FEMA, Katrina, and the citizens of Louisiana

The right wing excuse machine has swung into full-time reaction mode. I repeatedly see people blaming the criminal element for the circumstances of New Orleans. (I was sent an e-mail of an absolutely mind-boggling news report taken from inside a Walmart, while it was being looted, with two uniformed policewomen pushing their own shopping cart and sharing in the free-for-all, while being interviewed on camera.) And of course, despite the purported acceptance of Dubya for the failures of FEMA caused by his cronyism and shortcomings, there is a lot of blame to go around for the abomination that is New Orleans.

Here's my thoughts about the blaming-the-victims crusade:

1. I don’t generally like to blame victims. Especially if you’re doing so just to excuse the shortcomings and failures of others.
2. There are, without any doubt, some really awful and bad people in New Orleans.
3. The state and local governments of Louisiana and New Orleans (City and Parish) were just criminally negligent in their tragically short-sighted and ineffective planning and response to Katrina.
4. FEMA is supposed to take charge of managing emergencies. It did not. There is no legitimate excuse for its failings.
5. The thugs and the victims that live in New Orleans are (as far as I know) U.S. citizens. The federal government, the Constitution, FEMA – all are designed with the thought of protecting our health and securing our citizens’ safety. The federal government and FEMA in particular disastrously failed their charge. Let me quote from the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

6. As you can see, the goals of the U.S. government are to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty – NONE OF WHICH WERE MET BY THE REACTION OF FEMA TO KATRINA.
7. Even people who live in bad neighborhoods and don’t evacuate in the face of a hurricane – or, to be more precise about what caused most of the death and destruction in New Orleans proper, those who don’t evacuate before a levee collapses many hours after a hurricane passes through – deserve some type of effective response from all levels of government.
8. "You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it." -Malcolm X