You know, part of me wants to dismiss outright this Douglas Brinkley op-ed, especially after the bio at the end of the piece makes no mention of his own decision to abandon the city...that said, well...I'm not a city resident, so it would be awfully self-righteous for me to complain about someone else's choice.
But while I can't say I like the entire essay, Brinkley scores some solid points in emphasizing the glaring contradiction between administration rhetoric and what can only be a deliberate lack of action. He notes further the dearth of money and willpower from Team Bush, and compares it to the, no pun intended, flood of effort on the part of volunteers throughout the nation, many of whom, he points out, gradually, frustratingly, begin to realize that inaction IS the Bush administration policy. Brinkley also gets the fact that while the not-so-natural disaster in New Orleans exposed the city's problems, those problems are NOT unique to the region, but exist throughout the country. They are the problems of urban America...and, as NOLA goes, so goes urban America. The city IS our test case...one we can't afford to fail.
Like I said, I may not agree with everything Brinkley wrote, but I'm glad I read it, and recommend it if you've got the time.
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