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Subject: Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion on Walker Percy

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  • From: "Tommy Armstrong" <tfa AT brickengraver.com>
  • To: <juliorivas AT gmail.com>, "'Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion'" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] Countdown to a Meltdown
  • Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 11:07:04 -0400

I think I read all the articles cited by Karey--and agree that it was a huge screw up. Plenty of blame to go around and obviously a lot of praise also, especially since the aid from FEMA, the DOD, and the country at large has kicked in. But it was still the local state and city's responsibilities to effect the evacuation and the pre-planning and position of resources to carry it out. They did not do their homework and they flunked the test.
 
There are very real and important reasons why the first line of defense should be local and state, and then support should be from the Federal Government. The Feds should not simply be able to come in, declare an emergency, and then take over the operation. It seems that a vast number of people in this country see this as its proper role--but it is not--the request for aid needs to be done from the state to the feds, not letting the feds summarily dictate. Many companies had Emergency Management Plans for evacuation and safeguard of their resources in event of such a disaster, and many worked well. The City of New Orleans should have had one also. The State of Louisiana should have required them to have one. If their plan was to pass the logistics up to FEMA and the DOHS, then that was a bad plan, and when it did not work, their backup should have kicked in.
 
There are questions and concerns also of the posse comitatus Act of 1879.  "The Act embodies the traditional American principle of separating civilian and military authority and currently forbids the use of the Army and Air Force to enforce civilian laws."
 
http://law.wustl.edu/WULQ/75-2/752-10.html
 
This is not France or England or Canada where there is a national police force. We are still a federation of states, and those powers not specifically delegated to the Federal Government in the constitution are retained by the individual states.
 
 
From the Newsweek Article cited.
"Nagin himself had problems of his own. He had opened up the Superdome to thousands of people—but nobody seemed to have had a plan to care for them or to get them out of there. There were promises of buses that never came. Some 500 National Guardsmen showed up to keep order, but the nervous young soldiers waved their weapons about. People began to complain that they were being held in a prison. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco seemed uncertain and sluggish, hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help.

Washington, too, was slow to react to the crisis. The Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was reluctant for the military to take a lead role in disaster relief, a job traditionally performed by FEMA and by the National Guard, which is commanded by state governors. President Bush could have "federalized" the National Guard in an instant. That's what his father, President George H.W. Bush, did after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Back then, the Justice Department sent Robert Mueller, a jut-jawed ex-Marine (who is now FBI director), to take charge, showing, in effect, that the cavalry had arrived. FEMA's current head, Michael Brown, has appeared over his head and even a little clueless in news interviews. He is far from the sort of take-charge presence New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani conveyed after 9/11."

Tommy Armstrong
 
You can get all A's and still flunk life.
Walker Percy

 





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