The Big Uneasy: Or The Answers, My Friends, Are Blowing In The Wind

Lesson 1: Forewarned, But Nor Fore-Armed?
The hurricane is past; and the flood waters are receding. But the storm of controversy regarding the rescue and relief efforts will likely rage on for months, if not years to come.

The Green Button Link is a timeline Katrina announcements and actions, beginning with Louisianna Governor Louise Blanco's declaring a state of emergency in Louisianna on Friday, August 26, three days before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. This declaration also came shortly after Katrina, as a Category 1 hurricane had killed 11 people in Florida.

If nothing else, FEMA, and the Administration, had two or three days to plan and prepare, to gather needed supplies and personnel, and to put National Guard and other response teams on standby to move in when the hurricane was over. There was likely even time to assist with the evacuation efforts. But as the Iraqi war has shown us, planning for unfavorable contigencies is not the Bush Adminstration's strong suit. And so the Blame Game has begun, spin and fingerpointing are the order of the day. It can't possibly be our fault!

I won't list the litany of mistakes and criticisms aimed at the Administrations, as it's difficult to sort out the truth from the fiction. But I did see two members of the National Guard on TV yesterday. One said they were waiting for the orders to go into New Orleans, eager to begin helping the refugees. The other said they could have moved in within 6 hours! But "red tape" mucked up the system.

One well-documented problem seems to be that FEMA is now part of the Department of Homeland Security, which has created a whole new level of protocols, which apparently delayed communications and action in these most critical hours, or more accurately days. Apparently, they are too busy focusing on terrorism to be bothered responding to mere natural disaster.

Does that make you feel safer? Shouldn't Homeland Security be about keeping Americans safe from disasters, whether man-made or natural? Whose tax dollars are they spending? Whose country is it anyway?

Let us, as citizens, remind all our government official; local, state, federal, and especially the President that they work for us; and we will hand them their pink slips if necessary. Let us ask questions and demand answers about Katrina, Iraq, Social Security, and any and every other issue that concerns us-- We the People.

Lesson 2: Mother Nature's Two Minute Warning?
Just a few days before Hell came to New Orleans, as Katrina was approaching the southern tip of Florida; I read an article about global warming. The article listed some possible consequences of global warning, including more numerous and more deadly hurricanes. At the time I was thinking about last year, when four strong hurricanes battered Florida; which is still recovering from this series of assaults.

Now I'm not saying global warming caused Katrina. But we have seen a few rather active hurricane seasons lately. And I don't think I've ever seen us get as far as the letter "O" in hurricane names before; and the hurricane season doesn't end until November 30.

We also know that glaciers near the North and South Pole are melting at a faster rate then usual, and that there are holes in the precious ozone layer that helps to protect our planet.

It has also been noted that the loss of wetlands, or marsh areas, on the Mississippi delta contributed to the severity of the floods. But our efforts to tame the Mississippi River and other bodies of water have decreased the amount of silt the river deposits in the delta; diminishing this natural barrier which would have dissipated much of the hurricane's flood waters.

Humankind is just beginning to understand the impact we can have on our home planet; and Americans should join our neighbors in this blue-green oasis in trying to balance our two "green" concerns: economy and environment.

After all, if you were sitting in your home, watching TV, and caught a wiff of smoke; you'd at least get up to investigate the problem, right? Nature appears to be sending us some warning signals. And Mother Nature will win in the end. Just ask the dinosaurs.

Lesson 3: Don't Put All Your Eggs...
And speaking of dinosaurs and environment, Katrina also offers us a lesson about our reliance on oil.

One of my younger coworkers was surprised last week when I mentioned the energy-crisis of the 1970's; and how at that time, there was a lot of discussion about the need to find other, and preferably cleaner and renewable, energy sources. And how in those 30 years, next to nothing has been done.

For decades we blamed OPEC for our petroleum-based woes. And now the oil companies and the Republicans whine because they can't drill in pristine regions of Alaska, even though much of the oil from our own domestic rigs is sent to foreign countries.

The fact remains that, we got our warning 30 years ago. And Katrina has shown us another downside to our oil addiction; we have no viable options to fall back on. The greatest nation in the world can be brought to its knees without its petroleum fix. And we likely will be one day; due to our shortsightedness, not to mention the greedy tyranny of the oil companies.

Americans are coping with the high gasoline prices, for now. But I realized today, I've seen very few RVs on my daily 80-mile round-trip commute this summer. And the crunch is likely to affect our gift-giving purchases for the upcoming holiday season. But of course His Resoluteness, his minions and his supporters neither think ahead or consider unhappy possibilities. Welcome to Fantasy Island.

For a century now, we've put all our energy eggs into one basket. And we're paying for it now, at the pumps; and gambling on it for our future. In the meanwhile, millions of poor Americans will struggle to pay their heating oil and natural gas bills this coming winter. And some will likely die, as heating assistance programs have been slashed or eliminated across our nation.

The time has come, as the Walrus said, to talk of many things; like national security, the environment, and energy.

And if Bush and company would cease their two-handed fingerpointing; they could take off their rose-colored glasses; and pump up their poll numbers by actually working on these, as well as other, real problems facing our nation and the world.

But they're apparently too busy trying to save face, when they should have been saving lives.

Too bad, Tattoo and Mr. Rourke can't vote them off the Island.