Commentary...

Article published Sep 5, 2005
Assigning blame? Don't.
People must take responsibility for themselves

If my e-mail is any indicator, there will be a divisive windstorm of recriminations in the Monday-morning quarterbacking of Hurricane Katrina's devastation. A depressing amount will focus on two hot spots: America's so-called latent racism and the unrelenting loathing of President Bush by some.Not many people want to put the blame on an endangered concept in our "progressive" country: personal responsibility.So here is a suggested order of accountability.Let's stipulate that an alluvial delta that naturally floods is maybe the worst place on Earth to build a major city. However, as that was a result of centuries of development, no one can be blamed.The first people responsible, and this may seem hard-hearted, but bear with me, are the people who did not obey the mandatory evacuation order.With Katrina barreling straight at New Orleans with 175-mph winds, Mayor Ray Nagin rightly issued a mandatory evacuation. They sent out public service announcements on radio and television. Trucks with bull horns traveled through particularly poor neighborhoods with the evacuation order.The city provided free transportation to free shelters, so there was absolutely no financial excuse for staying in homes. Four hurricanes devastated Florida last year. It was in the news. And none of those was the size of Katrina.But in the face of all that, people chose to stay anyway.No level of government can be blamed for their personal decisions. We respond in mercy, but not ignorance. The outpouring of help has been truly heartening.Second, the head of New Orleans is Mayor Nagin, who has not covered himself in glory.In fact, for calm leadership in the face of tragedy, he has been the antithesis of New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani after 9/11.Third, the governor of Louisiana is in charge of the National Guard and state emergency response -- which also failed.Finally comes Bush, who is president of the entire country, not exactly responsible for planning disaster responses in New Orleans or any other city, or making people leave their homes.The New York Times reported that some of the people who stayed did so because they were short on cash and only three days from getting their monthly government welfare checks.Have we made an entire subculture so government-dependent, and have we so broken down the familial and community structure, that people may have risked a killer hurricane to get their handout? Very sobering.As to the crime, there is no one to blame but the criminals. Penalties should be tripled for those wicked people who took the opportunity of tragedy to steal, burn, kill and rape the vulnerable. Beastly. But the ACLU would object.Have there been mistakes made? Absolutely. Big ones and at all levels, including the frustratingly slow federal response.There is plenty of blame. An honest, painfully in-depth appraisal will educate us all for the next time. Katrina will not be the last.On Friday, I listed the positives that have come from this disaster. Permit me to add two more: Texas. The state that sometimes irritates us with its big-everything attitude, came through big time when the chips were down for its neighbors in Louisiana, taking in tens of thousands of refugees in major cities such as Houston, Dallas and San Antonio in a state of preparedness Louisiana could only dream of.Texas represented the best of so many states pulling together.Second, the U.S. military came through -- again -- creating a magnificent evacuation air bridge out for refugees.For everyone that feels the urge to complain, they might first want to thank God they are alive and have a generous giant for a neighbor, and then, just maybe, glance toward the mirror -- perhaps a lesson we can all learn from.Rod Thomson can be reached by e-mail at rod@rodthomson.com, or by writing to the Herald-Tribune.