![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My Own Talking Points
Sep. 6th, 2005 07:55 amI went to dinner with my parents last night, spending more in gas than the free meal was worth.
My mother was discussing New Orleans in her usual style, speaking about this and that mostly with information she had picked up from Fox News. She made mention that New Orleans' mayor was "whining" on TV the night before.
I told her that she should probably get off of that subject. This was my warning that I was about to go off, since I'm certainly on the side of the mayor that the effort was federalized and that the federal government failed him and his city.
My dad chimed in that the mayor could have bussed out all of the people, and then I lost it. I told him, "There was no plan to do that, and there never has been not in New Orleans, not in Houston or Miami or Jacksonville or any other city in this country. You can't look in hindsight and create a program that didn't exist."
I could see that the lady at the next table at Chilis saw that I was getting upset, and my voice was carrying.
"There is no law stating that there is a mandatory evacuation, and no plan to transport people who have no cars, or cars incapable of getting far enough away. No city has a plan to move a percentage of it's population, those people are left to sink or swim! And don't tell me that they could do it after the storm, they didn't have the ability to contact and find bus drivers in the city. How would they do that?"
My Dad was obviously not happy with my outburst, but I couldn't take the stupid blame game that's been going on when the feds have clearly blown it, from cutting budgets to emergency planning to implementation. I even mentioned how silly it was that newsmen, Harry Connick Jr. and Wal-Mart could get into New Orleans when the people with FEMA and the National Guard couldn't. What kind of idiots are running this thing?
There needs to be a serious reorganization of priorities in this country. Sure Ronald Reagan said we should fear the words, "I'm with the government, and I'm here to help" but there's definitely times when we should be able to count on the government to be there and be in control, and this is one of them. what we don't need to here is "I'm with the government, sorry I'm late."
I'm very frustrated that my parents are still accepting the talking points of the group in control when they are clearly having the wool pulled over their eyes.
My mother was discussing New Orleans in her usual style, speaking about this and that mostly with information she had picked up from Fox News. She made mention that New Orleans' mayor was "whining" on TV the night before.
I told her that she should probably get off of that subject. This was my warning that I was about to go off, since I'm certainly on the side of the mayor that the effort was federalized and that the federal government failed him and his city.
My dad chimed in that the mayor could have bussed out all of the people, and then I lost it. I told him, "There was no plan to do that, and there never has been not in New Orleans, not in Houston or Miami or Jacksonville or any other city in this country. You can't look in hindsight and create a program that didn't exist."
I could see that the lady at the next table at Chilis saw that I was getting upset, and my voice was carrying.
"There is no law stating that there is a mandatory evacuation, and no plan to transport people who have no cars, or cars incapable of getting far enough away. No city has a plan to move a percentage of it's population, those people are left to sink or swim! And don't tell me that they could do it after the storm, they didn't have the ability to contact and find bus drivers in the city. How would they do that?"
My Dad was obviously not happy with my outburst, but I couldn't take the stupid blame game that's been going on when the feds have clearly blown it, from cutting budgets to emergency planning to implementation. I even mentioned how silly it was that newsmen, Harry Connick Jr. and Wal-Mart could get into New Orleans when the people with FEMA and the National Guard couldn't. What kind of idiots are running this thing?
There needs to be a serious reorganization of priorities in this country. Sure Ronald Reagan said we should fear the words, "I'm with the government, and I'm here to help" but there's definitely times when we should be able to count on the government to be there and be in control, and this is one of them. what we don't need to here is "I'm with the government, sorry I'm late."
I'm very frustrated that my parents are still accepting the talking points of the group in control when they are clearly having the wool pulled over their eyes.
