Dr. Forbush Thinks

Which mess? Take your pick, they are all tied together.

Let us look at the current mess that is left behind by Hurricane Katrina. There are thousands of people wandering around the Gulf coast with no place to go. Who could help these people?

In general several agencies usually help people who are victims of natural disasters. There are volunteer-based organizations and there are Government based organizations. An example of a volunteer-based organization would be the “Red Cross.” The Red Cross trains people and raises money to bring relief to those who are suffering. But the Red Cross can not do everything themselves. They depend on the ebb and flow of donations to the organization. They do not own the equipment needed to get into effected areas. They depend on government agencies to do their part in an effort.

Government agencies have the equipment and the organization needed to bring the effort together. If nothing else the government has the responsibility to protect the citizens of the country. So, where is the government?

There are several reasons why the government has abdicated its responsibility in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. First of all, the US government has committed the National Guard to its unnecessary, unjust, and immoral war in Iraq. The National Guard has consistently been mobilized to aid in disaster relief for decades now. With the large number of National Guard troops in Iraq there are that many fewer troops to help keep the peace in the devastation from Katrina. But keeping the peace isn’t the only thing that the National Guard does. They also search and rescue victims, distribute food and water, clear roads and more. It only makes sense that with fewer troops available the response will be slower than if we had the full number of troops available. Even if the Red Cross is able to get the food and water, there aren’t enough National Guard Troops to distribute it.

But, all of this could be foreseen. The radical right ideology of privatization and tax cuts has been gnawing away at our ability to respond to disasters like this for quite some time. This is because the radical right has put getting elected ahead of safety and protection of the country. This is ironic, because the radical right generally preaches that security is a number one concern. After all, that is the argument for sending our troops to Iraq. (Or, was it revenge?)

The problem is that the radical right has been preaching tax cuts for so long. So, every time the radical right wins an election they cut taxes, which ends up cutting funding for government infrastructure programs. The immediate result is that people pay a hundred dollars less in taxes, but the long-term result is that our ability to respond to calamities has been greatly reduced. For example, the funding for the New Orleans levee project was cut by the Republican congress in 2003. If this project had been completed New Orleans would be dry today.

The voters should know these things before they vote in a group of the radical right who will reward voters with tax cuts, but the same voters will suffer later when the failures in infrastructure become apparent. We, the voters are actually to blame for this mess. By not caring who is elected, by not caring for what people need, by not thinking about what a tax cut actually means we are all responsible for this mess. This mess is easily just one more reason why the radical right is wrong for this country.

It is truly amazing how the lies and deception of the Bush administration began with the fixing of the 2000 election and have continued to this day. If America has ever had a more corrupt administration it must have been back in the 1800s. The political understanding of the average American is at an all-time low meaning that people don't even spend the time to try and understand the spin that the politicians throw at them.

There was an excellent column in the San Jose Mercury News today describing how the city of San Jose was deceived by the Mayor simply because no one used their math skills to figure out how much money was being spent.

In this column Scott Herhold makes the excellent observation:

"Our exalted leader, George W. Bush, recently said we should stay the course in Iraq because to do otherwise would dishonor the memory of the 2,000 soldiers slain there. Emotionally, that rings a bell.

"But if you know anything about basic finance, you know there's such a thing as sunken costs. The losses of the past have little bearing on future risks. Because you've lost $10,000 on your favorite tech stock doesn't mean you'll get it back. Bush is much like the gambler who stays at the table, convinced his luck will turn. And it's our fault if we don't know enough about numbers to challenge him."

Everything points back to us, the electorate, we need to keep questioning these dishonest leaders and continue to investigate their lies and deceptions. We need to understand the true effects of tax cuts on the infrastructure we depend on.





politics, Katrina, hurricane katrina