Hundreds Refuse to Leave New Orleans

Hundreds refuse to leave.

Yup, this morning on NPR, a candid report from a fanboat with police and other rescue workers, motoring through the cesspool of sewage, gasoline, and dead bodies are finding people in that same cesspool who

refuse to leave. Refuse rescue.

Even now. Even when they are standing in foul, stinking flood waters that will kill them. Hundreds of them.

Now I'd like you to think about that for just a minute.

The Leftists in the media are all over how its all about class and color, in their favorite exercise of making sure personal responsibility always lies on the shoulders of those they despise rather than on the individual. Why did tens of thousands of people not leave the below-sea-level bowl of New Orleans with a category 5 hurricane bearing down on them?

Could it be because they didn't want to?

Look at all of the other hurricanes that have hit the coast over the years. Many get out, many stay -- most that stay stay for one or more of these three reasons.

1. denial
2. pride
3. adventure

I will buy the idea that some could not afford the gas or a bus ticket out. To those people, I have them turn directly to Mayor C. Ray Nagin and his fleets of city and school busses which were not used. But I suspect the number that did not get out due to economics is much smaller than the Left would like us to believe in their shameless politicising of a natural disaster.

As soon as I heard there was a category 5 hurricane headed for New Orleans about 3 days before it hit, my mind flashed back to several television programs I'd seen in the last 10 years about what would happen to New Orleans in the event of a direct hit by a major hurricane. If I, a citizen of Missouri, knew how bad it would likely be, surely the City and State governments were aware of the problems facing the area.

If they (the local government) were not aware of the problem, why should they expect the Feds to be aware of it?

The truth of the matter is, they knew, and the Feds knew. But emergency planning for cities -- especially cities prone to natural disasters, lies on the city government, not the Federal government. The Federal government can not and should not step in unless it is requested or it becomes apparent that the local goverment is incapable of handling the situation.

A friend's dad is down there now working with FEMA. According to him, the National Guard offered to go down there two days BEFORE Katrina hit, but the Governor of Lousiana refused. Bush, according to law, couldn't send federal help until it was requested by the state (Governor).

So how, again, is it Bush's fault, or rich people's fault, or white people's fault that people in New Orleans didn't get out of the way of Mother Nature when they had ample warning? How is it Bush's fault, or rich people's fault, or white people's fault that the (Black, not white or "other") mayor of New Orleans did not have a disaster plan for this event, or did not implement it? How is it Bush's, or rich people's, or white people's fault that the Governor of Louisiana refused help when it would have been most effective -- BEFORE the hurricane hit, and then screamed bloody murder that the feds were "a day late"?

How is this "the Shame of America"?

It's all a question of framing, spinning is. If over-simplify a problem to fit your political aims and stick a flashy frame around the picture, people look at the frame and don't see the picture. When you actually go down and take a good look at the picture, you may just see something quite different that what was presented to you by talking heads on your TV screen.