Wet Bank Guide

I hate to scare off readers by appearing partisan (I am, but I try to keep it in check). However, this line from an AP story this morning disturbed me:

"I had to manage his expectations this morning, because while there has been great progress, there continues to be great need--indescribable need," White House Chief of Staff Andy Card was quoted as saying of President Bush's trip to the Gulf Coast.

[Sigh]. And then there is this, from the same article: "Bush hasn't been to the coast since a trip to Louisiana and Mississippi Oct. 10-11.."

So, the greatest devestation of property the United States has seen since Sherman marched to the sea--23,000 square miles, hundreds of thousands still homeless--and the president isn't really aware what's going on. That's what I take away from that.

What's not clear is, ultimately, whose expectations will be lowered, Mr. Bush's or ours.

I've been pretty harsh on Mr. Bush in these postings. If you disagree with my assessment of the President, I encourage you to leave a comment rather than leave in a huff, but anyone concerned enough about New Orleans to be reading this blog should find these notes disturbing. Strangely, I find them in one way encouraging

Perhaps it was just White House idealogues who oppose spending government money on just about anything vetoed who the Baker Plan on principle, rather that out of spite. Maybe George doesn't know the December relief bill gave Mississippi five times as much aid per impacted househould than Louisiana. If he doesn't then there is always some hope.

Some advice George: I think the judgement of history is not running too strongly for you on Iraq. And I would not want to be remembered a hundred years from now as the President who turned his back on hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens and neighbors at their greatest time of need.

Quick, tell me something Hoover did besides let the country slide into the Great Depression? (Hint, he may have had his picture taken, but I don't think he did a whole lot of actual shovel work on the dam, so the judges rule that one out in advance). Grant won the civil war, but is looked back on as one of our worst presidents.

Perhaps this visit will re-open the Presidents eyes, and bring a turn-around in the attitude of the White House and Congressional Republicans. If not, we will know that we have been abandoned by our countrymen.

I have little faith in the supremely corrupt leadership of the Congress. I will hold out a small bit of christian hope, faith and charity that the president means what he says at a very high level, and when he is confronted with the reality, he will brush aside the idealogues and carreerists around him and see that something is done.

Go ahead Mr. President. Prove all the things I've said about you in the past are wrong. Nothing could make me happier.

Editor's Note: I have studiously avoid the use of the word "we" in this blog, because I currently live in Fargo, N.D., and have for almost a decade. However, we are coming home. My wife has accepted a job, and will be on the ground in days. I will follow with the children in June. The postings on this blog have never been an intellectual exercise for me; they have been torn from my heart, some of them written while weeping in the early days of September. If there is any change of tone accompanying the adoption of "we", it is because I am coming to find a house, to put my kids in school somewhere, to put myself voluntarily into the middle of the after-storm. From now on, you can forget all of that high-blown "the people of New Orleans" stuff here. From now on, it will be we and us and I.

Tagged: New Orleans Katrina Louisiana Hurricane Katrina