Four Years later… where has our leadership gone?
Four years ago today we were shaken from our blissful slumber of security and safety. On that day we all became victims of foreign terrorism. It is something that we knew happened, but we never imagined that it would actually occur on our home soil. We never conceived of the possibility that something like that could happen here.
And on that day four years ago as we saw those fixtures of the all too familiar New York skyline tumble down, we knew fear. In one single horrific act of violence against innocent people on our own soil each and every one of us worried for the safety of our loved ones and ourselves. We all wondered what would be next and if we could ever truly be safe again.
It was at that time that a mediocre President made an act of inspired leadership. He appeared on TV and assured us that he would find the ones who did this to us, punish them, and insure that something like this could not happen again. It was the right words at the right time, and it was not just the words but also the actions immediately after that which made all the difference. People who had been preparing for just such events for years were put in charge of the situation. The culprits were identified and swift action was taken to bring these miscreants to heel for their crimes. And that mediocre President became the most popular sitting Presidents in US history.
You do not have to agree with Bush’s policies to recognize that he showed leadership at that moment when we needed it the most. He was there for each and every one of us to act as the rock for us to cling to in the chaos thrust upon us. Arguments can be made that appropriate vigilance was not taken prior to the attack… but that is an argument for historians to quibble over in the decades to come. Arguments can be made that the policies made for the sake of security were ineffective and intrusive… but that is an argument for future legal scholars and civil libertarians. Even seven minutes of film showing him reading a children’s book after being informed of the events does not diminish the role he played afterwards in response.
Then we see images of a drowned city filled with stranded poor, and a nation seemingly paralyzed and unable to help them. And you see why so many of us are dismayed over the events of the past two weeks. Four years ago we were presented with an example of inspired leadership guiding us through a dark chapter of our history; after Katrina we are faced with a leadership seemingly as paralyzed as we are. Where did our rock in the storm go? Why did the President of 9/11 vanish?
Ever since 1992 it has been a well-known fact that if a hurricane of sufficient force made a direct hit on New Orleans it would swamp the levee system and flood the city. Ever since 1992 there has been a plan in place when there was a risk of such an event, it was not a perfect plan but it was the best that could be done on short notice with the resources at hand. Last year FEMA and the Louisiana’s emergency officials engaged in a mock hurricane hit on New Orleans called the Hurricane Pam Exercise, from that they retuned the emergency plans. The emergency plan was pretty simple; get all the people who could leave on their own out, move everybody else to shelters using public transit. It was estimated that in a worst-case scenario shelters might have to be operated for up to 100 days, the state’s resources could only support the shelters for a maximum of 3-5 days, so it was essential that FEMA responded quickly to a “Pam Scenarioâ€.
On Tuesday night after Katrina had made landfall I was watching “Scarborough Country†on MSNBC. At this point I realized that a disaster had occurred but the disaster to come was not yet visible. But to see Joe Scarborough angrily criticizing the complete lack of FEMA presence on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi was shocking. For those not aware Joe is an ex-Florida Republican Representative who went on to get his own news show; having lived in Florida for his entire life he knows a thing or two about hurricanes and hurricane relief. It was at this point that I started to realize that there was something wrong other than just the destruction wrought by Mother Nature.
As the days passed and I spoke with other people there was just disbelief that there was little to no help to be had for these victims of poor fortune. And through out it all there was no leadership, not a single person stepped forward as the discontent and despair spread to tell us all that they were taking charge of it and would see that it got done. With the lack of leadership and control in the drowned city of New Orleans everything devolved into anarchy.
And where were our leaders as we looked on to these horrific scenes of hungry and thirsty victims scrounging for food through befouled floodwaters? As our leaders were scratching their heads in disbelief over the devastation or playing guitar as New Orleans drowned our faith in the promise made to keep us safe four years ago evaporated into air.
After our leaders finally acted to bring people out of New Orleans, the victims at this point had already been there for more than the five days the state said they could provide supplies for them, the Bush Administration began criticizing everybody who had anything to do with the disaster response except themselves. It has been appalling to watch these people in one breath say that they do not want to “finger point†or play a “blame game†while in the next breath blame any Democrat who is convenient for the cluster fuck of a relief effort. Even disseminating (or is that dissimulating) through the ubiquitous “Anonymous White House Official†the lie that the Governor of Louisiana had not even declared a state of emergency.
What happened to the leadership we saw after 9/11? There was finger pointing and second-guessing to be sure, but at least we were confident that there was somebody in charge. We were confident that if these vandals tried to attack us again that the President was standing on the wall to try and stop them. Bush made us feel safe again after 9/11, as a good leader should do. But now after the failure of our leadership to act with any semblance of coherence in the face of disaster, can we truly feel safe? Can we still trust that the President is still standing vigilant on that wall for us?
And what if those fanatics that showed us that we could be wounded four years ago bring the greatest of our fears to our shores, what if they detonated a thermo-nuclear device in the middle of a major city? Can we be sure that our leaders will have the composure to keep that city from degenerating into bedlam, or will we lose another city to incompetence, buck passing, and political inertia?