"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
Does Mayor Nagin have the intellectual and emotional maturity of a 14 year old? Who, in their right mind, would call 180,000 people back into a city that has no suitable drinking water, no 911 system and no operating hospitals?
It’s not that I don’t empathize with the residents of New Orleans who want to attempt to get back to “life as usual”, but there is no life as usual in New Orleans and there won’t be for a very long time. 20% of the city is still flooded and according to reports on rescue efforts, there are still bodies to be found (by my count more than 9,000 bodies are missing if we are to have believed Mayor Nagin’s inflated projections).
Some reports hint that the Mayor is anxious to get the city ready for tourists as soon as possible. If that’s the case – not only is he once again showing blatant disregard for the lives of the citizens of New Orleans, but also for anyone curious (read: crazy) enough to start visiting again in the near future. This Associated Press article states,
The article also says,
Gee, I wonder where they got that idea?? I’d like to see the Mayor himself out there with a shop-vac, drying out the buses that weren’t good enough for him to use when he let hundreds of people die in their homes during and after Katrina.
You can read the article yourself, but I’m sure you get my primary rant. The Mayor of New Orleans wasn’t just under stress when he made poor decisions and used horrible judgment in not evacuating his citizens before Katrina. It would appear that he’s just a complete idiot who wouldn’t know good judgment if it bit him in the butt. It wasn’t until federal officials, including President Bush, “URGED” Nagin (for a couple of days) to reconsider letting people back in to NoLo that he suspended his “re-opening”. It’s like a teenager is in charge and the President has to guide him in the right direction or he’ll keep making the same mistakes over and over. Even when he DID reverse his decision to allow people to re-enter, his reasons seem to be related to Tropical Storm Rita causing more damage – not the utter insanity of allowing people to re-enter when much of the city is not cleaned up and the mayor can't even provide healthcare or emergency services to the citizens.
As a manager, I can only stand to watch my employees bloody things up for so long – then I have to step in and say, “let me do it”. I keep waiting for that to happen in this case and so far the feds have allowed Nagin to stay involved in what’s happening with recovery and rebuilding. Of course, throughout this time – you know, the time when the federal government has completely taken over all the real responsibility in cleaning the place up, Nagin continues to complain. Only this time it’s not for lack of help, it’s for too much help. Evidently his panties went into a wad when this happened:
What’s the protocol anyway? “Ya’all just come down here and fix everything, but DON’T talk to anyone!!”
I say it’s time for the feds to take a level of authority that matches their level of responsibility in this rescue/recovery/rebuilding effort. People just end up getting shot in the foot when they’re given a boat-load of responsibility and no authority to carry it out.
If the federal government really does change the rules, giving them the authority to step in and take over in cases of natural disaster – something the President hinted to in his speech, but I have a hard time envisioning it actually becoming a reality, they’re going to have to develop a protocol that will keep idiots like Nagin from muddying the process so much.
I think we’ve given him enough rope and he’s managed to hang everyone around him – the feds need to tell him to sit down and shut up so they can do their job.
Ahhhhhh…..maybe in a perfect world.
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It’s not that I don’t empathize with the residents of New Orleans who want to attempt to get back to “life as usual”, but there is no life as usual in New Orleans and there won’t be for a very long time. 20% of the city is still flooded and according to reports on rescue efforts, there are still bodies to be found (by my count more than 9,000 bodies are missing if we are to have believed Mayor Nagin’s inflated projections).
Some reports hint that the Mayor is anxious to get the city ready for tourists as soon as possible. If that’s the case – not only is he once again showing blatant disregard for the lives of the citizens of New Orleans, but also for anyone curious (read: crazy) enough to start visiting again in the near future. This Associated Press article states,
"Nagin saw a quick reopening as a way to get the storm-battered city back in the business of luring tourists."
The article also says,
“The city requested 200 buses to assist in an evacuation. They would start running 48 hours before landfall from the downtown convention center and a stadium in Algiers”
Gee, I wonder where they got that idea?? I’d like to see the Mayor himself out there with a shop-vac, drying out the buses that weren’t good enough for him to use when he let hundreds of people die in their homes during and after Katrina.
You can read the article yourself, but I’m sure you get my primary rant. The Mayor of New Orleans wasn’t just under stress when he made poor decisions and used horrible judgment in not evacuating his citizens before Katrina. It would appear that he’s just a complete idiot who wouldn’t know good judgment if it bit him in the butt. It wasn’t until federal officials, including President Bush, “URGED” Nagin (for a couple of days) to reconsider letting people back in to NoLo that he suspended his “re-opening”. It’s like a teenager is in charge and the President has to guide him in the right direction or he’ll keep making the same mistakes over and over. Even when he DID reverse his decision to allow people to re-enter, his reasons seem to be related to Tropical Storm Rita causing more damage – not the utter insanity of allowing people to re-enter when much of the city is not cleaned up and the mayor can't even provide healthcare or emergency services to the citizens.
As a manager, I can only stand to watch my employees bloody things up for so long – then I have to step in and say, “let me do it”. I keep waiting for that to happen in this case and so far the feds have allowed Nagin to stay involved in what’s happening with recovery and rebuilding. Of course, throughout this time – you know, the time when the federal government has completely taken over all the real responsibility in cleaning the place up, Nagin continues to complain. Only this time it’s not for lack of help, it’s for too much help. Evidently his panties went into a wad when this happened:
“On Tuesday, Nagin had harsh words for the federal government's top official in the city, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who he said "stepped outside his lane by talking directly to the citizens of New Orleans”.
What’s the protocol anyway? “Ya’all just come down here and fix everything, but DON’T talk to anyone!!”
I say it’s time for the feds to take a level of authority that matches their level of responsibility in this rescue/recovery/rebuilding effort. People just end up getting shot in the foot when they’re given a boat-load of responsibility and no authority to carry it out.
If the federal government really does change the rules, giving them the authority to step in and take over in cases of natural disaster – something the President hinted to in his speech, but I have a hard time envisioning it actually becoming a reality, they’re going to have to develop a protocol that will keep idiots like Nagin from muddying the process so much.
I think we’ve given him enough rope and he’s managed to hang everyone around him – the feds need to tell him to sit down and shut up so they can do their job.
Ahhhhhh…..maybe in a perfect world.
Trackbacks on this article:
Junkyardblog
posted by P.I. Mom @ Tuesday, September 20, 2005
1 Comments:
At 9:24 AM, September 21, 2005,
Don Surber said…
Nagin's problem is not brains. He made it big time in the private sector. No, it is ego and temperament. So the answer to the first question is yes.
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