Now there are hearings being held before the Congress, hearings the Democrats boycotted with a couple of exceptions, that are supposedly designed to determine what went wrong with FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina. Former Director Brown essentially blamed the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor for not asking for help sooner. Fine. So they didn't cross the t's and dot the i's. Is this necessarily indicative of a failure on their part?
Did Mr. Brown not already know that landfall by Katrina was imminent? Was Mr. Brown not aware of the information suggesting that the levee systems were said to be incapable of withstanding such a storm? Was Mr. Brown not aware that New Orleans sits below sea level? Is Mr. Brown suggesting that FEMA was just chomping at the bit and waiting to plunge into Louisiana just as soon as the proper forms were submitted? If this much is true or even partly true, then the failure may not be on any one particular person but the entire procedure. Or even on Mr. Brown himself for failing to take any initiative when action was clearly appropriate. By the way, the Red Cross, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Salvation Army all managed to get in.
It should be painfully clear that mistakes were made and will be made, but we humans can always learn from mistakes. However, I think that when this is all said and done, this congressional hearing will have accomplished little. The reason is very simple: Democrats want to make Republicans look bad, and Republicans want to make Democrats look bad. "Public service" does not enter into the picture here as far as I can tell. No one seems interested in fixing the problem, finding it much easier instead to "fix the blame".
Mr. Brown's reputation is on the line, and he found himself facing some pretty hostile questions that had little to do with exploring the actual problem. Even still, he got as defensive as any other normal person would. The Louisiana governor will face the same congressional panel and will probably react the very same way. Like I say, little will be accomplished because procedure is not being explored but, rather, politics and the mid-term elections.
Pay attention, voters!
3 comments:
It's interesting that people yelled "Where is the government?!" in the midst of this disaster instead of "Where is the Church?!"
Wow! Interesting comment. Do you think maybe it's because the general population has somehow come to expect so little from the Church? Man, there's something to chew on.
Thank you for your comment, John.
Yes, that is precisely it. The church has become a social club and not a service club. Properly, we exist for the world, instead of the other way around.
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