Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Independent Examination of Katrina's "handling"

I encourage you to go to Moveon and sign the petition for an independent commission to examine how we did not know how to behave concerning Katrina.

Here is what I said on my note with the petition:"We need to quit looking for the mote in all other world government eyes and look in our own. Let us have an independent commission examine what went wrong with Katrina. I doubt anyone who wanted a Homeland Security office wanted it to be ineffective, chaotic, and dumb. It appears that those of us who watch a bit of TV and read the newspaper knew more than Mike Brown."

I had been thinking about the mote idea when I heard Kofi Anan today talking about UN reforms and when I thought about Bill Maher's "letter" to Bush last night about bringing democracy to Iraq. You should catch that if you did not. Maher was really right on target about the length of time it took the US to do such things as free the slaves, give women the right to vote, and to pass a voting rights act.

I have no confidence that we are safer now than before 9-11 or Katrina. I didn't before, but I certainly did not expect to see the level of incompetence we had with Katrina. The news of the mayor of New Orleans ordering evacuation was heard around the US. His action probably saved many, many lives. The school bus use is still unclear. Some evidently were used and some just drowned with many people. Now are we going to blame him for taking some action as opposed to none on the parts of many???

If you read this, you should do a search on the Internet in your own area for plans for emergencies. Start asking questions of people running for office and of your local "first responders." Oh, and do go to the NY Times for Wednesday, Sept 14 and read Maureen Dowd, one of the US's smartest redheads!

Friday, September 02, 2005

Gulf Coast Relief

My Congressman sent this out this morning. I thought it was thoughtful and that others might want to read it and perhaps respond to one of the organizations helping on the Gulf Coast.

Dear Friends:

I had not seen the evening news when I wrote the e-mail late yesterday about our October 10 event. I did not know how desperate things in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast had become. The news just gets worse each day.

We must all carry on, but I know that there are more immediate concerns right now than an October political reception. The link below is to agencies that are providing hurricane relief. Esther and I are contributing to America's Second Harvest (www.secondharvest.org), the national food bank network. Esther is on the local food bank board, and she is confident that the food banks know how to deliver food quickly and efficiently.

Martin Luther King said in his speech at the March on Washington that we cannot walk alone. The tragic loss that millions of Americans are suffering now should remind us of that. We have to take responsibility for one another, and help others on faith that we would be helped if we were in need.

Brad

Here's the link to a partial list of relief organizations:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/national/hurricane-resources.html