A letter to The Times-Picayune makes a good argument about how we should be framing the discussion of hurricane protection for south Louisiana.
Esbii Ogholoh, writing from Kenner, Louisiana, reminds us that our representatives in Washington took an oath to defend us from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
"Here we have an enemy -- the hurricane -- that threatens to harm the United States of America each year. Yet we are debating whether we deserve to be protected or defended," he writes.
Amen, Brother Ogholoh!
If Al-Qaeda had attacked New Orleans, killed 1,300 and destroyed more than 200,000 homes and businesses, would Washington bureaucrats be talking about cost-to-benefit ratios? Would they be saying that it's the victims' own fault for living in a "dangerous" place?
Perhaps we need to rename the storms. Maybe if we start calling it "Osama Katrina" they will quit the quibbling and get down to business. Maybe if we were attacked by "Rita bin Laden" the President and Congress would understand and fulfill their duty to protect us.
Hurricanes are a clear and present danger to Americans, as real and deadly as any terrorist. We need our leaders to recognize this.
9 comments:
The only possible problem I see with your idea is, if we DID do this, Rita and Katrina would STILL be spinning around in the Gulf of Mexico while the White House woulod be insisting that the campaign against Greenland was succeeding quite nicely despite the blizzards (which, by their standards, would "prove" the link between Greenland and tropical storms: after all, snow and rain are both forms of water)...
The hurricanes hate us for our freedom.
I screwed up the punctuation in the above comment.
Basically, I was just enjoying the above responses. Nicely played, guys.
The terrorists bombed the levees!!!
You know, I heard that the terrorists bombed the levees. Is that true?
Global warming, I think, is playing a major role in these killer storms. Wetlands restoration is important, too, but I agree with your consistently made point that levees are the fundamental solution. The biggest problem, though, is that THE TERRORISTS BOMBED THE LEVEES.
Ashley and mr. clio--Yes, I have heard that somewhere before...
http://ashleymorris.typepad.com/ashley_morris_the_blog/2006/01/the_terrorists_.html
Peace y'all,
Tim
gee I guess that makes Haliburton and there friends there terrorists.. welcome to new fort blackwater..
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