Akkk! Argh! Ptsssthp! cough! hack!

This is going to sound a bit harsh after that soft feely-goodie post about Mother Theresa but I’ve gotten something stuck in my “mental craw” that I’ve just got to get out on the ether, so here goes…


Why in the HELL do we HAVE to rebuild New Orleans?

Can somebody answer me please?

This past week we got to see everybody from President Bush to the goon squad of Democratic suckers (oops I mead CANDIDATES who might beat Hilary for the nomination. Yeah… RIGHT and I’m gonna flap my arms and fly to Venus), all troop down to the “devastated city hit by Katrina” and proclaim that we aren’t doing enough to help those poor victims. Perhaps the emphasis should be on “poor” as in those who were living on perpetual welfare before the storm; have been living on welfare although in other areas than New Orleans and will be living on welfare for the remainder of their lives.
Aside from the fact that judged against all of the rest of the world these “poor” are hardly destitute; nobody has actually answered why we NEED to rebuild New Orleans.

I’ll explain my befuddlement.

New Orleans was a city built at the BOTTOM of the largest river system on our continent, it was build below sea level (I’ll repeat that IT WAS BUILT B-E-L-O-W SEA LEVEL) at the end of the Mississippi River! Oh yeah, and for Sh!ts-n-giggles (sorry mom) lets add that it is directly in the potential path of hurricane storms. It was a freaking recipe for disaster from day one! I believe in the late 1990’s the Army’s Corp of Engineers issued a report that said if any storm larger than a Category III hurricane hit the coast and dumped a portion of its water on the city, the levee’s WOULD fail and that major portions of the city would be flooded. (hmmmm…)
Did anyone listen?
Did any of those enlightened politicians attempt to help the potential victims before the storm came?
The money was appropriated and then disappeared into the maw of Louisiana politics. When Katrina loomed on the horizon, we all watched but we all knew what was going to happen. There was no surprise to this tragedy. It was like watching those old black and white movies of the staged train wrecks only this time in r - e - a - l - l - y s - l - o - w m - o - t - i - o - n.

It took days for storm to reach the coast meaning that they could have evacuated the entire city to higher ground. There was no reason why anyone had to die from drowning.

Ok, skipping past the last 2 years we are now on the cusp of an election year and the politicians are back bemoaning that we must rebuild the city.

Why?

So it can happen again?

I believe it was Einstein that said the definition of stupidity was repeating the same experiment over and over again in exactly the same manner but expecting different results.

I will agree that there should be some rebuilding of infrastructure especially for the neighborhoods of those who actually work the refineries and other water related industries but we have to realize that this will happen again. Wait...I believe those are rebuilt and those who work there are back at their jobs. I guess we don't have to rebuild their neighborhoods.

Whose neighborhoods are we going to rebuild?

Eventually a larger more devastating storm will hit the coast (by the way the follow up storm Rita was significantly more powerful than Katrina, hitting southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas a far harder blow) and will eventually hit New Orleans again.
Will we be sitting here in a few years listening to a repeat of this story?
I’m just askin that’s all.

There that feels a bit better. Now go and enjoy your Labor Day Weekend.