Observations on 3 Anniversaries--Katrina, "I Have a Dream," and Mother Theresa

Observations on 3 Anniversaries--Katrina, "I Have a Dream," and Mother Theresa

This past weekend witnessed a trifecta of momentous anniversaries. Katrina happened 5 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech” on the Washington Mall 47 years ago, and Mother Theresa was born a century ago.

It is already five years since August 29th, 2005, since the incredibly devastating Category 3 hurricane Katrina, the costliest storm in our history, the deadliest storm to strike the United States in 83 years, all but wiped out much of the City of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward as well as laying waste to vast other areas of the Gulf Coast.

Testimony to the remarkable resilience of humankind and the human spirit, with the exception of that Ninth Ward, an area catastrophically flooded by Katrina’s storm surge, reinundated a month later by Hurricane Rita, and still largely devastated, most affected Gulf Coast communities have been rebuilt, if not fully recovered.

Much, perhaps too much, has been written about the failures surrounding Katrina: the failures of the levees, the failures of Michael Brown and FEMA, the failures of Democrat Governor Kathleen Blanco and the Republican President George W. Bush, the failures of the Superdome, the failures of government in general in not doing more to alert New Orleans of the impending disaster, to save more lives, to assist in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, to reconstruct the destroyed, and to console the afflicted.

That focus on failure may have been “too much” for three significant reasons, the first of which is a reason based on the common sense shared by ten year olds but not by politicians, city planners, and builders. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1869)

Death and Taxes

Death and Taxes

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” (BenjaminFranklin); ”Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.“ (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

Franklin was semi-correct in his observation, in the death part, but though taxes are always with us the rates are always negotiable in a civilized society thus adding a degree of uncertainty.

The Obama administration commented on death without ever using the word. In the context of a nuclear attack on the United States we were reminded, (just reminded, mind you), that local agencies should and would be the first responders and decimated cities shouldn’t expect to see the feds on hand for 72 hours or more.

The reader may recall the uproar over FEMA’s slow response in the aftermath of Katrina when President G.W. Bush was lambasted for doing a flyover over New Orleans and commending FEMA head Michael Brown (”Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”). President Obama seems to want to forestall any such criticism by warning local officials not to expect any “significant federal response” for up to four days if they were nuked.

Barry, you’re doing a heck of an advance job.

It’s bad enough that Obama was talking about the unthinkable, a terrorist nuclear attack on an American city, but he gives fair warning that the surviving victims would be on their own for a good few days. Brownie screwed up after massive flooding; Barry is planning to screw up after a mushroom cloud rises above NYC or LA or SF or DC.

Some 1836 people died from Katrina, a horrendous toll. Tens of thousands would be killed in a nuclear blast but fear not, says the White House in a guide posted online and sent to local officials, in effect saying you guys will be just fine until we get around to you.

And what would that blast do? “A 10-kiloton nuclear explosion would level buildings within half a mile of ground zero, generate 900-mph winds, bathe the landscape with radiation and produce a plume of fallout that would drift for hundreds of miles, the guide says.” That would be followed by chaos so the plan is for the feds to hang back until things were more settled: http://bit.ly/agkd93

Then there’s tax news, which seems cheerful in comparison. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1631)