EDITORIALS : THANK YOU
Posted on Wednesday, September 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/236214/
AS WHAT’S left of Gustav moves
into Texas and Arkansas, it may
not be too early to give thanks despite the damage it did do. (Even a Category 2 hurricane is still a hurricane. ) So let us begin. Thank you, —George W. Bush, our Katrinachastened president, who demonstrated that he’s learned a thing or two dozen since 2005. Great teacher, adversity. So is sustained criticism. Now when this president tells somebody, “You’re doin ’ a heckuva job,” folks may believe him. As with the Surge in Iraq, this muchmaligned president has demonstrated he can reverse course, reorganize his administration, and appoint a new team who’ll get the job done. He may be a painfully slow learner, but what he learns, he can put into effective practice.
—Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security. His department includes FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and this time, lo and behold, it appears capable of actually handling an emergency. What a refreshing change.
—Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s reform governor, a phrase that still sounds ironic. What a powerful contrast with his blundering predecessor in Baton Rouge, who didn’t dare run for re-election after her confused response three years ago to Katrina. Governor Jindal was joined by governors across the Gulf Coast states in rising to the challenge. Indeed, the governors of Mississippi, Texas and Florida had proven their competence when Katrina and then Rita struck in 2005. So did their people. Let us now praise all those who have demonstrated in this latest crisis how one can be minimized.
—Even New Orleans’ Ray Nagin seems to have learned a lot, if not enough, from Katrina’s wrath three years ago. This time we saw no pictures of school buses lined up in neat orderly rows so they could all be engulfed by the deluge at the same time. Mayor Nagin declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the Crescent City and generally got his city ready for the storm. Particularly impressive was the mayor’s no-nonsense message to the kind of lowlifes whose response to a natural disaster is to victimize the victims. “Looters,” the mayor warned, “will go directly to jail. You will not get a pass this time. You will not have a temporary stay in the city. You will go directly to the big house.” By which he meant Angola, the state prison well known for its lessthan-permissive ways. It’s about time the Big Easy stopped being easy on crime. The National Guard and police were out in force on New Orleans’ storied streets even as Gustav swept through the city.
—National Guardsmen not just from Louisiana but from neighboring states, including Arkansas, who responded as the Guard always has—with dispatch and effect.
—The U. S. Coast Guard, which was securing small craft and huge barges all along the Gulf Coast, on the mighty Mississippi and inland waterways, in the bayous and rivers, and wherever it patrols.
—Governor Mike Beebe and other chief executives in states not on the Gulf who were readying old Army bases, National Guard armories, and various other places of refuge for our guests from the south. Some 2, 000 had already arrived at Fort Chaffee as the Labor Day weekend proved no holiday for the displaced. As of Monday night, more than 5, 000 evacuees / refugees were being housed at Chaffee and in county shelters across the state. Who knows how many others had sought shelter in hotels, motels and with family in Arkansas. By Monday, there was scarcely a motel room available. Welcome, all. And to all, faith, strength, fortitude. And hope.
—People all along the Gulf Coast with enough sense not to hang around to see how bad Gustav would be. An estimated two million of them along the Gulf Coast realized that some things are better watched from a safe distance. To those of you who made it to Arkansas, welcome.
—The Red Cross, Salvation Army, churches, local law enforcement agencies, the power crews from all over converging on the Gulf States, and volunteers of all kinds who rose to the challenge. Again.
—So many others, whose kindnesses great and small were typical of a nation of neighbors.
—All those who are contributing to the charities of their choice to help those who most need it just now, including veterans of Katrina who’ve managed to replant themselves elsewhere. They know what it’s like. (If you haven’t yet joined the givers, Gentle Reader, you still can. )
—And, oh, yes, the good Lord, He who calms the seas and separates the waters from the dry land, our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble.