Katrina

It's time to play "Year in Review," that game beloved by the MSM (that's cybersay for mainstream media) because, come the new year, journalist types are hung over, bored, unimaginative, and generally find it easier to dig through old headlines than to write something original. No difference here. So, from a hungover, bored, unimaginative libertarian point of bleary view, here's looking at 2006 in the rearview mire.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, thank you for attending our politically crafted soundbite-and-posturing Image Management Event today. I will now turn the proceedings over to our Chief Legalcrat, Sue Pantzoff, Commissar of the Department of Dimwitted Lawsuits for the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia. Kalifornia has filed suit against the six largest automakers operating in the United States because their dirty cars and trucks are causing global warming."

On April 18, 2006, San Francisco will commemorate the centennial of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, an event that leveled that city. The number of people who died has never been more than estimated. The other loses of various kinds ran into what today would be billions of dollars.

On that first day this photo was taken from the St. Francis Hotel, showing the city in flames. Less than 24 hours later the St. Francis would also have been gutted.

Behind that crumbling facade of human invention stood a man with an active, analytical mind. One man taking action would change what others refused to see because of those tragic days. Arthur C. Pillsbury would capture in film a lesson that would change all of our lives. The sound and sight of a city burning

Founded on the culture of revolution in an effort to live free and amassing Europeans from nations who had somehow stripped their citizens of freedom and liberty, America became the nation of promise for the whole world. Our immigrants spoke all languages, worshipped many Gods making us the most diverse group of people to be found anywhere.

Let's pretend America decides to start all over and finally comes to a consensus that we must try to stop the generational poverty that was shown so clearly during the hurricane Katrina.

I saw three (maybe four) generations of Americans in Louisiana paralyzed when told to evacuate their homes for their own safety. I was glued to MSNBC for the coverage of these people who did not seem to realize their lives could be in danger if they didn't move quickly. The evacuation orders were based on the knowledge that this hurricane could trigger breaches in the levees from Lake Pontchartrain that would flood the city of New Orleans plus the flooding coming from the Mississippi . Highway 10 was the way to safety but they waited too long and this exit was soon closed.

We've just had a terrible disaster in this country.  Unfortunately it wasn't named Katrina.  Not that Hurricane Katrina wasn't terrible, but it wasn't what has killed possibly 10s of thousands of Americans.  The 17th street canal levee that broke 24 hours after the storm is what caused the massive flooding and destruction in New Orleans.  Some reports are now pointing to intentional sabotage of this concrete and steel levee.

What a learning experience this week has been. Many facts have come to the surface and I have learned that America is concerned with the disaster of Katrina. With all this concern and fund raising, what actually seems to be the problem with the homeless displaced people in New Orleans?

In my own world, the shear numbers of residents who have no communications within the state government of Louisiana may be the most chronic as food, water, medical supplies were nowhere to be found. It seems that the residents of the surrounding states have tried to send help but the inability to get through to the displaced people was not possible. We all noticed that television cameras, news readers were able to get through to the most desperate of the people but the FEMA help could not! That is the question that I want answered! Homeland Security turned away help from Canada and who knows how many other offers of help from other countries.