Finally, Words of Reason Concerning Katrina

A few truths, for those who have ears and eyes and care to know the truth:

1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying.

2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.

3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born.

4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world’s worst polluters — China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in sorcery.

5.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush’s fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It’s not George Bush’s fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile.

6.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.

7.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.

8.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization.

9.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to the emergency. To say otherwise is pure slander.

10.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all be a lot better off.

11.) New Orleans is a great city with many great people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the process by one day.

12.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge of your health care.

God bless all of those dear people who are suffering so much, and God bless those helping them, starting with George Bush.


Ben Stein, American Spectator

The State of the Survivors

Joshwa Coyette, 3, cries Saturday inside the Houston Astrodome, where he’s staying with his siblings. Their mother is still missing.


I have been ignoring this blog for the past few days to allow this Katrina disaster to sink in. I chose not to post anything on the disaster since I couldn't really add anything that wasn't already covered by someone, somewhere and why bother regurgitating the same stuff in different words?

I guess I can only relate my first-hand experience with the survivors I have met here in Houston.

I ride the MetroRail everyday and my first stop is at the Astrodome. Yesterday, I overhead a gentleman on the train mention that he was from New Orleans and was looking for work. I can't say he was lacking in confidence because he was holding a new plastic hard hat he had apparently just bought that was still in its packaging. I engaged him in conversation and soon heard a lot.

I heard how he had waded through chest-high water, passed several bodies (he said they just tied the body to a tree or other fixture so it wouldn't float away).

I heard how he, his fiancee, and daughter were here in Houston while his other daughter was taken to California.

I heard him say he probably would never go back to Louisiana and plans to stay here. He said he would probably go back and salvage what he could, then return here to start a new life. That is what I have heard from everyone I talked to; they don't want to go back...nothing there for them anymore.

I heard him say he worked construction for the City of New Orleans and he showed me his employee card.

I also heard him say all he wanted was a "hot" meal. They seemed to take good care of them in the dome but hot food was not a real priority. "You have to have hot food." He said.

I showed him the construction sites along the train route, the hospital district, and the downtown district.

We talked for awhile until my train stop came up. I took him with me to my office in downtown Houston to try and contact someone from the crew that is doing the remodeling here. When we reached the lobby, we ran into a guy that worked for the company installing automation lines. He too was from Louisiana.
He got some phone numbers from the guy and took off back to the train to get off at the hospital stop and check the construction sites around there.
I guess he found a job because he hasn't called back.

It also seems that the population in and around the astrodome area has dropped considerably. I heard it has gone from 25,000 to around 9,000 people.

That is good.

It's good to see the people getting back on their feet,back into life, and not sitting around waiting for a handout.

Things are getting better.