A personal journal about teaching the Bible and ancient Near Eastern history/theology/religion/archaeology to university students in New Orleans, and whatever else happens to be on my mind.
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Thursday, November 09, 2006
Katrina, Elections, and 30 Years
I keep hearing about how the U.S. administration's Iraq policy influenced the midterm elections--about how people were voting for a change of direction. I wonder how much the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath had an impact. Recently I heard Steve Villavaso, one of the most important planners in the rebuilding of New Orleans, say that it will take 30 years to rebuild this great city. I imagine that for more than 30 years, if I live that long, that I'll be fighting suppressed anger and horrible memories of death and suffering that stemmed from this unnatural catastrophe caused by incompetent humans.
Just so you know, my vote was not so much a statement about Iraq as a statement about the handling of things in New Orleans. In some thanks to me, Rick Santorum is now looking for some other employment opportunities. Now if we could just find a way to make sure that these new guys don't drop the ball on New Orleans and get us out of Iraq...
ReplyDeleteLike the last poster, my vote was a comment about the general indifference of the politicians to human suffering--be it our soldiers, Iraqi citizens or the victims of Katrina--and the administration's enormous concern on expanding its own power. I got to vote down Santorum, too!
ReplyDeleteBut then again, I was never going to be a swing voter anyway.
Even those of us who live far away from New Orleans will not forget the government's response to Katrina for a very long time. The news clips of the people at the convention center, in particular, dying of heat exhaustion and thirst....
NY Times! With a link and everything..
ReplyDelete