Where have all the leaders gone?

It’s not a matter of politics; it’s a matter of leadership. As I listened to the angry words of Mayor Nagin of New Orleans, I realized that somewhere in the make up of this country we have achieved a failure of leadership that is so profound, that thousands of people have had to die to camouflage it. I know the Mayor is in despair, and I know he tried to evacuate his city to lessen the impact – and that 80% responded and left, but what about all the others? And Biloxi and Mobile? How do we justify that the storm wiped them out and no one is there to help?

We all knew the storm was coming. It was touted on the weather stations for over a week. Each day, we knew it was bad, a category 5. The mayor ordered the city evacuated and those who had cars or trucks were able to pack up their belongings and flee. They may have lost their homes, but their families and in many cases, their pets were safe. Others with the means to leave chose to ignore a mandatory order and they created their own disaster. When a mandatory evacuation is ordered, it’s not like having a menu of choices, you leave. If you stay, it’s your own problem – and you just hope that they find you hiding in your attic in time before the water overwhelm you.

But what about the others? Thousands of others who depend on public transportation or their own two feet to get them to their destinations. What about the housebound who are dependent on neighbors for their basic necessities. Looking at scenes from the Superdome and NO Convention Center, it is heartbreaking to realize how many people are in this category. Why weren’t the busses in neighborhoods, where people live, along with police or national guardsman to force the evacuation? Why didn’t the governor call upon the remaining resources of the state to get these people out before the storm hit and the levees broke? Where were the feds in all of this? The time to deal with a disaster is before the disaster happens. From what I understand, FEMA had a dry run a couple of years ago, and they are still working out the plan of action in order to be ready when the big one hits. I hate to ask this question, but was the lack of immediate response due to the fact that the people stranded are poor and predominately black? I know that the president once told someone that he had never met a poor person, so does his lack of understanding about what the depths of poverty means translate into a callous disregard about the logistics of getting these people out, and the help needed?

Nice to know that you can’t count on the emergency folks in a time of crisis. I can understand that after we were attacked on 9/11 it took a while for all things to get into place; it was an unprovoked attack on our country by a foreign entity. But this was different. They knew it was coming. Every year, the storms have been getting worse, and the season longer. You had to figure that something was going to hit hard eventually. So why not be ready? If it doesn’t happen, then you can count the maneuvers as experience that will help the next time.

For instance, I heard that the ship Comfort was leaving VA and making its way to New Orleans. It left after the end of the storm. Why not have it docked in Houston or Florida, so that the travel time is shortened. Or as the storm is gathering strength, move its way down the coast to be ready to sail in once the danger is passed? Battle ships and other vessels are on their way and should be there in a week? How come you don’t have them stationed during the hurricane season closer to where these storms happen? We know their general paths.

It was a category 5 storm, right? Put the military on alert and ready to mobilize right away, and not several days later. From what I understand, the General in charge (I am sorry, I don’t know his name) has been the only effective leader in this entire situation. He is a man of action and his actions have been the only ones that have maintained a semblance of order. We need more persons like him or the marines who helped the tsunami victims. We need a commander in chief who understands that flying over a disaster area and telling us that we are going to be ok doesn’t translate into actually leading.

When it comes to improving the infrastructure of our levees, our bridges, our roads and our transportation, power and communications systems, we are lacking any type of forethought or even intelligent design. Our country has more resources, more people of good will and more compassion than most. What we need are leaders who are willing to face the hard choices – like fixing our infrastructure, and educating our people in practical and uncertain terms. We need a government that is responsive to our emergency needs in swift and positive action. Instead we have a government that is so concerned with making certain the rich get richer off the backs of the poor. The Army Corps of Engineers has begged for years for appropriations to improve the levee system in New Orleans. Officials have been fired from this administration for suggesting that it was a priority. We are so busy sending under armored troops to war, that our leaders are forgetting that they are first sworn to protect us here at home – and not from some terror threat, but from nature, from our own politicians and our own complacency.

When the Speaker of the House questions federal appropriations be spent on securing and saving one of our oldest and best loved cities, when officials stand around looking helpless and acting like Homer Simpson, and when the president grins and says we’ll all be ok and stronger for this, you know its time for a change. It is time for the people in this country to stand up and demand that our government repair our country. Its time for us to demand that ALL Americans, rich and poor alike; take responsibility for ourselves and our fellow countrymen and women. We are in this together and if our leaders don’t help us, we are going to have to do it ourselves. We are going to have to tighten our belts and take on a greater tax burden that is ONLY used to repair our infrastructure and bring us back to the first rate, caring compassionate country that we’ve always been – until recently when our leaders showing their own lack of care made it seem ok for us to follow their example.



p.s. Dennis Hastert - Speaker of the House called an emergency session over the fate of Terri Schaivo, but couldn't call one last night, as did the Senate, over New Orleans