If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
New Orleans: The Nanny State Bitter Fruit
Two days. 48 hours. 2,880 minutes. This was all the time it took for the
fabric of 6000 years of civilization to unravel in New Orleans. Streets which just last week were lined with the fans of Blues clubs and theaters are now patrolled by gangs of what in any other country would be called terrorists looking for their next innocent victim or store front to pillage. Rapes and gang wars in the Superdome, gun fire at rescue helicopters, and the efforts to search and rescue trapped survivors of hurricane Katrina have been abandoned in a near hopeless effort to restore some semblance of public order. Think of it. In just two days time, authorities have been forced to desert innocent people to almost certain death because New Orleans has become unsafe for rescue operations. Two days. How could this have happened so quickly? Early reports of looting were portrayed by the media as desperate, hungry people breaking into grocery stores. In my opinion, this is not looting but survival. However, as the full scope of events has become clearer, it is evident that the mayhem in New Orleans is not a result of trapped residents trying to stay alive, but a carnival atmosphere where the bodies of the dead are pushed aside in order to steal their stereos. I was originally going to write nothing about hurricane Katrina. Times of national tragedy are no time for partisanship. However, what is happening in New Orleans goes beyond the simple red state/ blue state debate. This disaster has exposed something putrid in our society. For this to happen so quickly indicates that there is something fundamentally flawed in our culture that should not be brushed under the rug by political correctness or blamed on any simple politician or political party. What is happening in New Orleans can and will happen again unless we take sober steps to first understand why these events have occurred, and then act to prevent them. These are the politically correct facts as we know them. Almost everyone who could evacuate New Orleans before the hurricane did. Those who stayed were the very poor or ill who did not have the means to leave. The reality is that the poor residents of New Orleans could have evacuated the flood zone on a public bus before the hurricane for about the cost of a bottle of water. The total disabled population of New Orleans who might not have been able to evacuate is estimated at around 55,000 residents. So, the question must be asked why up to half a million people did not evacuate the city. The sad answer is that many of these residents remained because they were waiting for the government to aid them. Many trapped in New Orleans right now are in a state of shock. They expected the nanny state which provides them with housing, medical care, food, and education to also come forward and provide them with the means of escaping a natural disaster. When a state of emergency was declared in August 26th, they waited. When the inbound lanes of the highways around New Orleans where rerouted outbound to allow for faster evacuation by road, they waited. If things were really that bad, the government would come through for them and tell them where to go, what to do, and provide the means to make it happen. Many residents in New Orleans remained because they have been so indoctrinated into the idea that they will be taken care of by the government that they are incapable to looking out for themselves. Now the government has failed them. In a culture where all the comforts of life have been provided to people as entitlements, their sudden absence has unleashed a violent backlash against the society these people feel has let them down. In other words, if some people do not get what they feel they are entitled to get, then something unfair must have happened, so now they have the right to go out and take it. Let me stress again, these people are not out just trying to get baby food and Grandma's insulin. They are stealing electronics, guns, furniture, beer trucks, and Nike shoes. Along with the end of social service entitlements has come the end of the rules of behavior these entitlements require. So, if the government is not giving you anything, some of these people feel that they do not have to follow the laws of civilized society. The nanny state has created a class of people in America not only unable to take care of their own needs, but incapable to existing within normal society. In your neighborhood, laws and peaceful coexistence are not maintained by government or the police, but by the people themselves. You obey the law and live a civil existence because you understand that this is the only way you will have a good life. You feel that way because you have worked hard and are unwilling to jeopardize everything you have earned by acting foolishly. But those who have always been given everything and told that everything they do wrong is a result of their being a victim, there is no similar prohibition. New Orleans is a warning to us all. We must change our culture from one of entitlement to one of responsibility now, or we may have no culture left in the future. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Great post. I agree totally.
