THE WASHINGTON LOOTING OF NEW ORLEANS
Who lost New Orleans? Our cities are the
greatest treasures of our civilization. So why were the levees and the
pumping stations emplaced to protect New Orleans from the sea so
technologically obsolete?
If the descendants of the American geniuses who built large artificial
ports at Normandy on D-Day could not design adequate protection, then why
didn’t we ask the Netherlands to outsource their expert sea management
engineers to us long ago?
New Orleans will be lost only for a short period. In spite of the paucity
of spirit and imagination among our ruling decision makers, cities will
continue to resurrect themselves and survive. But Americans must learn
from the lesson of an almost drowned New Orleans. No great American city
should be needlessly placed at risk. The rural centered congressional
policies of the last two decades must be radically reversed. The power of
senators (in a chamber not based on one man, one vote representation) deal
making for small population interests must be curbed. Taxpayer dollars
must be spent for projects and programs located where people live. Who is
served by expensive bridges in Alaska?
Examine the last omnibus budget bill passed by congress and signed by the
president; or review the items listed in the recently signed Surface
Transportation Act. For even a high school sophomore one fact will be
immediately revealed: The per capita expenditure is far greater in
sparsely populated states than it is in the densely populated states where
the big cities are located. Each senator from a rural state has many more
allies than the senators from states with big cities. In other words,
senators who represent urban Americans have less influence.
Review the scenario of last year’s senate deliberations on the provision
of emergency hurricane relief aid and the power of the states with less
people becomes apparent. During the negotiations the senate rural raiders
held the bill hostage until they could extort an extra 2 billion dollars
for a sudden need for drought relief. At the end of this extortion orgy
there was no money left for New Orleans where, in 2004, government
officials had conducted a training exercise, pinpointed the same water
control problems which have now emerged, and accurately predicted the
number of casualties we see occurring today. The knowledge was available
but the sympathy and sensitivity to cities was smothered. In Washington,
particularly the undemocratic senate, village mind-sets unwilling and/or
unable to manage modern complexities are firmly in charge.
With billions readily available to make war or implement any other deadly
or wasteful priority our leaders deem necessary, why haven’t we
appropriated the funds needed to save, to maintain, to expand, to glorify
our cities. That which is urban is almost synonymous with that which is
civilized. Jefferson, notwithstanding, the agrarian life permitted the
flowering of only a few. In the rural domain nature is to be placed on a
much deserved pedestal to be observed and admired. But a city keeps man’s
feet on the ground where life can be hugged and kissed and ravished; where
culture is the unique product of imaginations interacting. Jazz could
never have been born in the countryside; and between rows of corn and
cotton Satchmo could never have strutted and marched.
Ted Koppel wants fervently to lash the New Orleans lawless looters looking
for food and bottled water in the sacred supermarkets. Where are the
commentators with the guts to go bounty hunting for the government
treasury looters who for decades devoured all of the appropriations that
should have been saved for our needy cities. Throwing dollars at problems
never automatically solves them but in New Orleans there could have been
more planning on how to spray the rapidly breeding mosquitoes; how to
manage the evacuation of the refugees from the Superdome; how to keep
intact a fail-safe system for repairing a breech in the wall around Lake
Ponchartrain; how to guarantee at vital installations the necessary
auxiliary generating power; how to achieve the immediate deployment of
massive numbers of U.S. military helicopters and naval small boats to
speedily rescue all stranded inhabitants instead of waiting for the
conventional sluggish National Guard and Red Cross buggies to roll out.
New Orleans will not be lost forever like Atlantis. Salvaging New Orleans
could prove to be a process which fuels the revamping of the corrupted
Washington decision-making process. It could spur the salvation of all
cities which collectively constitute the core of our modern American
civilization. The process must begin with less focus on bread and water
looters and more scrutiny of the Washington leadership which has for
decades allowed the continuous looting of the federal treasury to enrich
the small percentage of the population not dependent on cities.
New Orleans has presented us with a hysterical profile which shows that in
many vital ways, despite our impressive skyscrapers, we are an
underdeveloped civilization. Our masses live in our cities (or the
dependent exurbias and suburbs). To foster our nation’s security,
prosperity and greatness we must expend taxpayer resources on planning,
programs and projects which provide the greatest benefits for the greatest
numbers. The Washington looting mentality must be replaced with a new
Washington creative leadership imperative.
THE WASHINGTON LOOTING OF NEW ORLEANS
Washington looters still running loose
Abusers of New Orleans
Embezzlers of canal repair dollars
Big shot necks too big for a noose.
For the Mardi Gras
Neo-con domestic shock and awe
Bush budget blunders trapped in the crayfish claw.
Grandmothers and babies cry
Urban peasant victims die;
Oh when the Saints come marching in
Judgement will fall on merciless men.
Put street looting logs away
Only political atrocities on the dock today.
Washington looters still running loose
Big shot necks too big for a noose.
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