So lemme see ... from his vantage point 2,000 miles away, a former state legislator from a rural area of a reasonably wealthy state is going to pontificate on the problems faced by an urban area, in a state that has an annual income per citizen of approximately 10,000 per household lower than those in his state.
None of the local experts I have consulted agree. The checkout girl in the grocery store her in town is convinced that God
allowed the hurricane to strike New Orleans because of the perversions of Mardi Gras. The guy who works for my brother-in-law (and he spent five days in New Oleans on his high school senior trip) is convinced that the breakdown in law and order is because they are almost all niggers down there, and a lot of the white people talk real goddamned funny too. The barista at the local coffee house is, like, really unsure because, like, all these people are living, like, below sea level anyway, and, like, couldn't they have just covered all those, like, pumps; and where is the relief effort for all the dogs and cats, anyway? Why aren't they being moved to shelters in other states? I was unable to reach Tony at his transmission shop for his opinion, but assuming he stayed consistant with his normal opinions, U.S. membership in the U.N. will have some bearing on it.
Look ... when it is all said and done, there is going to be more than enough blame to go around. Many of the citizens themselves paid little head to the warnings, figuring that this storm would pass them (as they have have for 40+ years). City officials probvably botched putting whatever plans they had into effect; I suspect that, as in most states, New Orleans is the red-headed stepchild when it comes to the state government. There are whole generations of state politicians who made the switch from nigger-baiting to urban baiting without missing a beat.
All of this will come out in the wash, because of (or in spite of) all the investigations that are sure to follow. I'm sure the Bush investigation of FEMA's problems will be amusing reading; the Senate's investigation may be a little more credible, as many Republicans think Snow is a Democrat, and a lot of Democrats wonder if Lieberman isn't really a Republican.
I think you'd be suprised at how many "2nd-tier" cities like NO would have just as many problems if faced with this kind of devistation. The money in many of these cities has fled to the 'burbs. The states, in many cases, can't committ the kind of resources that are necessary for day-to-day functioning without a backlash from suburban and rural areas.
When Mr. Williams says " I am not attempting to excuse some of the delays in FEMA's response," I think he lied. Even if he didn't, it should come as no suprise that it's been posted by a blatant apologist for the FEMA response. What the governor and the mayor did DOES NOTHING to mitigate the facts.
To borrow from a campaign slogan, compare the response of FEMA in September, 2001, to the response in September, 2005, and ask yourself this - "Are we better off today than we were four years ago?"