-rr |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
wrote in message ups.com... Great post. I agree totally. -rr Well said indeed! ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---- |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
|
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Everyone always have something to say, especially in a newsgroup. When
someting is so true, and well said, it is better to sit back and just give that mild smile, a nod, and be proud of whoever just said it. Thanks. "Toni" wrote in message ... Two days. 48 hours. 2,880 minutes. This was all the time it took for the fabric of 6000 years of civilization to unravel in New Orleans. Streets which just last week were lined with the fans of Blues clubs and theaters are now patrolled by gangs of what in any other country would be called terrorists looking for their next innocent victim or store front to pillage. Rapes and gang wars in the Superdome, gun fire at rescue helicopters, and the efforts to search and rescue trapped survivors of hurricane Katrina have been abandoned in a near hopeless effort to restore some semblance of public order. Think of it. In just two days time, authorities have been forced to desert innocent people to almost certain death because New Orleans has become unsafe for rescue operations. Two days. How could this have happened so quickly? Early reports of looting were portrayed by the media as desperate, hungry people breaking into grocery stores. In my opinion, this is not looting but survival. However, as the full scope of events has become clearer, it is evident that the mayhem in New Orleans is not a result of trapped residents trying to stay alive, but a carnival atmosphere where the bodies of the dead are pushed aside in order to steal their stereos. I was originally going to write nothing about hurricane Katrina. Times of national tragedy are no time for partisanship. However, what is happening in New Orleans goes beyond the simple red state/ blue state debate. This disaster has exposed something putrid in our society. For this to happen so quickly indicates that there is something fundamentally flawed in our culture that should not be brushed under the rug by political correctness or blamed on any simple politician or political party. What is happening in New Orleans can and will happen again unless we take sober steps to first understand why these events have occurred, and then act to prevent them. These are the politically correct facts as we know them. Almost everyone who could evacuate New Orleans before the hurricane did. Those who stayed were the very poor or ill who did not have the means to leave. The reality is that the poor residents of New Orleans could have evacuated the flood zone on a public bus before the hurricane for about the cost of a bottle of water. The total disabled population of New Orleans who might not have been able to evacuate is estimated at around 55,000 residents. So, the question must be asked why up to half a million people did not evacuate the city. The sad answer is that many of these residents remained because they were waiting for the government to aid them. Many trapped in New Orleans right now are in a state of shock. They expected the nanny state which provides them with housing, medical care, food, and education to also come forward and provide them with the means of escaping a natural disaster. When a state of emergency was declared in August 26th, they waited. When the inbound lanes of the highways around New Orleans where rerouted outbound to allow for faster evacuation by road, they waited. If things were really that bad, the government would come through for them and tell them where to go, what to do, and provide the means to make it happen. Many residents in New Orleans remained because they have been so indoctrinated into the idea that they will be taken care of by the government that they are incapable to looking out for themselves. Now the government has failed them. In a culture where all the comforts of life have been provided to people as entitlements, their sudden absence has unleashed a violent backlash against the society these people feel has let them down. In other words, if some people do not get what they feel they are entitled to get, then something unfair must have happened, so now they have the right to go out and take it. Let me stress again, these people are not out just trying to get baby food and Grandma's insulin. They are stealing electronics, guns, furniture, beer trucks, and Nike shoes. Along with the end of social service entitlements has come the end of the rules of behavior these entitlements require. So, if the government is not giving you anything, some of these people feel that they do not have to follow the laws of civilized society. The nanny state has created a class of people in America not only unable to take care of their own needs, but incapable to existing within normal society. In your neighborhood, laws and peaceful coexistence are not maintained by government or the police, but by the people themselves. You obey the law and live a civil existence because you understand that this is the only way you will have a good life. You feel that way because you have worked hard and are unwilling to jeopardize everything you have earned by acting foolishly. But those who have always been given everything and told that everything they do wrong is a result of their being a victim, there is no similar prohibition. New Orleans is a warning to us all. We must change our culture from one of entitlement to one of responsibility now, or we may have no culture left in the future. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Another point to make: the people who ignored the evacuation order also apparently did not even bother to stock up on "hurricane supplies." It is recommended that each of us should stock up on a 3 to 5 days of non-perishable food and water. Based on the response time (5 Days) in this "worst case scenario" We should all take notice and learn from it. My future supplies will most likely double to 10 days worth. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
