The Case Against Rebuilding New Orleans

Although New Orleans will get rebuilt, Jack Shafer, in his article "Don't Refloat" on Slate.com, says it better than I ever could ... why?

Think of the children ...

No, really, I'm serious. As people funnel unprecedented amounts of money, time and treasure into relief for those affected by Hurricane Katrina, I would strongly encourage them to focus their efforts not so much on taking care of the adults, but on taking care of the children. Adults can always make their own choices and may deal with what life hands them in whatever way they choose to, but unfortunately, children don't have that same choice. Their well-being and their very lives depend utterly and completely on the good - or bad - decisions of the adults around them.

There are plenty of little ones whose lives will be affected in a much more profound and permanent manner than any grown adult who has been affected by the Katrina disaster, kids who are crying themselves to sleep every night on a strange bed in a strange city, not knowing anybody, wondering if they'll ever see their mommy or daddy again. One great thing that community shelters across the Southeast are doing, is that they are taking photos of the lone displaced kids that come in and are posting them to Missingkids.com so that family members can locate them and reunite. Missingkids.com is also encouraging families missing their kids to post as well. Many organizations involved in the relief efforts are running sub-projects focused specifically on helping kids with school placement, school supplies, and much more. If you're donating to a particular charity or organization, you can specify that you want your money to go to these things.

Wouldn't it be nice if politicians just stopped posturing and our libbie friends stopped putting down the blame finger for just a few moments and channeled more of that energy into helping the children they always chide us for not thinking of?

Blame game, no. Preparedness, yes.

The much-publicized blame game for Hurricane Katrina is one of the biggest exercises in futility and wasted energy I have ever seen in my life. You may point the finger at any figure or figures you like, but the bottom line is that much of the pain and suffering was caused by a plain and simple lack of preparedness from a lot of different quarters - and could have been alleviated more quickly or avoided entirely if people were better prepared.

Though these days people have been conditioned to turn to the government to take care of more and more of their basic needs and necessities (and we are seeing the ultimate consequences of this mentality rearing their ugly head in New Orleans), let's face it, local, state and national governments can only do so much for people caught in a disaster - even under the best of circumstances when aid can reach those who need it, law and order are practiced and enforced, and optimal efficiency, coordination, and organization are in place. It is incumbent on each of us as individuals to assume personal responsibility for our own safety and well-being, take the initiative, and prepare so that we can take care of ourselves and one another and be okay when disaster strikes.

This guide has a lot of practical tips and suggestions that everybody out there can adopt, regardless of their race, ethnicity, income bracket or socioeconomic background. Preparedness, or the lack thereof, isn't a black thing. It isn't a white thing. It's a HUMAN thing. And it's time we all recognized this and acted accordingly.

Put together a plan. Memorize it. And be ready and able to implement it when the time comes. I say when, not if, because even though there probably won't be another natural weather-related disaster on the same scale as Katrina in our lifetime, there WILL be other hurricanes, as well as tornadoes, floods and fires, a major quake in southern California at some point in the future, and terrorist attacks.

None of which will give a damn what color their victims are, by the way. The levees and the flooding didn't care what color(s) the people of New Orleans were. To assert that NOLA wasn't saved because it's a black town, is simply ridiculous. No one in their rational mind can argue, given New Orleans' rich, complex history and heritage, its economic value as a huge tourism draw and the Gulf region's largest and most critical shipping port, its strategic value as the location for most major American petroleum and chemical refineries, etc. etc. that the federal government and all the people outside of NOLA who were watching this tragedy unfold were thinking "Oh, my stars. These great black unwashed and their silly, silly antics. Pish-tosh! A glass of Veuve, my good man, to wet my privileged white whistle as I fiddle while Rome burns!!" To say that the NOLA disaster was a black thing is just plain race-baiting, and vastly oversimplifies the situation and diverts the focus from what the real problem is. How about taking a look at the corrupt officials who figuratively stood dithering in the highway for days, never implemented their own damn evac plan and basically told the victims "Screw you, yer on yer own" before and after they issued the initial evac order and the levees broke. The disaster, although huge proportions of blacks engaged in all areas of human activity were involved because it's a mostly black town demographically speaking, was NOT a RACISM thing. It was an INEPTITUDE, UNPREPAREDNESS, and STUPIDITY (stupidity on the part of politicians at all levels, that is) thing.