SEPTEMBER
5, 2005 --
The
reality of New Orleans, today, comes through clearly in the
above email from Veltis Harrattan that refers to the plight
and turmoil of just one New Orleans family; plight that describes
the general circumstance -- if not worse -- of people in
this tragic city.
Will New Orleans gain the support of gentle America, or be confed with something
rather harder.
This is not the time for hindsight or recriminations, but apparently a consensus
has developed that New Orleans government's first response to go the New Orleans
disaster and subsequent chaos was ineffective.
This sort of comment might draw sneers from columnists in the distant media
reflecting "know nothing populism." (In such cased, misusing the
term "populism" -- it is not a synonym for demagoguery or whining.
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As the president
is said to have acknowledged that the federal government was
not, initially, as effective as it should have been in responding
to the New Orleans disaster, perhaps it is not too soon to consider
that the federal government should be a source of
supportive strength in times of disaster, but the choices and decisions should
come from -- those who know the territory.
And it might also be helpful if all victims were treated as if they had the
status of, say, members of Congress, who, by the Constitution, are just representatives
of a sovereign people.
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