Father Kevin Laughery's Weblog

Following is an editorial from the Times-Picayune of New Orleans.  It deserves a wide readership.

The Times-Picayune

OUR OPINIONS:
An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and
said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good
reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city
between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and
helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's
hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's
stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in
and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a
caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a
dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick
Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday
morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid
were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how
our city was impossible to reach.

We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding
parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been          
were not. That's to the government's shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other           
alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know
what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's
death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be
returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't
they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges
threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national
officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air
conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent
needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be
fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day
that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He
gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to
the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every
single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a
job."

That's unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact
that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

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