How can the rest of America sleep
February 11, 2007How can the rest of America sleep when they know this is here?
Jeremy Clarkson while driving through New Orleans, 12 months after Katrina.
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I am still awake here in Sarasota, FL. I am a graduate of Benjamin Franklin, High School in New Orleans, La. I keep reading the entries. The pen is mightier than the sword.
Comment by Bill Dunn — February 12, 2007 @ 4:32 am
That because most of us don’t know.
If it were in the news every day like Iraq, if there were more videos of the destruction, maybe then people would start to care.
The government really needs to step up. That’s government’s job, to protect and rebuild. It’s failed at both.
Comment by mikesum32 — February 12, 2007 @ 5:15 am
“That’s government’s job, to protect and rebuild. It’s failed at both.”
What happened was tragic, both the loss of life and the destruction of a lot of historic parts of New Orleans. No one can fathom the suffering experienced by the people of New Orleans.
That doesn’t mean that my tax money should go towards rebuilding a city where it can be flooded again. It certainly doesn’t entitle them to rebuild at the government and *my* expense.
We find no shortage of people who wax eloquent on the virtues of the government rebuilding things for people. It’s an appealing sentiment, but its horrendously flawed. For all of you who want to help the people in New Orleans- hold a fundraiser or find a charitable organization to donate to.
Liberals (especially those in other countries) hem and haw about wanting to give *other* people’s money away, particularly the tax payers of the United States, but how much of your own money have you given of your own accord?
I’m willing to bet not a damned cent.
How many homes have you helped to rebuild?
I’m wagering on not a one.
The lesson here is simple. People love charity so long as it is someone else giving it.
Comment by Kenneth — February 12, 2007 @ 6:24 am
Then again, Jeremy Clarkson also said:
“If this were America, it would be full of people doing… whatever it is they do. I ncest, mostly, I think. ”
He should stick to badmouthing german cars and destroying caravans.
Comment by Hugo — February 12, 2007 @ 10:12 am
The government really needs to step up. That’s government’s job, to protect and rebuild. It’s failed at both.
I’m sorry, the rebuilding is not the governments job. That’s where private insurance companies come in. If your private property is destroyed, you need to have the insurance to replace it.
The only part of the government I want to see involved is the courts to slap around companies like State Farm who keep trying to get out of paying what they owe.
If you choose to live in a city built below sea level, and still sinking, and it floods, that’s not the rest of the countries problem.
Comment by John S. — February 12, 2007 @ 7:16 pm
The problem with so called conservatives in the US is thay lack any kind of compassion for their fellow human being. Period. All they care is their tax money. Curiously, that’s not an issue anymore when we’re waisting hundreds of bilions in Irak. No complaints about that. But rebuilding a city in theit own f..king backyard is a waste. Sure. Healthcare for all US citizens is a nightmare from Soviet Russia for them. Or worse, the idea must be French.
Comment by Stefan — February 12, 2007 @ 7:38 pm
If it was some guys house burning down I might agree, but this was a natural disaster that the government (city, county, state, and national ) let happen.
The government through it’s complacency failed and people lost their homes.
Let’s not forget this was caused by a hurricane. If you think government shouldn’t help rebuild from a natural disaster, then maybe their shouldn’t be any government at all and we should just fend for ourselves.
I guess no one should help the victims of the tsunami either or earthquakes.
I guess they’re on their own.
Comment by mikesum32 — February 13, 2007 @ 5:04 am
Do you people forget what we pay insurance for? Do you forget about private charities?
Where the government excels is at the immediate disaster relief. Send in the National Guard and things get taken care of. Survivors are evacuated and the first shipments of food/water/medicine get in there. Once that’s finished, let groups like the Red Cross & Salvation Army handle it. They are much more capable of handling a long term situation than the government is.
We’ve seen time after time, all government does is cause problems. How much money was wasted by FEMA after this disaster? Why, because they rushed in to give assistance and cut out the long process to get aid to people. Now everyone’s complaining about them. If they’d have kept the long process to get aid to people, there wouldn’t be so much waste, but everyone would bitch about how long it’s taking.
Unlike what liberals seem to think, the government isn’t here to provide everything for us. If you own your home, you need to have insurance on it to cover damages like this. That’s why insurance companies exist.
I understand that those companies do their best to get out of paying, I’ve been hearing lots of bad things about State Farm especially lately. But that’s for the courts to deal with.
People need to take responsibility. If you live in an area that may be hit by a hurricane, don’t be surprised when it happens. Have insurance to cover your losses. When a hurricane comes in, at least you’ve got several days notice it’s coming, earthquakes & tornados don’t have that warning. You should already have plans made to board up your home and evacuate.
Comment by John S. — February 13, 2007 @ 7:35 pm
“The problem with so called conservatives in the US is thay lack any kind of compassion for their fellow human being. Period.”
So, your check to the victims of Katrina will be arriving next week, right? Yeah, thought so.
“All they care is their tax money. Curiously, that’s not an issue anymore when we’re waisting hundreds of bilions in Irak. No complaints about that. But rebuilding a city in theit own f..king backyard is a waste.”
Okay Iraq has nothing to do with Katrina. Our involvement in Iraq is not hindering our ability to fund rebuilding New Orleans. The only reason you mention Iraq is because you really can’t argue convincingly that the government is obligated to rebuild New Orleans. Typical red herring.
“Sure. Healthcare for all US citizens is a nightmare from Soviet Russia for them. Or worse, the idea must be French.”
We here in American have seen the fiasco in Canda caused by government-subsidized health care. Waiting six months for major surgery. Doctors paid substandard wages (I’m not a doctor by the way.) Yeah okay. That must be the way to go.
Who was I to even question the benefits of government subsidized health care. It would probably be as successful here as FEMA, except for the part about taking tax payers money that was meant for disaster relief and using it to buy iPods. “Sorry, we couldn’t buy your artificial hip this week, our State Anesthesiologist needed to get Shakira’s latest tracks from iTunes- we’re plum out of money this week.”
Comment by Kenneth Vendler — February 14, 2007 @ 2:29 am
Kenneth..
Perhaps, just perhaps, if you spent a fraction less searching and creating weapons of mass destruction you might have resources to provide free health care to your citizens AND still have reserve resources to handle hurricanes like Katrina.
Instead you are complaining to the world about Iran while at the same time spending millions developing new nuclear weapons.
It must be quite nice to belong to the “empire” but still suffer miseries like any third world citizen.
Comment by Anonymous — April 10, 2007 @ 3:01 pm