Bacon's Rebellion

A Finger-Pointing Truce

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by

James A. Bacon
in

While Bacon’s Rebellion bloggers argue over whether President Bush should be held accountable for the horrendous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, whether he’s being unfairly blamed for the failures of state/local authorities in Louisiana, or whether it’s simply too early to make an informed judgment, there’s one thing that we can all agree upon (I hope): Gov. Mark Warner has done a fine job handling Virginia’s response to the hurricane.

To keep track of the news coming out of the Governor’s office, click here.

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  1. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    I am not interested in a truce.

    Bush and others should be held accountable for their criminal negligence.

    Yes, I have given blood and money, but let the lesson be heard: you cannot always count on the government.

  2. Tom Paine Avatar
    Tom Paine

    Have you seen the picture of Bush and the guitar? Suggested caption:

    “Bush fiddles while New Orleans drowns.”

    Truce be damned.

  3. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Tom Paine, Did you read the headline from the Aug. 30 New York Times? “Katrina Misses New Orleans, Heavily Damages Mississippi.” … It’s amazing how fast recent history can be rewritten.

  4. Salt Lick Avatar
    Salt Lick

    I haven’t had much time for blogging lately, especially as I only recently returned from taking water, food and fuel to my brother and father in Pass Christian, Mississippi.

    Neverthless, I wasn’t surprised to check in here and read some of the vile and despicable attempts to use the suffering of Katrina victims to attack George Bush.

    I lived in New Orleans for 8 years. The catastrophe is no surprise to me. It’s an incompetent, corrupt Third World city, comparable to any I lived in while I was in the Peace Corps. It’s had corrupt, incompetent black Democratic mayors for 30 years now who use the poor black underclass to bolster political power against the racist upper-class whites so they can make deals to enrich themselves. Those black, Democratic mayors and racist white elites have done nothing to prevent the catastrophy that has been hanging over the heads of New Orleanians for decades. Every year, when hurricane season came round, the media ran articles about how we were all screwed if the “big one” hit. Everyone thought about it a minute, then ordered a beer and got back to grooving on the Nevilles and Fats Dominoe. It’s a good-time city, not oriented to the practical. And that goes for the poor, also. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is what happened is the fault of New Orleans and Lousisana, plain and simple.

    Some of you people need to look deep into your souls and ask what kind of hatred you are nurturing there. Whether it’s something that grew after your legislative district got jerked out from under you, or just a rage that began at the controversial end to the 2000 presidential election, you need to get this under control. The pain in Mississippi and Louisiana isn’t a tool for you to use to get back at someone.

    Assholes.

  5. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    Sorry for yuor personal disasters.

    The fact is there is more than enough blame to go around but the buck has to stop somewhere. The fact is that the Gulf area would be in much better shape if money + troops + attention was not being spent across the world.

    The pain in Mississippi and Louisiana isn’t a tool for martydom, but it sounds like a good reason to me to oust incompetent leadership. Its my country too.

  6. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    Jim, this blog has become a sorry hobby for Bush apologists, with you leading the way.

  7. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Scott, Labeling me a “Bush apologist” does not constitute an argument any more than me labeling you a “Bush hater” constitutes one. If you want to illuminate why you believe Bush’s response was so inadequate, I invite you to do so.

    On at least two other posts, I have tried to raise the issue, What Does Katrina Mean for Virginia? What can we learn from the disaster so we don’t suffer the same fate. I talked about excess coastal development, the loss of hurricane-buffering wetlands, and the difficulty of evacuating a million residents from South Hampton Roads. There are many more issues that I could have raised. But guess what, no one was interested. Other contributors have raised issues and proposed actions of their own. But few of those posts have generated much interaction.

    To me, it’s a sad commentary that the posts that generate the most interaction are the ones that Blame First, Ask Questions Later. If you think I’m apologizing for Bush for taking a deep breath and asking, what are the facts, that’s your prerogative. I’d like to see your recitation of the facts.

  8. Salt Lick Avatar
    Salt Lick

    Jim, I understand your comment. Let me offer you food for thought, however. What’s worse, heart-felt “vulgarity” or the calculated, deliberate use of a terrible tragedy for political gain? I know you are in a difficult position as blog owner, but you nevertheless must note a disturbing fact: When we allow discourse to sink to the level of smears and fact-manipulation, and then label it “discussion,” we enable the end of civility, not promote it.

    Did you note how none of the real Bush-haters asked if any of my family were killed or hurt? It’s rather hard to remember the humanity of tragedy when you are using it for your own purposes. They helped me prove my point.

  9. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Salt Lick, As I said before, I agreed with your post. And I whole-heartedly agree that many people are politicizing the disaster for partisan gain. (Note to others: I’m NOT saying that the Bush administration is above criticism.) But this nation has become so polarized that there are precious few forums where people of opposite political persuasions can talk to one another with a civil tongue, and I’m determined that Bacon’s Rebellion remain one. I will not tolerate vulgarity, ad hominem attacks or anything else that discourages people with different views to interact. I do not want Bacon’s Rebellion to become an echo chamber for a narrow set of views — even views that I agree with. Period.

    Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’d be interested to read more of your experiences in the disaster zone. I assumed that your relatives are all OK, or you would have mentioned something in your previous post. But assumptions are dangerous. Is everyone OK?

