While the well-oiled radical right machine launches into attack mode over Katrina and the well deserved critisisms of federal bungling, I did some of my own research. Excerpts from an email to a compassionate conservative:
Oct 2004 National Geographic article predicting the New Orleans disaster:
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/
(an almost identical story was aired on NPR in 2003)
Corps of Engineer spending cuts preceding the disaster : http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372455,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090102261.html
National Guard or lack thereof:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12545876.htm
In New Orleans, with one of the highest concentrations of poverty of all American cities, it's no surprise that the poorest areas are in the lowest lying neighborhoods. So while the wealthier (white) surrounding areas may have received the same amount of wind damage, the flooding certainly didn't affect them porportionately. Also, obviously, middle and upper class citizens generally had the means to evacuate, can rebuild, etc., and weren't trapped like rats in a cesspool of man-made toxic soup.
It would seem a no-brainer that people trapped in hospitals, on buildings and in chaos with no food, water or electricity in a flooded metropolis are more in more urgent need of evacuation than other areas.
Here is an interesting blog on the topic, courtesy of the Washington Post http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/2005/09/race_and_katrin.html
Certainly there are deeply affected areas along the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf coast, where they are not struggling with massive numbers of dead and flooding but are just as deserving of help. Obviously they need and needed immediate organized emergency response, as the people of New Orleans did/do. We all deserve to be able to depend on our government to help (really help) in times of extreme distress. Some would argue that this is one of the very primary purposes of federal government.
Here's an interesting article, by a Wall Stree Journal reporter, about Amercian poverty and the widening gap between rich and poor http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05133/504149.stm and some interesting info re: working poor: http://www.secondharvest.org/site_content.asp?s=63#7
Finally, re: global warming intensifying hurricanes: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0804_050804_hurricanewarming.html
A closer reading of some of these NOAA articles
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/climateextremes.html
shows that indeed oceanic temperatures are trending higher, which causes more intense storms.
A quick search of Business Week states the case differently, noting not only are scientists and business reaching consensus on the severity of the problem of global warming, but also that business is stepping up to fill the lack of leadership in Washington (article from Sept 2004)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_33/b3896001_mz001.htm
Beyond the toll on human lives, the insurance industry can tell you all about global warming. If you search Business Week for "insurance industry" and "global warming" you'll get over 200 articles back. Some insurance industry numbers are presented here: http://www.prb.org/Template.cfm?Section=PRB&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11713
And finally, http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8CDNJ080.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db predictions are that higher gas and fuel prices will, not surprisingly, affect low income families the most this fall and winter.
v
ps.
and something I just stumbled across, yet another sweetheart deal:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8CDM02O0.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db
pps. Cindy Sheehan doesn't need defending - partly because I see character assasination du jour as a simplistic strategy to divert attention from the real issues - be it the war in Iraq during the elections or now, or the disaster in New Orleans. The fact that much of Iraq still doesn't have electricity is a telling measure of our "success" there, as are the untold dead civilians, the worldwide upswing in militant Muslims and our own soldiers' injuries and coffins.
Posted by Vicki at September 4, 2005 08:39 PM