As a democracy we need to assert ourselves so that we live up to our vision of ourselves as a country. That has never been clearer than it is now, in the aftermath of Katrina. We need to help the citizens of the south reclaim their dreams. It starts with the basics - food, water, shelter, schools, and jobs. And it grows from there. That's the first step but there's so much more that needs to be done.
I have written and rewritten this post and it changes both as the tragedy unfolds and also as my level of anger has risen.Today though, on the seventh day of this disaster, there seems to me one clear question we should send to our government - why weren't we able to take care of our people in the aftermath of a natural disaster we knew was coming? In the months to come, as we absorb the breadth of this disaster, we need to answer that question.
Right now our primary concern is and should be the very lives of those Americans trapped in New Orleans and the surrounding areas, the 500,000 Americans that are suddenly homeless and jobless. Our focus must be the growing crisis of displaced persons, the largest since the Civil War. Katrina has exposed the underbelly of our society because instead of Wall Street it hit a city where many of the residents are poor, African American, and without the resources to either survive or escape the disaster that befell their home town. They needed our help immediately but it took five and six days until they finally got food, water, security, and evacuation. They continue to need help. There is a need for long term reconstruction in the states hardest hit. We must ask ourselves, "Do we have the stamina to "stay the course" for Louisiana and Mississippi?"
Across the world, people are shocked that we, the richest and strongest country in the world, the country that offers aid elsewhere when natural disaster strikes, that we weren't preparation to take care of our own. If we are unprepared for a disaster that for decades has been predicted, what is our level of preparation for one that cannot be predicted?
Though we still need to make the first priority the rescue and relocation of the survivors of Katrina and the rebuilding of the important economic engines of the state of Louisiana and Mississippi, we cannot wait six months or a year to make sure we answer the hard questions of why as a nation we were so unprepared to face this crisis. We need answers. And the most important question of all is this: What are we doing to make sure that the government can fulfill its most fundamental role - the protection of its citizens?
As citizens we must ask our government to not only investigate what went wrong but to lay out a plan of how to move forward. There will be a need for large government funding to rebuild. We have a right to demand Congressional oversight on any spending on the reconstruction of the area affected by Katrina.
As Bill Clinton said "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed with what is right with America". We can and will weather this storm but we must demand leadership now and accountability for the failure to respond in a timely and appropriate manner.