It’s a cool, almost fall-like morning in the Northeast, with clear skies and warm sunshine filtering through stately oaks that line the street of sturdy two-family homes.
Fifteen hundred miles away, fires rage out of control. Toxic water inundates streets, home, businesses, hospitals. Groups of lawless gunmen ride around in trucks, reminiscent of Somalia. Rats nibble bloated bodies strewn among the wreckage. Families carry meager possessions through chest-high water, understanding that their life depends on getting out of where they are. Mothers, children, seasoned reporters, elected officials plea on radios and televisions for help - water, milk, food - and they break down and cry.
At 9:00 am, the President of the United States, dressed in ultra-pressed chinos and sports coat, walked across the White House lawn toward his always available helicopter, the one that comfortably flies him wherever he wants to go.
He spoke briefly: “There’s a lot of aid surging toward those who have been affected; we’re making progress pulling people out of the Superdome… we’re trying to get food and water to the convention center… A lot of people are working hard to help the ones who’ve been affected, and I thank them… The results are not acceptable…. We’re beginning long term planning…”
It is day five of America’s greatest national disaster. Still the leaders of the country speak in the future tense – of who is coming, what meals will arrive, what ships and personnel are enroute.
Clearly, the results are not acceptable, as the president noted.
We send troops to Iraq, to Afghanistan. We deploy them throughout the world with the precision of well-laid plans. Yet, at the federal level, we are unable to deploy the basics needed in an emergency.
Interestingly though, the cities of San Antonio and New Orleans could coordinate buses to evacuate some of those in the Superdome and house them in the Astrodome. The leaders of small Mississippi towns, walked, rode, and waded through their areas, letting people know help was coming and they’d all work together. Hundreds of Newspapers in Education groups across the country have rented trucks, filled them with water, food, and generators and sent them to the ravaged areas. Businesses have sent water, medicine, blankets, and phone cards. People across the country have offered to use their own phones to place calls for those now without means of communications. Hundreds of people from Massachusetts to California have offered free housing and transportation.
A government for the people, by the people… At the moment, the government has simply shown inadequate planning, inept response, and irresolute action.
Fortunately, we are also a country of compassionate and able people, who in the face of emergency can make small efforts that will affect only small numbers – but at least they are trying, caring, doing.
Maybe soon we can say that for the government too.
Or maybe we will need to rethink how our government works, who we have elected, and what matters most in our country.
To get involved and make a small difference visit Nola.com at http://www.nola.com/forums/volunteer/. ---Written in collaboration with Jennifer Hicks.