Posted by zeugma on November 3, 2005, at 19:34:46
In reply to Re: ?? » zeugma, posted by Dinah on November 3, 2005, at 18:58:57
Dinah, you may be 'thin skinned' as you described yourself once, but you are a truly strong individual. I know how New York was traumatized by 9/11, but your entire city was flooded.
From everything I have read the local authorities did not distinguish themselves, unlike the NYPD and New York Port Authority, many of whom willingly died to save others.
I can't evaluate Governor Blanco or the mayor ( I forget his name), unlike the prominent members of the Federal Government their every word is not analyzed in depth here. I did read about police officers committing suicide, and officers now being persecuted for desertion. It's easier to understand the suicide than desertion.
I relied on local news sources (New York Times) for my information on the events as they were happening. Whether the Guard was present or not it was not deployed properly. And I posted a while ago about two leutenants who went out of their way to save lives with their helicopters because they saw none of our vaunted military doing anything to help. In return one was given command of a kennel for dogs of Army officers made homeless by the flooding. They were both reprimanded for ignoring what the military thought were proper priorities. Now I know that if I had been dangling from a beam on top of the World Trade center, and a military helicopter making some kind of routine flight (it is astonishing how the military responded to the disaster! astonishing!) plucked me to safety, i would be grateful. I wouldn't care if the pilot didn't get the Medal of Honor. Serving in a dog kennel is noble service compared to other activities the military is currently engaged in IMO.
No good deed goes unpunished around here, it seems.
But I hear even Trent Lott is distancing himself from the President. I suppose when it's your own house that is blown down it doesn't sit so well, no matter how many houses you'd let smoke elsewhere.
I think with hurricane Katrina, we officially became a Third World country.
-z
poster:zeugma
thread:574039
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050924/msgs/575149.html