Posted on 09/03/2005 3:15:51 PM PDT by Petruchio
An Open Letter to Congressman Danny Davis and the Congressional Black Caucus.
I am ashamed that you are my Representative in Congress. I am an independent, and there are a lot of things I disagree with the current Administration over. But, Hurricane Relief is not one of them. The efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Democrat Party to spin relief efforts into political gain is deplorable.
Lets look at the facts and all possible relief senerios, shall we? There are only five possible ways for Federal intervention in a disaster.
1- The President could have walked out on the waters of the Gulf and commanded Hurricane Katrina to turn back into the open sea. If he had, the Democrat Party would have rushed to the microphones to accuse Bush of grandstanding for political gain! I guess we can scratch this one off the list.
2- The President could have just marched in and taken over. This is illegal and would have resulted in demands for his impeachment along with his head on a platter. Scratch two.
3- The President could have declared that the State and Local Governments no longer exist in any meaningful way and that FEMA had to take over in order to protect the citizens. Yeah, right. As if the Congressional Black Caucus would let him get away with that! Scratch three.
4- The President could have declared War on the State of Louisiana. This was tried once. A little over 140 years ago a Republican declared War on the Southern States. As I remember from school, a whole lot of folks got in a snit over that one. Scratch four.
5- The Mayor of New Orleans informs the Governor of Louisiana that aid is needed, and the Governor calls the President and asks for help. This finally happened four days after the fact.
Think about it. On Saturday, two days before the storm, The Director of the Hurricane Center called Mayer Nagin and Gov.. Blanco pleading with them to evacuate. Nothing. The President personally called and strongly urged Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco to order evacuations. Finally, on Sunday, less than one day before the storm hit, evacuations were called for.
However, The Mayor and the Governor failed to provide any form of transportation for the poor and the needy. There are hundreds of school buses in the New Orleans Metro area that could have been put into use. Instead those buses sit under water, destroyed. And the good citizens of New Orleans were left to fend for themselves while the Mayor hid in another city.
After the storm passed, Mayor Nagin was clueless as to what was happening in New Orleans. Why? Because he was sitting in Baton Rouge, not in New Orleans where he should have been. You cannot lead disaster recovery from out of town. From the time the storm left the area on Monday night until Thursday afternoon, Mayor Nagin stood in another City and complained that he was not getting any assistance when he never asked for it in the first place! Once Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco asked for Federal Assistance, that assistance was set in motion within an hour.
FEMA had pre-positioned equipment and personnel before the storm hit. FEMA could not legally act without being asked. The majority of the Gulf Coast was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Gulfport and Biloxi are cleaning up. Emergency Services are being restored. The difference between Gulfport and Biloxi and New Orleans is that the Mayors and the Governor of Mississippi reacted properly and asked for aid right away. In New Orleans, the elected Officials failed to act in the Public Interest, before, during, and after the storm.
You can't blame the Federal Government for the failures of the Local and State elected Officials. There is no excuse for Gov. Blanco not ordering the LA NG into the afflicted areas on Monday evening to provide aid and security. That responsibility falls on the Governor's shoulders and no where else. The failure to mobilize the school buses to evacuate those without transportation falls on Mayor Nagin and nowhere else.
Congressman Davis, it is not your fault that Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Nor is it President Bush's fault. Storms happen. Cleanup, Rebuild, and move on. Don't whine and cry.
Perhaps I should blame you for the high price of gasoline. After all, you did not sponsor a Bill mandating that before a refinery can close, a new refinery with greater capacity must be built to replace it. If you had pushed through such a Bill we would not have shortages now.
with copies submitted as a LTE to: Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun-Times
Illinois Leader
It's a great letter - pity that it's wasted on the Dims. They would rather attack President Bush than save human lives.
Excellent letter! I hope it is printed, and spread widely. I will die of shock if Davis responds.
Good job.
Good for you!!!!!!!!!!
To:(name your favorite MSM "journalists)
I am just curious is any of you "objective" journalists have bother to note that the City of New Orleans is responsible for the evacuation plan. You can read it on their website. You know, the city being run by the Democrat Mayor who is current screaming loudest. Couldn't be he is screaming so loud because he dropped the ball and knows it? Maybe you "journalists" might want to look into the reasons why the City of New Orleans plan failed so dramatically. Why doesn't the City of New Orleans have pre-positions stockpiles of food and water to get people over the 3 day hump that the Dept of Homeland Security tells them it will take for the Feds to ride to the rescue? Democrat leaders who are zealous to make a race issue out of this might want to consider what is going to happen when the American People start to ask themselves "Just what did all those millions of Homeland Security dollars given to cities like New Orleans in the aftermath of 9-11 BUY us? This has a very real potential to turn right around and bite the Democrat leadership very hard in a very sensitive place.
You Are ??? ;-)
Most excellent, Petruchio.
No.
But why tell him that? [grin]
How wretched these liberals are for turning this horror into a political and racial episode.
I was pleased that at tonight's vigil mass the priest said, among other things, that he did not agree with people saying the slow response to the flood was motivated by racism. "It was just the magnitude of the disaster." I'm glad someone gets it.
Any response or publication I will note on this thread.
I agree, I doubt he will say anything.
I just heard an official from one of the Parrishes stating that everyone is so busy playing the race card that the parrishes are being forgotten. White neighborhoods need help also and none is available to them. He said we will be seeing many dead white people on rooftops waiting for help that never came.
BTTT
I knew that !!!
It does add a little extra to the letter .
Stupendous letter. Will you let us know if he responds??
susie
How in the world can you tell people to go to a dome or convention center when it would be widely known that electricity would be nonexistant. Then how would water be pumped to fountains and toilets. This was simply short sited. Potable water needed to be on site and dispensed. Porta Johns should have been plentiful. Rations should have been shipped in before the storm hit. National Guards and Federal troops along with their equipment should have been waiting on the northern borders of those soon to be affected states ready to roll. Local law enforcement officials should have necessary fuel, water and rations. Hospitals should have been set up with back up generators for the back up generators. It was widely known this was going to be a very severe storm. 24-48 hours before it hit the Gulf Coast it was reported to be a cat 5 storm.
New Orleans is a zoo even on the best of days. The people who live on the margin everyday were given a situation that would have made even the most level headed to fall apart. Throw 10,000 Freepers in such a situation for almost a week without food or water and watch them turn on each other. Just watch how we sometimes treat other on threads, then throw us together without food and water and then add the heat and humidity of New Orleans and not knowing what, where or when things would get better.
Excellent letter. I saw a representative from the Congressional Black Caucus (and, just as an aside, how many people would go absolutely nuts if there were a "Congressional White Caucus"?) whining and moaning about the "slowness" of the federal response. What about state and local response? Where were they? It's all just whining.
Good points. Let us know if it gets published.
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