Living History

Let us start out by first saying we offer our prayers to all of those affected by Hurricane Katrina. We pray that the people along the gulf coast will get the badly needed assistance soon.

For the rest of us I think we all need to step back for a moment and realize we are watching living History. This event will be something that our Grand Children will read about in school. The effects of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans will echo through time for decades.

As children we all read about the Great Depression, the Dust Bowls, or the rationing that took place during World War II. But we are so far removed from it that sometimes it is hard for us to relate just how bad the people of America in the past suffered through those and other events.

In modern times we see the pictures coming out of Iraq of the devastation that has taken place. And while many of us are concerned we are still far removed from the war torn reality Iraq is experiencing.

Not so with New Orleans; we are all witnessing first hand via TV, internet, newspapers, and magazines the devastation unleashed on the Gulf Coast. It hits a little closer to home, don’t you think? These are Americans. They speak the same language we speak. They like football, baseball, and hot dogs. They listen to the same music we listen to and watch the same movies.

There are possibly hundreds of thousands of Americans who are without shelter, clean water, food, electricity, and basic sanitation. Such conditions are the norm in places like Iraq but we are not used to it.

I would ask all to just for a moment try to have a little compassion for these human beings. Try to empathize with the pain and suffering they are going through.

I am hearing a lot of people on the radio and media trying to blame the people for not leaving. You have to realize many of these people could not leave; they had no choice. I hear other people trying to blame the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana for not repairing the levees. People MUST understand that the only people who are to blame at this point for not repairing the levees are the Federal Government.

The Republican controlled federal government decided to cut funding to the Army Corp of Engineers who had plans drawn up to strengthen the levees. Studies had been done on what devastation a category 5 hurricane would do to New Orleans and plans were made to bolster the levee system so that they could withstand the flooding. The funding was cut and the Army Corp of Engineers could not complete their upgrades.

As far as response times…We all saw the giant hurricane moving via satellite on the news. Emergency workers, the National Guard, The Red Cross, and FEMA should have been ready to move days before the Hurricane. Worst case scenarios should have been simulated and emergency shelters designated.

When all is said and done there will be plenty of blame to go around. But please do not blame or attack the victim in this case. Every single one of us faces the potential for being caught in some sort of natural disaster whether it is an earthquake, volcano erupting, flooding, tsunami, tornado, hurricane, mudslide, or avalanche. How would you feel if something happened that was beyond your control and the rest of the country decided to blame you for let’s say living in San Francisco or New York.