  10. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    I am shutting down this thread and any other thread connected to Hurricane Katrina — unless there is a clear and compelling Virginia angle to it. If you want to assert George Bush’s culpability in the disaster, then fine another blog. If you want to defend George Bush, find another blog.

    If you want to discuss what Katrina means for Virginia, I recommend any number of posts that already appear on Bacon’s Rebellion. Our contributors have raised any number of serious issues already. Development of vulnerable coastlines. Erosion of the wetlands that buffer hurricane storm surges. Evacuation routes out of Hampton Roads. Reshaping government entities with appropriate size and authority to respond to emergencies. Empowering communities to respond to emergencies. Virginia’s response to the Katrina catastrophe. The Governor’s response to Katrina.

    There are any number of other useful questions that could be addressed here. What are the major threats that face Virginia? Where are the gaps? Who has first-responder responsibility, and how long would they have to operate alone before FEMA could arrive on the scene? What is the condition of Virginia’s emergency communications infrastucture — how interoperable are state, local and federal communications sytems?

    I welcome discussion on any of these topics. However, I will delete any post that veers back into partisan blame mongering/defending of President Bush, FEMA or anyone else for their role in Katrina.

    This decision is not targeted at any individual or their comments No one person’s actions or comments have inspired this decision. (Salt Lick, take note: This is not about your use of a particular word.) I don’t blame people for having strong emotions. I just refuse to allow Bacon’s Rebellion to become a forum for bitterness and divisiveness.

  11. Salt Lick Avatar
    Salt Lick

    Jim — thanks for asking. Luckily, all of my immediate family evacuated except for my brother, who lives about 20 miles inland. We have two cousins unaccounted for. My father’s home is now a flat slab, completely washed away by the surge. Several of his neighbors who stayed behind are somewhere under the 20 foot pile of debris shoved up by the surge. My brothers and sisters homes suffered damage but nothing extensive.

    The entire southern half of Mississippi is a disaster area. I’ve never seen anything like it and the only words are trite — war zone. You begin noticing damage 150 miles from the coast, around the Jackson-Meridian line. Trees and billboards down — stuff you’d associate with a bad storm. About 90 miles from the coast, you start getting the feeling that something abnormal happened — entire groves of trees down, roadsigns twisted, a few power lines down.

    At Hattiesburg, about 60 miles from the coast, you start seeing lots more of this, not to mention desperate-looking people in mile-long gas lines and destroyed homes. Before I started my trip, I checked the MDOT site and it said no one was allowed south of Hattiesburg unless tending to an emergency. A staff person at an Alabama rest stop told me I’d have to talk myself past the Highway Patrol in Hattiesburg. All the way down, I had imaginary conversations with a young highway patrolman, trying to explain why my people needed the water, food and fuel in the back of my truck. Despite all this, there were no police of any sort checking traffic headed south. I realized — they had a lot of other things to do.

    At about 40 miles from the coast, you begin to see utter devastation. Cars abandoned on the highway because they ran out of gas. You constantly run over power lines which have fallen ON THE INTERSTATE. Entire groves of trees are broken off at head height, totalling changing the appearance of landscapes. As there are no highway signs, I almost missed my exit to my brother’s house.

    In the 30 miles of country road to my brother’s house, every house I saw on both sides of the road had sustained some type of damage, some only minor stuff like gutters torn off. At the other end of the spectrum were houses that looked like they been blown up. Piles of tin and insulation indicated the remains of mobile homes. I frequently encountered the smell of death, I assume from cows and other animals. It reminded me of how my uncle’s cows were killed by Camille in 1969.

    The road I traveled was at times one lane wide because it’s all the crews had time to clear. Power lines lay across the road and hung from slanted poles like streamers. About half the poles had been snaped in half. The transformers often lay at the side of the road. Sometimes a tree hung over the road, held up by power line wires. The trunks of other trees, sawed to clear the way, cramped the sides of the road.

    I drove through this devastation for about half and hour before reaching my brother’s house. It was like a destroyed land, and I saw hundreds of dreams crushed or banged up.

    There is no phone service — land line or cell — in southern Mississippi now. I’d last had contact with my brother days before when he’d managed to get through on a television station’s phone. I guess they had satellite or something. I didn’t know what to expect at my borther’s house, but when I arrive his entire drive was blocked by fallen trees, about ten. I threw on my backpack and started to hike in, but made it only a few hundred yards when I spotted tire tracks showing an alternate route across a neighbor’s pasture. Just then my dad, brother and my sisters drove up a rented vehicle. We hooked up the generator, unpacked the provisions, thanked God we were all still together, and slept on the floor in my brother’s battered living room in the first air-conditioning he’d had since Katrina hit.

    On the way to Mississippi, I saw hundreds of trucks doing just what I was doing — taking necessities to family. It was heart-warming to be part of the great American tradition of looking out for your people. My heart did indeed go out to those who had no family to rely on.

    I’ll quit. This is long enough. Katrina is truly historic. Unless you’ve driven through the damage, you simply cannot imagine the agony Louisiana and Mississippi are experiencing. It’s not just the usual stuff we see after a tornado strike or regular hurricane. This thing was terrible beyond anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes.

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