Re: Re: By the way, Bill

I'm not the only prophet ...

What kills me is the way this is being handled.  We had mass devestation 
in Central Florida after last year's 3-pack of big hurricanes in 6 
weeks.  There are STILL houses in my neighborhood with no roofs or 
boarded up, and I'm in a pretty decent neighborhood ($250,000 houses).  
Our leaders had plans, our people were mostly prepared.  Sure some 
people ignore warnings, but by and large when the wind calmed, everyone 
rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

Look at New Orleans now ... the mayor and governor are blaming the feds 
for not doing more.  The NAACP claim that the so-called "lackof help" is 
due to racism. People are sitting around waiting for help instead of 
working together to get out of a dead city.  It took 5 days last year 
for Federal help kick in and help Florida last year.  States MUST have 
plans to take care of themselves short term until Federal action kicks 
in.  New Orleans had no evacuation plan worth a spit, they KNEW those 
levees could only withstand a level 3 hurricane, yet did NOTHING over 30 
years to beef them up.  They didn't use city transportation to evacuate 
people until after the damage was done, they didn't adequately police 
the areas before, during or after the hurricane. 

In Florida, we had stories of neighbor helping neighbor.  Few reports of 
looting, and law and order was restored by the Florida National guard 
within hours with a threat to shoot looters if necessary.  In Louisiana, 
there are not only reports of looting, pillaging, and rape inside the 
shelters themselves,; but also armed gangs shooting at fire, police and 
other rescue personell.  Cops in New Orleans are turning in their 
badges, from some reports I saw.  Nobody wants to go in to an area where 
the people you're trying to save are shooting at you.  Only yesterday 
did the governor FINALLY mentioned shooting these lawless gangs preying 
on the remains of the city.

There's enough blame to go around, but the time for that is later.  
Mother nature can be a real bitch, as Florida well knows.  It's nobodies 
fault that a hurricane hit.  New Orleans SHOULD have been better 
prepared.  When this is all said and done, I'm sure there will be an 
extensive debate about who is ultimately responsible for the safety and 
well being of New Orleans - the residents of New Orleans, or the entire 
rest of the country in the form of the Federal government.

I feel for the people in New Orleans ... nobody deserves what happened 
to them.  But bad things happen, and the country IS mobilizing to come 
to their aid.  Such an effort takes time, and unfortunately is going to 
require a LOT of patience.  Like I said, parts of Florida are still not 
back to normal, and we weren't seven feet BELOW sea level swamped under 
water.



-- 
Bill Highfield
St Cloud, Florida, USA!

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