I’ll bounce my rent check. That’s what my donation cost me. So spare me the moral superiority.
- Donate. Please.
No One Caused the Hurricane
Hurricanes happen. Bigger ones than this, even. Hurricanes have been happening since before man even thought of harnessing the power of hydrocarbons. Bush didn’t cause this hurricane. Global warming didn’t cause this hurricane. Homosexuals didn’t cause this hurricane. Atheism didn’t create this hurricane. Hurricanes are a naturally occurring phenomenon that, despite our advances in technology, humans are helpless to prevent. So shut the hell up with your idiotic conspiracy theories.
No One Could have Stopped the Flooding
The blame-Bush crowd is already shouting that if more money had been taken from other parts of the country and used to fund the engineering nightmare that is the underwater city of New Orleans, the flooding might have been prevented. They’re wrong. Not surprisingly, the same assholes who think that humans activity can cause a hurricane are the ones who think the human activity could have stopped it in its tracks. Like any problem, they think it can be solved by throwing other people’s money at it.
The Local Government Failed
The mandatory evacuation wasn’t ordered soon enough. In fact, it was only made when the President personally called LA Gov. Kathleen Blanco and “appealed” for the order to be given.
The city of New Orleans failed its citizens by failing to fully utilize their resources to get people to safety. They knew what kind of flooding was expected, and yet they still packed people into the Superdome. Worst, there were 236 school buses only 3 miles away, just sitting there. Count them yourself. They could have moved 14,000 to 16,000 people out of harms way in one trip. They messed up, big time.
And now, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is screaming at the Federal government to give him… wait for it… buses. This was a failure on the local level, no doubt about it.
Guns are Good, Criminals are Bad
Certain Eurocentric police state advocates (you know who you are) have suggested that the problems with armed gangs roaming the street stem from the Second Amendment. I must assume that these people have never heard of England or Australia, where the abolishment of guns has done nothing but ensure that law-abiding citizens relinquish them, and ensure that said law-abiding citizens become easy prey for the criminals who (surprise) break the law and keep their guns. So now, only criminals have guns. Or, you let law-abiding citizens own guns, and when a looter tries to enter the house of someone who is armed, he is greeted with a bullet to the head. His rotting corpse can be displayed on the front porch with a sign: “Your Brain after Looting,” maybe with an arrow pointing to the gaping hole in his head, for good measure.
The Culture of Dependency
The Louisiana Weekly reported in 2001 that a free Welfare-to-Work program designed to teach people on Welfare the skills they would need to be a functional member of society had been available for five months but not one single person in New Orleans had signed up. There was a report of people shooting at police helicopters that were rescuing people along with shouts of “You had better come get me next.” I can’t even comprehend that mindset. “You owe me help, and if I don’t get it promptly, I’m going to make sure that you aren’t able to help anyone else.” Such people are leprous sores on our great country. Their only concern is for what benefit can be given to them at the expense of others.
Racism?
Blow it out your ass. Seriously. The usual candidates were salivating, waiting for the first tidbit that might suggest racism. It came when someone noticed a photo of black people with bags of food referred to them as having “looted” it, and a photo of white people with food referred to them as having “found” it. Never mind that the photos and captions come from two different press agencies. Never mind that the photographers were contacted and as it turns out, the black people in the first photo were seen breaking into the store, but the white people in the second photo found the food floating down the street. As always, accusations of racism need not be held back by the truth.
Rebuild Somewhere Else
If they rebuild New Orleans, this will happen again. It’s just a matter of time. Rebuild the city somewhere else… somewhere that isn’t actively sinking into the ocean. I’m sorry, but if you think that tradition and city pride is worth more than people’s lives, you have your priorities backwards. As far as natural disasters go in the United States, this one probably ranks third. Any policy that sets it up to happen again is, well, stupid. New Orleans is like a mouse trap. All it takes is one thing to trigger the trap, the the water will flow according to the laws of nature. Pumping the water out and rebuilding the levees is like resetting the trap. Now that it has happened, no one can live in denial anymore.
And once again, go donate.
