Cape Karen
Well, another hot, sweltering day has passed, 5 days now, and more lives have been lost. Not from gunshots or from the receding flood waters, but from shameful and insufficient rescue efforts. Just aero-hours away from the White House, thousands of the stranded people are screaming for help and begging for basic food and water; still, all to no avail. The Civic Center in New Orleans is being ignored.
Where is the leadership in this country? Our president goes on meaningless "tours" of the site and then has the cocky audacity to smile into the television cameras and proclaim: "We shall prevail."
From the NY Times come these words. (I couldn't have said it better.)
"George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom.
In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast.
He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.
It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced, America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes.
But since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming even exists, the chances of good leadership seem minimal."
We're in trouble.
Posted by Karen at September 2, 2005 10:15 AM