Text 14902, 101 rader
Skriven 2005-09-04 11:21:52 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
Ärende: Open Letter 
====================
From the NOLA Times-Picayune


 
 

OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President
Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and
the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it
right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing
you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s
accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain
was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and
bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and
diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent
days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact
that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them
food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The
Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City
Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart
tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a
dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans
streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts
were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is
to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying
troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city
and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved
rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s
shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no
other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana
Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is
certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would
have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the
Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our
government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city
immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened,
that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and
national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people
trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling
amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have
but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal
Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown
especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency
hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded
at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally
televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the
people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not
two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re
doing a heck of a job."

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the
riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there
on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on
the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important
than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to
be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced.
Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t
be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our
beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud. 
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