From Suspect Device.
Sifu:
Sucks to be Louisiana, really sucks to be New Orleans. Sucks the most, as it has for the past year and a half, and as it will for the indefinite future, to be poor in New Orleans. Sorry, guys. I hear nice things about Memphis.
OK, in his defense, at least he points to a story I saw last weekend or so that suggests the East Coast isn't so safe either...specifically New York, but you can apply its findings up and down the seaboard...or at least those parts of the seaboard that lean Democratic as long as this current administration is in power. But it's still in parts astonishing, a little infuriating, and more than frustrating to have to keep going over this again...and again...and again.
No, reconstructing New Orleans won't be easy. Yes, there are risks to living along the Gulf Coast. Yes, for far too long public officials have ignored not only the inherent risks, but additional risks resulting from development, industrialization, ill-advised management schemes from previous eras...and the realization that global warming has, well, global consequences.
Yes, there are challenges. But it's not an impossible task. And it sure as hell is a better investment of resources than the true insanity going on in Iraq, where lives and money are being wasted on a scale as unimaginable as the federal disaster down in NOLA, as well as the natural disasters of Katrina and Rita (yep, that's right, I used the "W" word...hey, come to think of it, you can't spell "wasted" WITHOUT Dubya).
Oh, and I'll even agree with Sifu--a great wall is almost certainly the wrong idea. But at least it's a starting point. And, right now, even discussing a concept that's likely to be rejected is better than, well, doing nothing at all. Hell, maybe out of the discussions, oh, I don't know, a policy could be hammered out. And, once agreed upon, maybe it could even be implemented.
After all, this region isn't a charity case--it's an area of strategic importance, and an economic engine. It's also part of America. We've helped generate the nation's wealth. We've paid our taxes. We've fought--and died--in this country's wars.
And, what happened to New Orleans can happen elsewhere. It could be a hurricane on the Gulf or Atlantic Coast (or, with, ahem, global warming, increased threats from West Coast hurricanes). It could be a lahar in the Pacific Northwest...or an earthquake, either along the well known fault system in the West Coast...or the less well known, but perhaps even more deadly deep fault system in the Midwest (Sifu: Memphis would likely be leveled, so I think New Orleanians will pass on your recommendation). Tornados can hit almost anywhere. Los Angeles might not have been leveled--yet--by an earthquake, but what will happen if there's a problem with the (already inadequate) water supply? I hear dying of thirst really sucks.
Oh, and I'm still surprised at how quickly memory fades when it comes to floods.
Do you really want your government, your insurance companies, and your fellow citizens to turn their back on you in the event of bad luck...or, worse still, poor maintenance by the government of their own public works projects?
Sucks to be [...]? OK...
You know, if this was a small country with limited resources, I could ALMOST understand that sort of attitude. Almost. But this is the USA. Our wealth makes King Midas look like chump change. Sucks to be [...]...actually, I think people using that language ought to be pretty careful...because pretty much every spot in the country is one disaster away from Sucks to be...
Do we really want to treat the country as little more than a throw-away/disposable?
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