Lessons to be learned

There are many reasons for which I have not yet addressed the
tragedies that are Katrina and Rita. Most of my angst about the entire
situation is the selfish way the media, the left, the right, the
middle, special interest groups, and pretty much everyone have decided
to use it to advance their own agenda.

I hate to be the one to say it, but I could have told you before FEMA
was even created that it wouldn't work. I could have told you before
Michael Brown was born that he was going to fail. Why? I'm not psychic
but I do know that disaster management is nearly impossible to
administer on a federal level especially when it has been proven time
and time again that consistent procedure should have been in place. I
don't care really because the bureaucracy was broken and always will
be, it's a consequence of representative democracy. I'm not saying
that it shouldn't be remedied, it should and it should have been long
before. But really, let's approach the problem that everyone seems so
uncomfortable about. It's easy to point to Mr. Brown and even the
President and tell them they screwed up but it isn't easy to step back
and ask ourselves why it is that poverty plagues every corner of our
nation despite our best attempts to ignore it and our altruistic
attempts to remedy it.

Quite obviously, the magnitude of disaster in New Orleans and the
majority of the Gulf Coast would have been very different had everyone
had enough cash to get out of town. I'm not saying it would make up
for the fact that the response of the Feds was embarrassing, I'm
saying that FEMA is something that can and will be fixed with relative
ease. Poverty, obviously, is not so clear-cut. Maybe even more
embarrassing than Mr. Brown is that we stand as one of the wealthiest
nations, pushing our government onto the world over, while hiding a
large and underprivileged class that is often overshadowed by glorious
claim of a nation full of middle class white men. They are the dirt we
sweep beneath our imported Persian rugs when company comes knocking.

We are willing to sustain and accommodate their problems to some
extent, but as a society we have failed to return to the root of the
issue. Perhaps more scrutiny should be turned inward, though the
problem I find with this approach is that there isn't an appropriate
organizational structure to place the blame upon. You cannot point
your finger to a person, an administration, or the 92nd Congress. I
have found that ordinary people can only approach a problem when it
can be explained away and evaluated easily. Poverty draws from
infinite policy areas, characteristics of society, and history to the
point where it cannot be neatly packaged and grasped by those
unwilling to accept some personal responsibility.

I certainly don't have an answer, but I am willing to at least work
towards a better understanding of the class structure that I find
myself weaving in an out of each day. I think it's time we recognize
the true lesson that Katrina has left us with. No use in telling me
that the federal government comes off as non-functional, because that
can be argue at any point of time. As a cautionary note for those of
you inclined to exploit my "departure" from my usual right winged
doctrine, I don't think a welfare state even comes close to addressing
the fundamental issues that underlay poverty. I think our educational
system might be a good place to begin reforms and perhaps we should
examine our values structure (or lack there of).