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.

3 comments:

LatinTeacher said...

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...

Anonymous said...

Like 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!

But 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....

Anonymous said...

NY Times! With a link and everything..