Unintended consequences of incompetence?
Reading DHS Secretary Chertoff's remarks about not having the logistics to track relief supplies (see previous post) made me wonder about something.
It made me wonder if, after hearing report after report of such things as ice and water and other supplies on semi-trucks being routed all over the country and never reaching their intended recipients, thousands of people stranded at the Convention Center without food or water or medical supplies for days, unused temporary housing trailers sinking into the Arkansas mud, MREs and other supplies being looted and sold on eBay, while knowing there was an enormous, unprecedented, even historic outpouring of support, volunteers, aid, supplies, and money from the American people and from all over the world, if America and the world will be so generous or so quick to offer aid the next time around?
In other words, has the DHS/FEMA response destroyed whatever confidence the public might have had in society's ability to help one another in a disaster? Will we just throw up our hands now and say it's hopeless? I hope not.
It also makes me wonder if it isn't all just part of The Plan, similar to cutting off funding for public education, health care, entitlement programs, etc. etc. to "get the Federal government off our backs, out of our lives, and out of our pocketbooks." If so, The Architects of The Plan ought to go back and take a look at the Cable TeeVee news footage from the New Orleans Convention Center for a preview of what America will look like in the end. Or maybe that's what they want. It's hard to tell these days.
It made me wonder if, after hearing report after report of such things as ice and water and other supplies on semi-trucks being routed all over the country and never reaching their intended recipients, thousands of people stranded at the Convention Center without food or water or medical supplies for days, unused temporary housing trailers sinking into the Arkansas mud, MREs and other supplies being looted and sold on eBay, while knowing there was an enormous, unprecedented, even historic outpouring of support, volunteers, aid, supplies, and money from the American people and from all over the world, if America and the world will be so generous or so quick to offer aid the next time around?
In other words, has the DHS/FEMA response destroyed whatever confidence the public might have had in society's ability to help one another in a disaster? Will we just throw up our hands now and say it's hopeless? I hope not.
It also makes me wonder if it isn't all just part of The Plan, similar to cutting off funding for public education, health care, entitlement programs, etc. etc. to "get the Federal government off our backs, out of our lives, and out of our pocketbooks." If so, The Architects of The Plan ought to go back and take a look at the Cable TeeVee news footage from the New Orleans Convention Center for a preview of what America will look like in the end. Or maybe that's what they want. It's hard to tell these days.
2 Comments:
I do not think it has destroyed our confidence. I believe it may have re-directed our funding (contributions). It is now, with so much more accessible information, easier to give locally. I think we are now trying to go to the source, e.g. local New Orleanians, to help instead of the big charities.
Coming from the New Orleans area I will say that it has certainly destroyed my confidence. If you live near a coast or a fault line or a volcano or any other of the major disasters waiting to happen - watch out. By the way, I'm not talking about the response 5 months ago, that's "water under the bridge" - I'm talking about the nonsense still going on right now.
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