A parable

I once heard a story about some teenagers who had gone for an outing into the Arizona desert, when one of them was bitten by a rattlesnake. Instead of immediately getting the victim to medical care, they hunted for the snake and killed it.

All of this angry blaming of George Bush or FEMA, especially when the city and state officials are let skate, is childish and unfair. For all these newspaper editors and reporters and politicians to be wasting time demanding the heads of federal officials is shameful. They should be raising funds, finding supplies and getting them where needed. This is a democracy. Nobody is free of responsibility to help. Those who expect the federal government to care for them, need to wake up and realize that this is a utopian dream, inconsistent with human nature and bureaucracy.

Everybody, including individuals, should be examining him or herself and asking what more he could do now, and what he can do in the future, and how he can help others. We have too much of the victim mentality in this country. There is no way for things to work the way people seem to expect. If they do, we should rejoice, but if they don't, we all should have our own preparation.

I see what the local officials knew or should have known, and what they should have done to prepare. I ask myself how they could have seen this threat and not done anything beyond some PR. But I don't feel angry at anybody, except those who stand around like cattle, complaining and feeling sorry for themselves. If someone is able bodied enough to go looting, he/she is able to help others and should be doing that. If he won't work, let him starve. If he can't work, help him. Calling for heads to roll accomplishes nothing, except leaving a whole lot of essential jobs empty. And for newspapers and politicians to rail at others is irresponsible, petty and hypocritical. The Times-Picayune wants everybody at FEMA fired. What has that paper been doing to bring the vulnerability of the city to public attention and to demand that they be addressed. But the attitude of "Let the good times roll" but "the Feds had better be there right now when we need 'em," is contemptible.