"callahan4life" wrote in message ups.com... Another point to make: the people who ignored the evacuation order also apparently did not even bother to stock up on "hurricane supplies." It is recommended that each of us should stock up on a 3 to 5 days of non-perishable food and water. Based on the response time (5 Days) in this "worst case scenario" We should all take notice and learn from it. My future supplies will most likely double to 10 days worth. Great idea, except if your supplies are in a house that is filled with water, structurally dangerous or no longer in existance. Then how are you going to get to those supplies? Brenda |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
"Wando" wrote:
"callahan4life" wrote in message oups.com... Another point to make: the people who ignored the evacuation order also apparently did not even bother to stock up on "hurricane supplies." It is recommended that each of us should stock up on a 3 to 5 days of non-perishable food and water. Based on the response time (5 Days) in this "worst case scenario" We should all take notice and learn from it. My future supplies will most likely double to 10 days worth. Hindsight is 20/20 Great idea, except if your supplies are in a house that is filled with water, structurally dangerous or no longer in existance. Then how are you going to get to those supplies? When you live in an area where there are big winter storms, you have provisions for being without electricity as a matter of course. When you are on a boat, you have a 'ditch bag' in case you have to abandon ship, or you have a life raft or lifeboat stocked with provisions (which you hope is the case on a cruise ship also). So if the folks had expected there to be flooding (which I would have expected given the information that the levees were only able to withstand a Cat 3 storm and Katrina was a Cat 5 storm, and even if it was degraded some by the 100 miles between NOLA and the Gulf, it would still be a powerful storm), then they would have had their supplies with them instead of somewhere in the house. And they would have taken those things to the Superdome with them if the evacuated to there. But I think that there has been to much blaming of people who didn't evacuate. Using the information available to them at the time, evacuating might not have been the best decision. The Superdome also was only rated for a Cat 3 storm. And where can you evacuate to when the storm is so huge? Those people who went east to MS just went into the teeth of the storm. For instance I saw some folks in MS who said something like - I figured that this house withstood Camille - that was the standard I was using - and therefore it would also be OK for Katrina, especially as we were just supposed to be on the fringe. And they were wrong - their house could not stand up to Katrina, especially since it didn't really hit NOLA directly as forecast but hit them instead. So to repeat - Hindsight is 20-20. People could have prepared better. People could have dealt better. But humans make mistakes even with the best intentions. And officials could also have done way better, but they were working with a situation which wasn't ideal (no way to strengthen the levees or rebuild the Superdome), and with predictions which had some margin of error. grandma Rosalie |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
If we lived in a world where everyone was "civilized" then we wouldn't
have Iraq, we wouldn't have had 9/11, we wouldn't need military and police. It's a fact of life that a portion of our society aren't civilized. But regardless of why the people in NO stayed and didn't evacuate, or the fact that there are looters and civil unrest, the real issue is our failure to have a plan to handle a disaster. What if this were another kind of disaster where there wasn't any warning? At least in this case a lot were able to leave. Just think how bad the situation would have been otherwise. This country should be able to mobilize efficiently for any disaster. The mayor in Chicago is outraged because he has so many resources ready to deploy and he's been turned down. There is no one in charge who has any skills for this type of event. This is the price we are paying for lumping all these agencies under Homeland Security. The government has lost a lot of good people because of the beauracracy and the changes that have come about. We need planners not politicians. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
In article , Barbara
wrote: This country should be able to mobilize efficiently for any disaster. The mayor in Chicago is outraged because he has so many resources ready to deploy and he's been turned down. There is no one in charge who has any skills for this type of event. I'd be moreimpressed with his angst if he would release a list of what was turned down. Just because RD offers it doesn't mean it is needed, wanted, useful, practical or storable. He knows better than that. -- The difference between being diplomatic and undiplomatic is the difference between saying "When I look at you time stands still" and "Your face could stop a clock." ~~ Anon. |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Welcome to Myanmar (Video) - Kachin State and The Interesting Places of Kachin State | U Myint Lwin | Asia | 0 | February 26th, 2005 05:03 PM |
Alaska cruise ship tax (long) | Thomas Smith | Cruises | 21 | January 14th, 2005 01:17 PM |
holland america cruise holland america cruise line alaska cruise holland america holland america cruise ship | Islam Promote Peace | Cruises | 3 | July 31st, 2004 10:31 PM |
LTimes: Nanny state fails to wean Swedes from the bottle | Baycobi | Europe | 0 | January 9th, 2004 08:42 AM |
Delta Queen Expands Presence in New Orleans! | Ray Goldenberg | Cruises | 0 | October 14th, 2003 05:30 PM |