Katrina and the Wave

August 29 marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in New Orleans, and the most devastating natural disaster since Paris Hilton got a TV show.
According to a new poll, most Americans are wary of another such event – (the hurricane, not Paris):

Their confidence shaken by Katrina, most Americans don't believe the nation is ready for another major disaster, a new AP-Ipsos poll finds. Poor people are more likely to fear becoming victims of the next disaster.

The survey, conducted one year after the devastating hurricane and with much of New Orleans still in shambles, found diminishing faith in the government's ability to deal with emergencies.

While it may seem otherwise, I don’t think too many people in the White House are all that concerned about it, for a few reasons.

First, disasters give Americans something to take their minds off how screwed up the rest of the country is.
It focuses media attention on the affected area, with the appropriate front page or top of the network news headlines that allow us to think of little else.
The government would prefer that we stop thinking about the daily goings-on and focus on the sensational.
It’s good for business and even better for the people in government.

Second, I’m not all that sure that it is in the government’s best interests to care about people killed or displaced by such things, especially if they are poor. They have no interest in helping the poor, since generally; they don’t vote and in fact have no ability to influence policy or do anything that would be detrimental to the people in power.

This is crass, but I don’t think that this administration views people as a valuable commodity worthy of saving.

Whether it is war, poverty, fire, flood or terrorist attack, people are disposable resources.

Use us, send us overseas to fight your battles, kill us, cripple us or whatever … we don’t matter.

The president can do what he wants insofar as memorial services, sappy speeches or dedications are concerned, but I don’t believe that big government (big business) has any regard for the health and welfare of people – especially the ones on welfare.

There are acceptable casualties when it comes to running a country.

Hurricanes, wars, terrorism and natural disasters fall under the category of inevitable death, and while it may seem cold-hearted, a government cannot allow itself to get too wrapped up in the preservation of those lives or the glorification of them after they have been used.

The memorial services and windy speeches are done as a show for the survivors, not out of genuine feeling by the people involved.

The sooner you can realize that your government views you as a utensil and not a feeling human being, the sooner you can rationalize the things they do.

Don’t put too much feeling into an unrequited love affair. They don’t care about you as much as you do about them.

That is about as cynical as I can get.

House Democrats on Monday toured devastated areas of New Orleans and decried the slow pace of recovery. "I think the American public is going to be very, very surprised to know this recovery is way, way behind what their expectations would have been," Rep. James Clyburn, D-SC, said after a tour that took more than a dozen Democratic members of Congress through the heavily hit Ninth Ward.

"It's hard to believe this is the United States," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said the storm exposed a "tragedy" of mismanagement and that the government was not fulfilling its pledges.
"Hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens still await the help in rebuilding their hospitals, schools, businesses, and homes that was promised last fall," Pelosi said.

The horrors experienced at the Superdome and elsewhere in New Orleans stoked concern about racial and economic divisions because blacks and the poor bore the brunt of the suffering. Asked if he believed race was a factor in the slow federal response to Katrina, Nagin said: "If it would have been a bunch of rich people in New Orleans, I think there would have been a different response. I really do."