Instaprof) **** Right Wing Nut House offers a chronology of the actions taken by various parties leading up to, during, and after Katrina stuck New Orleans. Mark of Tempus Fugit posts his thoughts on Katrina and the aftermath. An AP report in the Sunday Citizen (Laconia, NH) warns us that a sequel to Hurricane Katrina is all too likely this year and that it could stretch emergency resources to the breaking point. **** It will be interesting to see how many summer folk
Date: Saturday, August 27, 2005 Location: Doubletree Hotel, Charlottesville, VA Mission: 1) To promote commonwealth over partisanship among political bloggers in Virginia. 2) To explore efforts to regulate political blogging. NOLA, Part II: In Which I Anger Many People You bet your ass it is political. Yeah, I’m going there. I’m sick of all you self-righteous people who say that it isn’t proper to address the political issues at work right now in New Orleans and then sneak in your political jabs anyway. You want to
I’ll be the first one to comment!
DAMN!
Go Mark, go Mark, go Mark.
Preach it.
[...] I’d like to recommend this article, which clearly expresses my opinion. Posted by JoeBruin88 on September 3, 2005 at 7:23 PM [...]
[...] you’ve read my blog for anything more than a passing glance, you’ve noticed that one of my favorite bloggers, and indeed I consider him to be a friend, is MarkTonight, Mark posted a follow-up to a earlier post he’d written on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It’s apparent he put a great deal ofinto it, and it’s also apparent that he tried his best to contain his righteous indignation at the flamingBush: we get it. He is not to blame for what is happening in New Orleans! Global warming isn’t to blame for causing the hurricane! As for Governor Blanco not federalizing the troops soonor money being diverted (and not just to the war in Iraq, it could’ve just as well have been diverted to the National Endowment for the Arts or the “bridgenowhere” for all we know!), or the local governments never running drills or scenarios… let’s stop being counter-productive and help out, for God’s sake! When the leveeis restored, the water is being pumped back to the lake and the dead have been buried and mourned… then you can start asking your asinine questions and assigning blame! Half of the state I grewin is hurting. Help out, or cry, or just get the Hell out of the way, but don’t use our misfortune to profit your political ambitions, you patheticjerks! # [...]
I couldn’t agree more. Good job, Mark.
Mark, just a question, on what do you base the comment that the leeves being built could not have stopped the flooding?
I ask because I have read statements [1] by members of the departments in charge of building the leeves who have stated that their budget had been cut numerous times, to the detriment of the leeves. I have also read that had this not occured — had the leeve projects been properly funded — the damage would not have been as severe.
[1] Please reference this article for the relevant quotes and statements.
The levee breach was at an area that had received special attention recently. It had been specifically upgraded at that point. An increase of funding would not have helped, because that point of the levee had already been funded and upgraded! Millions of dollars were spent upgrading that portion of the levee. Had millions more been spent upgrading other portions, this portion still would have failed. And all it takes is one failure.
[...] Owen releases his own web-based feed aggregator. Khaled reviews the new Battlestar Galactica. Kafkaesquàpublishes a short tutorial on how to improve the understanding and ease of use of WordPress trackback links by presenting them in a javascript popup window. Jon discovers that MobileTracker’s copyrighted design was being used by a similar blog. Craig takes us on a photographic tour of a curved bridge on the Kiskatinaw River. Orson contemplates Gaza and the Israeli settlers. Sarah has a successful recital. Chris releases his most recent blog design as a K2 scheme. Mark discusses a few important facts about the Hurricane Katrina disaster. And, Tom notes that Google will be releasing more MacOS X native applications. [...]
Errrm, methinks you subtitled the pic wrong, unless Rehnquist’s at-rest body appears amazingly similar to downtown New Orleans under flood conditions…
Doug,
Ha! What actually happened was that I made a change to my image script, and the title from the Rehnquist picture was “leaking through” to the NOLA one (as it doesn’t have a title of its own). Thanks.
Thanks for the info, Mark. Do you have a source for that data I can use to verify and quote?
Here’s the link: NYT article
Note that while the article talks about the levee being underfunded in general, the money quote here rather deflates the idea that more funding would have prevented this breach.
I’m trying to dig up where I found it, but I recall seeing speculation that a wayward barge actually punched a hole in the levee, causing the flooding or at the very least exacerbating it.
Dunno how that fits in with the ongoing overarching narrative people are trying to construct, but there it is.
[...] Well, if your hackles were raised by Brad's take, then don't even bother checking out Mark Jaquith's screed, because he makes the same points, albeit in a more straightforward and indelicate manner. This doesn't take from the fact that, at base, both Brad and Mark are right. Sooner or later, we human beings have to take responsibility for our own actions and the consequences we reap. [...]
Nice Post Mark! Well said.
By the way. Do you recall how long it took for FEMA and others to arrive during the storms last year?