01 September 2008

Those Who Forget The Past Are American

I know that we're a nation without a past. In fact, I like that about us. But even I am shocked by our inability to remember the events of three years ago when Hurricane Katrina was seared ... seared ... across our memories. In particular, that Katrina itself didn't do much damage, that it had looked anticlimactic, until the storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain spilled through the inadequate levees and flooded the city. Coverage of Gustav has not only failed to rehearse that history, but has wrongly claimed that the damage three years ago came from winds and rain directly flooding the city.

1 comment:

erp said...

That's not all we forgot about Katrina. We forgot that it wasn't Bush or FEMA who were to blame for what happened, it was the Democrats in charge of the city and the state who took no action to secure the safety of their citizens (the mayor, if you recall, actually left town with his family) and who pocketed the many millions of dollars designated to shore up the levees.

I don't like the idea that from now on, the federal government which unfortunately won't always be headed by a principled person like Bush, will be expected to interfere in local affairs like emergency preparations for disasters and people will be ready to swallow an idea like Obama's proposed civilian army which will be ready and able to take over control of the whole country whenever a revered despot like himself gets elected.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm pretty terrified.