In response to Jindal's address last night, I was in NOLA. The people of NOLA are friends of mine, along with many others I met down there. Unlike Jindal, I didn't do a fly over. My plane actually landed on the ground in Baton Rouge, and I was all over, helping people wherever I could.
For some background, I watched in horror, the tsunami in 2004 and yearned to go and help the people affected. But I was working and didn't have the time off to go. I swore to myself that nothing would prevent me from helping in the next disaster and when I watched the news in August 2005 and saw masses of people dying, suffering, drowning, and waiting to be rescued from their rooftops I was again horrified. This time not only for what I was seeing, but that something like this could happen in the United States.
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I immediately signed up with the local Red Cross chapter, went to training, and flew to Baton Rouge where I spent two weeks doing everything I could. I had some time off, and my boss gave me the time off I needed with an advance on vacation time and told me to go. We were in the middle of a product release and it was a tough time to leave the company but he knew what I was doing was the right thing, and so I went. I was in Lafayette, in Baton Rouge, and in the Cajun Dome helping people settle in. The Cajun Dome at the time had just been emptied from people fleeing Hurricane Rita.
I helped deliver a semi-truck of MREs and supplies to remote locations. There were so many volunteers, so many people to help, and a general sense of chaos, and I quickly realized that I wasn't going to make a difference on a grand scale so I went "micro". I found families and people left on their own (in a daze trying to figure out what was going on). I found an old lady who only wanted to read a book - I gave her the only one I had -- a copy of The Prince.
I found a man who was looking for underwear for his children. The shelter had none left in the piles of clothes that had been donated, so I, along with another person, commandeered a Red Cross truck and went to a local WalMart that had just closed. We talked the manager into letting us in to buy (with our own money), clothes for the guy. And then searched for two hours for him so that I could give him the one little thing he needed.
I met a man who was sitting by himself. He looked worried and confused. He didn't have the bags of supplies the Red Cross was giving out and so I talked to him and realized that he didn't speak English. He spoke a variant of Cajun French and some Spanish and with my rudimentary French skills I was able to understand why he was confused, explained to him what was going on, and got him what he needed. More importantly I made a human connection and just listed to him talk for 20 minutes or so.
Small things - big differences.
All around me I was struck by the sense of goodwill. There were people from all over the country - Boston, Ohio, Nebraska, South Dakota, Florida. My faith in humanity was restored that day, and I had never been prouder to be an American in my life. It should be noted that I got the same feeling after watching Obama's speech tonight.
Not one time did I ever get the sense that the people thought that the problem was that they relied on the government. The Red Cross told us that 90% of the people in NOLA have never left the state in their lifetimes. The idea of leaving the state wasn't in their minds, nor did most of them have the means to do so even if they wanted. The problem was not that the people relied on big government to save them. This was the government's responsibility, after all, what other reason is there for FEMA to exist than this?
Ideology though, gave way to helping people. It came in many forms -- Republicans administration, Democratic representatives and Democratic mayors. Insiders and campaign contributors instead of seasoned professionals. Horse attorneys instead of emergency coordinators.
Small things - big differences.
The lesson to take away from Katrina and Rita was not that people shouldn't rely on the government, but instead that the government failed to protect them. The government under the Bush administration knew about the disaster ahead of time and not only were they indifferent to the needs of the people, they were unwilling and reluctant even after the breadth of the disaster was evident by everyone across the world, to do anything about it. The Republicans wanted to put NOLA into a bathtub and drown it. Turns out mother nature took care of most of it, the Bush Administration just helped her along.
The lesson to take away from Katrina and Rita was that Republicans want to put ideology above all else. They blame the people of NOLA for not getting out, of not taking responsibility. These are the same Republicans who didn't take their responsibility that they have when they swore their oaths.
Small things - big differences.
So in response to Jindal, yes, Americans can do anything. Americans from all over went down and assisted, put people up in their homes, donated in record numbers to charities, and helped in thousands of different ways. Americans will do anything. But Katrina and Rita was in spite of the government lack of caring. Yes, American can do anything, but how much easier would it have been if the government would have taken their responsibility more seriously and allowed the masses of volunteers to spend their efforts in other ways while the government did its job.
It's hard to figure out then why, if Americans can do anything, and the citizens of this country will do anything, why in the past 8 years Republicans, Americans themselves (as denoted by their lapel pins), with a majority in both houses of congress, and a Republican president, can't seem to do the small stuff. Like come up with a plan for health insurance for all Americans, SCHIP for children, an energy policy that makes us less dependent on foreign oil. Not one time did we ever hear or see a plan to help people get the things they deserve in these areas.
Small things - big differences.
Jindal's condescending narrative, even if he hadn't given it just after Obama's speech would still have fallen just as flat, remained just as tone deaf, and been just as off. Jindal misses the point entirely. We've had eight years of the Republican narrative. Everyone can see how well it didn't work, and we don't need to pick on the people of NOLA to prove otherwise.
Americans can do anything. With this logic, along with the lack of any health care proposal, any alternative energy plans, etc., the only conclusion that I can some up with is that Republicans don't want to.
And that's the big thing, the big difference.
Updated:
Paul Krugman nails it here:
And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action?