(no subject)

[lwoodbloo]

My heart goes out to New Orleans.

I've never been there, but I've read "A Confederacy of Dunces" more than once, and "Liquor". A pale, pale substitute, but lord...I can't believe that. Believe what that place looks like now...it is, like a friend of mine said, as if the deluge has come, and we are on the wrong side of the water.

It should be said that this was a known danger. The Mississippi delta is right smack in the middle of hurricane territory. We know, mathematically, how often a storm this bad will hit that area. I'm sorry...but it seems to be to have been a matter of time. We have a habit of building in places that will get smacked with something like this, and we are upset when it happens. We can't stop nature. It's pretty simple, that way.

However...it also becomes obvious that we've neglected our infrastructure. We cut taxes. We cut programs. We pat ourselves on the back because we pay less in taxes. Our legislators get reelected on claims that they're tax cutters.

This is the result.

Dead soldiers in Iraq is the result.

We need to sit and think carefully...and maybe a little more altruistically, as well.

Comments

[lite.livejournal.com]

I can't agree with your sentiments. It's like saying that, if San Francisco hadn't neglected IT'S infrastrucute, than the Big One wouldn't have caused so much damage.

The levee was kept up. The Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for it and they are, in general, good about making sure that levees are kept clean. There WERE issues, that were being discussed, with the levee. In the end, what it comes down to was.. that levee was not built to withstand a Category five storm. That would have required a huge, superstrong levee that would have been bigger AND thicker and a whole lot more expensive. Requiring a levee to be built to build that is like requiring that all buildings in New York be built to withstand a direct hit from a plane. It's god-awful expensive, and probably overkill in terms of safety.

There are alot of things wrong with the world, but when it comes down to it, there's no one TO Blame with what happened in New Orleans except for perhaps all of us who have helped global warming occur, and that blame lies on all of us who work in heated buildings, drive cars and like electricity (since most of our electricity is still generated via coal and oil plants)

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

You absolutely have a point. I see where you're coming from, and you're probably right too!

[zrealm.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I can agree with that either. Short of building a weather machine (which can't exist), I really don't think higher taxes would have solved any of this problem. What evidence do we have that any of these programs that the government has run has actually helped in the past? I think the score board between Big Government and natural disasters doesn't have many ticks in the government's column.

Dead soldiers in Iraq is even more a case against higher taxes. Our military budget is actually pretty high, and look at what kind of difference it's made there...

[sisterred.livejournal.com]

I think you might have a good point.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

[listenshesings.livejournal.com]

As sad as I am for all the people who lived there, I'm also selfishly upset that it was destroyed before I got to see it. the devastation is just astounding to me.

[ladyjendifi.livejournal.com]

It might not have helped keep any of the damage at bay, but it can't help that all the army reserves in Louisiana are in Iraq right now, along with all their rescue equipment-and have been for months. Heaven forbid they be there to help alleviate suffering in their own backyard, like they were trained to.

A woman in my lit class is in the reserves. She said the they called her up and asked her if she would come down and help, if she had any free time. Geesh.

[hollymoody.livejournal.com]

my good friend is up there. The thought that it is 99.9 percent likely that she lost EVERYTHING bothers me.