The Saga of the Times-Picayune
There is an excellent article in the NYT today regarding the New Orleans daily paper, the Times-Picayune. The paper has been around since the 1880s and as the first week of Katrina goes by, they are back in business trying to cover the story that has swallowed them whole. It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of solid information to the survivors of Katrina, but down the road, the Times-Picayune will be more vital than ever to the people of New Orleans.
FEMA is preventing volunteer doctors and nurses from reaching the Gulf coast communities demolished by Katrina. Surgeons and specialists from North Carolina are in Mississippi but are not able to help anyone. The reason? No one knows. I remember something my old man said once about the Army. You dig a hole over there today and fill it back in tomorrow. No one knows why, but you fill that hole smartly.
The President’s facial expressions still need remedial work in front of a mirror. He’s been making his Osama face all week, but for all the death and destruction, there is no enemy in sight. Vulnerability to natural disaster may be the product of all sorts of decisions, of actions taken and actions deferred, but when something like Katrina occurs, it is a test of the notion that in the union of the fifty states, we help one another without question. Attention coalesces on the leader with the most resources, something that startled the president. His hesitation seemed to call into question that fundamental belief that united we stand. He blinked, and all the spin doctors along the Potomac can’t seem to help him. Maybe FEMA will send them south with the real doctors.