Katrina and the Waves
As time cleaves its way between the then and the now and my own synapses settle into their pleasant routine, what I notice most is a gap or disparity between the expectations of the two Americas concerning the response to Katrina.
I am not referring to red vs. blue, although in many instances that template may apply; but instead to the expectation of the America believed in by its constituents and the America thought of by its leadership, sadly the powers that be.
I suppose it doesn't matter if the existent reality of America is one or the other, or whether whichever one has been true all along: The individual idealistic vista that the top level of leadership can and will respond in timely and impartial fashion to times of crisis; or the viewpoint that the federal government is there to merely shepherd and manage the efforts of many smaller organizations down to the citizenry from on high, the forty thousand foot panorama, so to speak. What does matter however, is that there is a grand misperception on both sides currently which is unfortunately aggravating the situation, a mote of sand in the craw of the nation that is so large, it rivals the elephant in the drawing room.
By my own reckoning, the current administration's response has been more than lacking in both timing and resources given to those truly in need in the Gulf Coast region. What aid has already been set in motion as well as its overall handling by the federal government has been badly mismanaged and predicated in the worst way possible.
I am fairly certain that I am not alone in this opinion.
Nor is the opposing view without its public champions, however callous I may find their disregard or mindless parroting of misinformation in an attempt to shore up confidence in a "job well done". What exactly the preceding quote is in reference to remains unknown to many, as it would appear from all accounts that the only thing that is seemingly finished up at the present time is the wrath of Katrina itself, and I know for a fact that hurricanes aren't card-carrying politicos of any affiliation.
It is the the sheer distance between these mindsets that I find to be the most troubling. That those who would govern would show indifference to their duty when they absolutely must -- The city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, Gulfport Mississippi, and the other communities and local governments of the Gulf Coast are incapable of meeting the crisis inasmuch that the necessary infrastructure has all but been eliminated. Yet the governing on the federal level did not occur in any sort of timely manner, and continues down a muddy path without clear destination. Troubling, as I take my stance to be correct and the administration considers its even more-so.
How it is that such reconciliation has become intangible between a "government by the people" and its persons is a question for history to answer, I myself do not profess to divine reason for it -- I only note that in a day and age where information is disseminated and events observed in an immediate fashion can so easily be construed or misconstrued with such bipolarity to be damned perplexing, and well beyond my ken.
Compounding this of course, is the Bush administration's lack of responsibility in the matter. An interesting multiple entendre there: I do not believe that the President has a weather machine in order to create category 5 hurricanes in which to smash his enemies, so there is obviously no responsibility in the event itself; Shoring up the levees may or may not have saved the day, no one can tell if funding cut is directly responsible for the flooding; The reorganization of disaster relief has been bureaucratized to the point of being bottom-up, so initial response lay with the cities, parishes, counties and states; And lastly the uppermost echelon of our government has eschewed leadership based upon so-called secondhand information or outright ignoring reports from the same media that they seek to control in New Orleans right now.
A rather tidy package, one might say. While the President and his personal appointees in charge of managing this disaster (ah, another double entendre) feel that they can continue to gaze through the upper lenses of the bifocals as the pages of the media reports are pressed beneath their noses and avoid the responsibility for the nation that they are sworn to, there is another word that comes to mind that history I'm sure will appoint to this proceeding.
That word is accountability.
I am not referring to red vs. blue, although in many instances that template may apply; but instead to the expectation of the America believed in by its constituents and the America thought of by its leadership, sadly the powers that be.
I suppose it doesn't matter if the existent reality of America is one or the other, or whether whichever one has been true all along: The individual idealistic vista that the top level of leadership can and will respond in timely and impartial fashion to times of crisis; or the viewpoint that the federal government is there to merely shepherd and manage the efforts of many smaller organizations down to the citizenry from on high, the forty thousand foot panorama, so to speak. What does matter however, is that there is a grand misperception on both sides currently which is unfortunately aggravating the situation, a mote of sand in the craw of the nation that is so large, it rivals the elephant in the drawing room.
By my own reckoning, the current administration's response has been more than lacking in both timing and resources given to those truly in need in the Gulf Coast region. What aid has already been set in motion as well as its overall handling by the federal government has been badly mismanaged and predicated in the worst way possible.
I am fairly certain that I am not alone in this opinion.
Nor is the opposing view without its public champions, however callous I may find their disregard or mindless parroting of misinformation in an attempt to shore up confidence in a "job well done". What exactly the preceding quote is in reference to remains unknown to many, as it would appear from all accounts that the only thing that is seemingly finished up at the present time is the wrath of Katrina itself, and I know for a fact that hurricanes aren't card-carrying politicos of any affiliation.
It is the the sheer distance between these mindsets that I find to be the most troubling. That those who would govern would show indifference to their duty when they absolutely must -- The city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, Gulfport Mississippi, and the other communities and local governments of the Gulf Coast are incapable of meeting the crisis inasmuch that the necessary infrastructure has all but been eliminated. Yet the governing on the federal level did not occur in any sort of timely manner, and continues down a muddy path without clear destination. Troubling, as I take my stance to be correct and the administration considers its even more-so.
How it is that such reconciliation has become intangible between a "government by the people" and its persons is a question for history to answer, I myself do not profess to divine reason for it -- I only note that in a day and age where information is disseminated and events observed in an immediate fashion can so easily be construed or misconstrued with such bipolarity to be damned perplexing, and well beyond my ken.
Compounding this of course, is the Bush administration's lack of responsibility in the matter. An interesting multiple entendre there: I do not believe that the President has a weather machine in order to create category 5 hurricanes in which to smash his enemies, so there is obviously no responsibility in the event itself; Shoring up the levees may or may not have saved the day, no one can tell if funding cut is directly responsible for the flooding; The reorganization of disaster relief has been bureaucratized to the point of being bottom-up, so initial response lay with the cities, parishes, counties and states; And lastly the uppermost echelon of our government has eschewed leadership based upon so-called secondhand information or outright ignoring reports from the same media that they seek to control in New Orleans right now.
A rather tidy package, one might say. While the President and his personal appointees in charge of managing this disaster (ah, another double entendre) feel that they can continue to gaze through the upper lenses of the bifocals as the pages of the media reports are pressed beneath their noses and avoid the responsibility for the nation that they are sworn to, there is another word that comes to mind that history I'm sure will appoint to this proceeding.
That word is accountability.
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