Katrina's Impact

I haven't had much to say on this blog about Katrina. 

I posted my thoughts about the economic impact in my Downturn post and I gave some link love to Brian in my Slidell Help post. 

And I posted a Feed The Children Ad via World of Blog.

And we are giving and plan to keep giving as long as our help is needed.

But I honestly feel that I've mostly ignored the terrible Katrina tragedy this week on my blog.

I haven't ignored it personally but I haven't felt like I had much to say.

I can't do the play by play that Jeff does so well on Buzzmachine.

I share Jason's anger, but I just don't know enough about the unique challenges to go off on the leadership failures.

And mostly I am terribly conflicted by the fact that I am sitting on the beach in one of the most beautiful spots I know while thousands of americans are dying of thirst and starvation, as Tom Watson articulated in his excellent Gimme Shelter post.

Finally, I woke up this morning with something to say and its not about Katrina itself but about its impact on our country and our priorities.

America has been blessed by its natural bounty, its melting pot of people, and its winning bet on freedom and free markets.  But we've been coasting for quite a while, possibly since the end of World War II.  We've gotten fat and happy.

We've gotten used to sitting in our family rooms and watching terrorist bombings in Jerusalem, London, and Paris and saying to ourselves, "thank god it can't happen here".  Sept 11th changed that.

We've gotten used to seeing earthquakes, mudslides, floods, tsunamis, and other horrible natural tragedies all over the developing world and saying to ourselves "thank god it can't happen here".  Katrina changed that.

The twin blows of 9/11 and Katrina are a wake up call for our country.  We aren't all that.  We are humans just like all the other humans living on planet earth.  We are vulnerable like everyone else.  We may be be a "superpower" but what is that worth if we can't protect our own citizens?

I hope and believe that we are on the cusp of a new political order.  We've had the liberal excesses of the democrat's run from the depression through Vietnam.  We've had the conservative excesses of the republican's run from Vietman through Iraq.

It's time we get back to electing people to govern who know something about leading, operating, and managing.  We need pragmatic moderates who make the hard decisions without caring about the political impact. We need civil servants in the mold of George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower.  We need people who care about the details of governing rather than the details of getting elected.

We have been blessed in NYC with two such people over the past 12 years, Rudy Guliani and Mike Bloomberg.  I am not suggesting we should elect either of them president, but I am suggesting that americans are going to focus on the resume more and the rhetoric less.

I think, hope, and pray that this will be one of the long term results of the Katrina tragedy.

Comments

[hank Williams]

Well I agree with almost everything you said. I agree with your analysis of our frailty, and our inability to see it or deal with it. My only quibble, is actually a side point about our current and prior mayor.

I love mayor bloomberg. He has brough extraordinary management, political finesse, and a kindness for people to the mayoralty.

Conversely, Rudy Giuliani, before 9/11 was an evil spiteful politican focused on agragating power and wielding it mercilessly for is own self agrandizement. This anger was wielded at all those who opposed anything he did, but that ax fell most sharply on the black population of new york. Giuliani could not even bring himself to outrage over the police shooting Amado Diallo, an innocent man, 100 times.

By the end of Rudy's mayoralty (before 9/11), his popularity was low in new york, as people had tired of his razor sharp edges divisiveness, and general inability to bring together the city.

9/11 changed everyones perception of Giuliani. In one moment in time, he became a hero. It is even admittedly possible that 9/11 not only changed our perception of him, but actually changed him. He certainly became secure enough to release the comb over. And perhaps through jettisoning the comb over, and living through cancer, rudy gained back some of the humanity he had clearly lost, or perhaps never had up to that point, in his preceding years as a public servant.

And so, while I credit giuliani with excellent leadership through 9/11, it does disturb me to see his prior record forgotten so easily.

Rudy Giuliani is no Mike Bloomberg.

[hank Williams]

Well I agree with almost everything you said. I agree with your analysis of our frailty, and our inability to see it or deal with it. My only quibble, is actually a side point about our current and prior mayor.

I love mayor bloomberg. He has brough extraordinary management, political finesse, and a kindness for people to the mayoralty.

Conversely, Rudy Giuliani, before 9/11 was an evil spiteful politican focused on agragating power and wielding it mercilessly for is own self agrandizement. This anger was wielded at all those who opposed anything he did, but that ax fell most sharply on the black population of new york. Giuliani could not even bring himself to outrage over the police shooting Amado Diallo, an innocent man, 100 times.

By the end of Rudy's mayoralty (before 9/11), his popularity was low in new york, as people had tired of his razor sharp edges divisiveness, and general inability to bring together the city.

9/11 changed everyones perception of Giuliani. In one moment in time, he became a hero. It is even admittedly possible that 9/11 not only changed our perception of him, but actually changed him. He certainly became secure enough to release the comb over. And perhaps through jettisoning the comb over, and living through cancer, rudy gained back some of the humanity he had clearly lost, or perhaps never had up to that point, in his preceding years as a public servant.

And so, while I credit giuliani with excellent leadership through 9/11, it does disturb me to see his prior record forgotten so easily.

Rudy Giuliani is no Mike Bloomberg.

[Michael Parekh]

Michael Bloomberg is an anomaly in our political system.

A self-made billionaire and CEO of a VERY private company who actually knows how to translate his managerial and entrepreneurial skills to public government in the BIGGEST fishbowl in the world post 9-11.

Talk about catching lightning in a bottle...

Good post.

