Katrina Blame Game Part 2


From Bridget: It's not the appropriate time for political debate. But yet, political debate is rampant. Interesting how a natural disaster turns political. Then again, I know it is human to need someone to blame, to take the general feeling of fear, uncertainty, and devastation and place it upon someone or something tangible. I truly believe that people are generally good. I truly believe that everyone is doing the best they can to help. I don't believe that backseat driving or Monday morning quarterbacking is useful or fair. A NATURAL disaster occurred. This time, we can't blame the "meterologists" because they predicted the path precisely. So who can we blame?

I'm going to review many links in the chain that may or may not have gone wrong. Any of these things could have changed the situation, but the bottom line is that something terrible happened and no one event or person is to blame. First of all, Louisiana was used to weathermen crying wolf. Many a times, they have boarded up, evacuated, run away, only to be missed. So Mother Nature has played games with the people, making it difficult to believe this could ever happen. Second of all, the President urged the governor of Louisiana to make the evacuation mandatory on Saturday and again on Sunday. She did not. The local governments allowed shelters to remain in harm's way, rather than providing buses for a mandatory evacuation. But should we blame them? Do we think that the governor had predicted this and wanted to see a tragedy? I doubt it. She probably knew that if she mandated evacuation and a hurricane missed again, the same people who are screaming murder would be laughing at her and ridiculing her out of her political career. It was a judgment call that she left to her people. Third of all, many people chose not to even go to shelters, but instead to stay in their houses. Again, the people were tired, bored with the doomsday talk, and many decided not to go anywhere. After evacuating at least 4 times in the past year, can we blame them? Would we have "known" that this time was the real thing? Fourth of all, on Monday all of the headlines read that the hurricane had MISSED Louisiana and that Mississippi was hit hard. It HAD hit Mississippi. And THAT'S where the federal help was routed first. Unfortunately, we all know that Tuesday morning disaster hit New Orleans. But no one predicted it. Everyone -- the local and federal governments, and the people of America -- thought that once again disaster had been averted in New Orleans. We were ALL fooled and all had to change course and figure out what the hell to do, after a too-early sigh of relief. Fifth of all, they're have been complaints about the federal response. The federal government did respond, although many say not quickly enough. How do we judge this? Government agencies and the military are there right now, helping. (And a sidenote -- the military had to be brought in because local residents were stealing guns and shooting their saviors, in case anyone missed that.) What would have been fast enough? How do we know they didn't get there as fast as they possibly could, considering the disaster they had to travel through and the fact that this took them off guard? Many point to the fact that newscasters got down there faster than government relief. Ahh, but newscasters had STAYED there, despite the "encouraged" (not mandatory) evacuation. Newscasters put themselves in harm's way in order to have a story, and perhaps made the job all that more difficult because now we have to worry about saving stubborn news crews in addition to residents who couldn't escape. Finally, and I know this is the touchiest subject of all, I don't think that racism was involved with the supposedly delayed response. I think everyone is doing the best they can considering the circumstances. The hurricane didn't target poor African Americans. No one is sitting around with their thumbs up their asses because they don't care about poor African Americans. Not only is that a cruel, slanderous thing to say about someone without a damn shred of evidence, it's also very naive... politicians know that the race card is the most damaging thing they can have played against them, and try to avoid it at all costs. Also, there are victims who are neither poor nor African American as well...

My roommate's sister is still missing at the time I am writing this. No one has heard from her in almost 2 weeks. I feel terrible and pray everyday. I have donated as much money as I could afford. I can only imagine what her and her family, who lost everything, are experiencing. I will not blame her sister for deciding not to evacuate. I will not blame her family for not knowing where her sister went. I will not blame the local government for not forcing everyone out. I will not blame the federal government and military for not finding her yet. This was a natural disaster, a tragedy, and a fucking shame. But I can't find the hatred in my heart to extend blame for such a disaster on one person or a handful or people. To do so without absolute certainty that I was correct would be a carelessly vengeful accusation.

I will not blame the American people for their opinions. Of course they feel things haven't happened fast enough. We have 52 minute "disaster-climax-resolution" television shows and movies shoved down our throats daily. Unfortunately, real life disasters take more than an hour and a brilliant idea by Will Smith to fix. It's going to take so much time and so much energy... so many tears and so many hugs. If we continue to point fingers, there won't be enough hands to contribute.

----
Very Well Said!