With all this talk by such great minds as Sean Penn and Pierce Brosnan about how President Bush and the Federal Government are to blame for the disaster and its aftermath people are losing site of the over all picture. Yes, there are things that the feds need to improve and yes there are going to be problems when a disaster like this takes place. I agree with the President that now is not the time to point fingers but since that seems to be inevitable it would be helpful if they were pointed in the right direction. The local government is responsible for the evacuation and the people who were left behind. They were also responsible for sustaining operations for 72 hours after the event.
We have already seen how the city did not use the buses that were available. We have seen how the police responded and how crime broke out around town. I pointed out earlier that one-third of the population said it would not leave if ordered to do so and in that case, as Surfside pointed out, they are responsible for what happened to them. This does not negate the fact that local government was responsible for the evacuations and did a poor job of it.
Amazingly, with all the fingers pointed at DC there is a memo from earlier this year telling residents that if there is a big storm they will be on their own. What this tells me is that local government planned on abandoning these people from the start. Al Sharpton and Kenye West and everyone else can say the federal government discriminated and left people to die and all this other mindless prattle but the reality is the local government decided long before Katrina that 134,000 people would be on their own should disaster strike. Here is what was written:
Staff writer Bruce Nolan reported some 7 weeks before Katrina: “In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm’s way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation.”
“In the video, made by the anti-poverty agency Total Community Action, they urge those people to make arrangements now by finding their own ways to leave the city in the event of an evacuation.
“You’re responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you,” Wilkins said in an interview. “If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you.”
Wow, on your own, responsible for your own safety, and make arrangements now. If New Orleans was placing the responsibility (its responsibility) on the local people how can they, or anyone else, now assign that to the federal government? Seems to me if the city neglected its responsibility and told people it was up to them then it was up to them. If they wanted it to be up to the feds then they should have asked for help when they were publishing the memo.
Once again, it is not the time to point fingers but if you do point them in the correct direction.
Read it here.