[jackson]

I don't know much about these things either, but it seems to me that a week is a long time to go without food and fresh water. It makes me wonder which childrens book he was reading this time, and why it took so long to finish it.

[Dimitar Vesselinov]

25 ideas to help:

http://www.workingpodcast.com/index2.html

[Tony Alva]

Great post Fred. Can't argue that things could be going smoother down there. I'm am to be dispatched to the area when I return and from what they are telling us, there is shooting going on a regular basis. We're being told that until things become more secure, no company personnel are to travel into the zone. We need leadership of any variety and affiliation. We need it now.

[charlie crystle]

I'm outraged. We all should be. 5 days to prepare, no air drops on Day 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.

Why?

It's not government for the people, certainly, and definitely not for poor people.

[David Gibbons]

It's funny you think we're "coasting" Fred, I blogged yesterday about "a country on autopilot".

I don't think that the people are frail; the federal government is frail; frail in its capability to honor its duties. I think the American people are resillient; at least that's where I get my hope from. We need new leadership urgently but will not be put down by a lack of it.

It always amazes me to see the public reaction to tragedies like Katrina in the US. Society here seems more generous to those in need than anywhere else I've lived, even if it means publicly holding a "limp" government accountable for their lack of humanity. It's not the response of "the people" to Katrina that has failed, it's that of their leaders.

[Malaika Martin]

"I am suggesting that americans are going to focus on the resume more and the rhetoric less."

You know, Fred, I would like to think this, but I have spoken to too many people across the country about political subjects to believe that the Average American will suddenly wake up and suddenly start seeing through the rhetoric that gets thrown around at election time and start dealing with real facts and solutions. People are so friggin' programmed. All they need to hear are the appropriate buzzwords and they know how to vote. Party affiliation among many people is like tribal membership - I have seen people claim to disagree with statements not because they honestly disagreed with them but because "it sounds like something a Democrat would say." That or they vote for a certain party because their whole family and all of their friends have always voted for said party. I have had people tell me they were voting for Bush because he was a man of G-d, he's loyal to Jesus, against abortion, etc. One man even told me things like: "If we ban abortion, and stop allowing things that got Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed [i.e. gay rights], then G-d will take care of America and the economy will get better."

Now, after Katrina, perhaps some people might question any links they may have had in their minds between electing certain people and the economy, but I bet most won't. People don't really think before they vote. I don't think this will change anytime soon in this country, to be honest.

Mark my words: The hardcore Bush supporters (including some in the South affected by Katrina) will find a way to get him off the hook for this politically.

[Abby]

Yeah, I think it's easy to see what you want to see. I think there will be a change, but I don't have a clue what sort of change there will be. Healthcare is my most important issue as a voter, and I support a single-payer system (sort of a Canadian/ French hybrid similar to the system in the Netherlands--I wouldn't ban all private medicine, but I'd like to see a very generous basic package of benefits.)

So the first thing I'm likely to think is, those poor people who were insured in Louisiana. As they try to re-establish their lives outside of a crisis shelter, how much easier it would be if their insurance were handled by the Federal government. It's going to be a real hassle for them, but I'm only thinking that, because I care passionately about our healthcare system.

You care about pragmatic moderation, and you think that when there's pragmatic moderation the world works well.

On the other hand, Grover Norquist and Bill Frist still want to vote for permanent repeal of the estate tax--even for the largest estates. I think we need to raise marginal income tax rates--maybe even above Clinton levels--to pay for a decent reconstruction.

And calling out this administration has to involve rhetoric and ideology. Fundamentally, do you believe that government is supposed to do certain things, because that's an issue of ideology that isn't going away.

[Mark Sigal]

I think your sentiment is dead on. I also think that reality is that there is a great divide between blue state and red state (or regional pocket), something that the last election showcased pretty clearly.

This divide and the fact that recent presidential elections have been reduced to "binary" party platform planks (god/abortion/creationism, Post-911 national defense, trickle down economics) relegate the concept of moderate pragmatism, to just that, good in concept, unlikely in practice.

Why? Because our reality (today at least) is a two party system where right wing zealots control one party and are winning with the afore-mentioned binary planks and brutally effective control of their party. They have no basis to move to moderation until it proves to be a losing hand. And the other party is wing-less, plankless and leaderless, basically allowing the repubs to run the same play over and over again.

To be clear, I am the most optimistic guy in the world, but I think that you have to start from the perspective of coming to terms with where we are to figure out how PRAGMATICALLY to get to the place you are talking about.

A good place to start is for the democrats to get some leadership that knows how to develop charismatic candidates that can be crisp, come across as sincere, being of the people and stay on message. Then, leadership needs to come up with its own set of "binary" planks that give voters a clear choice.

Passionate topic. Done with my rant. :-)

[gobackafter]

For years New Orleans has segregated...

it's black community. The hurricane has uncovered a rats nest of poor, uneducated and some times criminal people. Those people have now been driven to Texas. I hope governors around the country force, or enforce, these people to move back in about 6 months so that they can deal with their own segregation issues. For now, we will have these people in our schools, dragging down own kids and draining the resources the people of Texas have worked for. All the people in Lousianna have known about this segregation and should have to deal with it.

It is no question, the quality of life will diminish for Texans if the population we saw on TV stays. You can plan on making a donation of your car sterio withi the next 6 months.

Funny but true: A friend of mine had a great idea, "send them to Oklahome, then they will go back after for sure."

[Yaqub Rehimli]

I know only that Huricane Katrina showed the humman unequality in the US!That blacks are very poor in modern life os the US!

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