The Clarion \ September 9,2005
Opinion —
Our government failed us in a time of need
by Hall Penn
Editor in Chief
Sometime between September 11,2001
and tliis week I must not have been paying
attention.
'fhougii I had my doubts, 1 was pretty
sure the money spent on Homeland Secu
rity was going somewhere and while I didn’t
believe it would solve the problem of ter
rorism in this life, or a thousand lives, I
figured that if our country suffered another
terrorist attack, we’d at least have some
sort of structure in place to minimize the
damage. But this past week I learned yet
again that the only thing 1 should trust our
federal government to do is to deliver the
mail, maintain the roads and protect the
borders.
Except, 1 remembered, the postal ser
vice is now privatized, the roads are argu
able and seeing as the Governor of Ari
zona has declared a State of Emergency
due to illegal immigration in his state, that’s
out the window too. So what the hell can
we trust our government for?
Recently it seems we can trust them to
argue about whether a withered body in a
hospice in Florida can be allowed to die.
We can trust them to argue about whether
or not a great spirit in the sky can be dis
cussed in our public schools as scientific,
while letting the funding for these schools
drop.
But all of this complaining is inane.
Right now people are dying. They are dy
ing because our government dropped the
ball. You know about hurricane Katrina.
Brevard College
The Clarion
Hall T. Penn Jr.
Editor in Chief
Matt Rutherford
Arts 4 Life Editor
Staff
Adam Beeson
Managing Editor
Kathryn McDade
Sports Editor
Dr. John Padgett Tabitha Breedlove
Faculty Advisor Business Manager
Staff Writers
Zach Browning Zack Harding
Dabney Farmer Hunter Holmes
Tom Cowan Stephanie McCall
Jessica Crocker Jourdan Prange
Risa Dimond Dustin Rose
Christ Gaskill David Ulioa
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You know that the levees in New Orleans
failed. But what I hope for all of us is that
you know that it took days, not hours, but
days for the Federal Emergency Manage
ment Agency or Homeland Security or the
National Guard or even our President to
take effective action. It took the Mayor of
New Orleans, Ray Nagin, cussing on live
radio and calling the federal government
“clueless” for them to make a genuine ef
fort to save people.
Now, I know that this was a natural
disaster, and while A1 Qaeda has report
edly referred to hurricane Katrina as Pri
vate Katrina, they can’t take credit for the
destruction. But that’s splitting hairs.
FEMA and Homeland Security w'ere set up
to save people in this country from disas
ters. They aren’t there just for prevention,
no, they are supposed to minimize destruc
tion and damage. But what did they do
this week? They led an uncoordinated,
uncommunicative and idiotic rescue effort.
People are dying. And whether or not
they left the city when the evacuation was
ordered shouldn’t be used as a talking point
for a lesson on personal responsibility.
They are dying and they need to be helped.
But our government has failed what
people are now estimating to be thousands
of dead people. FEMA didn’t help. The
Department of Homeland Security didn’t
help. The President of the United States
sat around for days and didn’t help. And
we can’t forget that.
We can't forget that there are going to
be hundreds, if not thousands of stories
like the one Aaron Broussard, president of
Jefferson Parish, New Orleans, told to Tim
Russert on Sunday’s Meet the Press on
NBC.
Mr. Broussard said “And I want to
give you one last story and I’ll shut up and
let you tell me whatever you want to tell
me. The guy who runs this building I’m in,
emergency management, he’s responsible
for everything. His mother was trapped in
St. Bernard nursing home and every day
she called him and said, “Are you coming,
son? Is somebody coming?” And he said’
Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get
you. Somebody’s coming to get you on
Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you
on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get
you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to
get you on Friday.” And she drowned Fri
day night. She drowned Friday night.”
Mr. Broussard said “Nobody’s com
ing to get us. Nobody’s coming to get us.
The secretary has promised. Everybody’s
promised. They’ve had press conferences.
I’m sick of the press conferences. For God
sakes, shut up and send us somebody.”
And we can’t forget that.
On the Record..
“I don’t think anybody anticipated the
breach of the levees.”
—President Bush, on “Good Morning
America,” Sept. 1, 2005, three days
after Huricane Katrina came ashore
“Louisiana is a city that is largely
underwater.”
—Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff, at a news
conference on Sept. 3, 2005
“We are still hampered by some of the
most stupid, idiotic regulations by
FEMA. They have turned away genera
tors, we’ve heard that they’ve gone
around seizing equipment from our
contractors. If they do so, they’d better
be armed because I’ll be damned if I’m
going to let them deprive our
citizens.”
—Slidell, La., mayor Ben Morris,
Sept. 5,2005
“We’ve got to solve problems. We’re
problem-solvers. There will be ample
time for people to figure out what went
right and what went wrong.”
—President Bush, at a Cabinet
meeting, Sept. 6, 2005
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