From: "Voter" <voter1@gmail.com>
Subject: Waiting for a Leader
Date: Thursday, September 01, 2005 1:29 PM
Waiting for a Leader
NY Times Editorial
George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday,
especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of
consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this
administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He
then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day
celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets
delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody
who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything
would work out in the end.
We will, of course, endure, and the city of New Orleans must come back. But
looking at the pictures on television yesterday of a place abandoned to the
forces of flood, fire and looting, it was hard not to wonder exactly how
that is going to come to pass. Right now, hundreds of thousands of American
refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need
to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled
in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given
confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be
brought under control at a moment when television has been showing long
lines at some pumps and spot prices approaching $4 a gallon have been
reported.
Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an
orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to
counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday -
which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he
understood the depth of the current crisis.
While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate needs,
the nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so inadequate.
Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have
fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city,
which is below sea level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands
and barrier islands that could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why
was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the
budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area's flood
protection?
It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced,
America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this crisis. Complacency
will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that
global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since
this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the
chances of leadership seem minimal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/opinion/01thu1.html?pagewanted=print
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| User: "O:--:" |
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| Title: Re: Waiting for a Leader |
01 Sep 2005 07:22:26 PM |
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My news server the GIANT Google seems to be crashing every few seconds
so it is hard for me to even post a reply
but, I think Wavy Gravy would make a good leader. He was the MC at the
first Woodstock and kept things in order too
during insuing near panic there.
He even warned people to stay away from the brown acid and that it was
bad. Thanks to him I didn't take it. I threw it in the mud and on top
of that I now live in
the same SWEET town in Northern California that he does.
BTW - gasoline in my sweet little remote town just poped up over $3 a
gallon. I wonder how long it will be before it tops $5 or $6 or $10
and so on???
I filled up all of my vehicles and went to the local store being seiged
by many folks from the hills here and bought all
the canned and dry food I could buy,
packed my minivan and headed back
home.
Seriously there is no leader - it's soon going to turn into survival
mode in much of the nation - I predict.
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| User: "Woodswun" |
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| Title: Re: Waiting for a Leader |
01 Sep 2005 10:03:28 PM |
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mondo wrote:
From: "Voter" <voter1@gmail.com>
Subject: Waiting for a Leader
Date: Thursday, September 01, 2005 1:29 PM
Waiting for a Leader
NY Times Editorial
George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday,
especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of
consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this
administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He
then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day
celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets
delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody
who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything
would work out in the end.
Yeah, I watched that speech. I can't believe his handlers let him give
it, as it was completely inappropriate, IMHO. He should have been
making statements about how all Americans are involved, spiritually if
not in body, and that the nation's prayers are with those in the affect
regions, etc, and telling people what they could do to assist would have
been far more fitting for the situation. Giving a PR speech about what
had been sent in, when it was painfully obvious that people were still
not getting what they needed, was incredibly tacky and insensitive.
Woods
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