An Open Call For Remembrance And Accountability

First off, Thanks to Melissa for being incredibly helpful since I've started blogging, and even more thanks for helping me with this Katrina Blogswarm

With the first anniversary of Katrina approaching, the media's glare is sure to fall on the Hellish conditions that afflicted the storm's survivors in it’s immediate and continuing aftermath

The failures of Govt on ALL levels leading up to, and after, Katrina’s wrath were the easy-to-see end result of institutional, political and social policies & procedures largely absent from our everyday gaze

How does one not grow angry at the waste and inefficiency piling up at the truly needy'’s expense, how can people stay calm instead of irate at the unnecessary destruction and death that an attitude of “corruption as usual” has come to so shamefully symbolize with our Federal Government?

We feel the Government’s purpose is, surprise, to serve the people, and the more weak the citizens-politically, socially, physically, economically-the more vital it is for our Govt to competently and efficiently serve them IF this society'’s belief in it’s stated goodness is to have any real-world meaning

We focus our outrage and sorrow on the stories of those harmed, physically or materially-by the actions and policies of others-those who, for whatever reason could not evacuate themselves, their families or friends voluntarily, be it lack of money, adequate transportation, or those with health problems severe enough to render them immobile

These were the people most harmed by an ineffective federal response to multiple levels of Katrina-related failure, and their lives DO count, their existence DOES have merit, no matter how lonely or unlamented their death or complete the destruction of their lives. To see the lonely dead floating in dirty, desolate waters is heart-wrenching, a ghastly finish to such monumental political and real-world failures as this Administration inflicts on a constant basis

Those who died, those scattered from their homes, they deserve at least the attention their stories highlight, no matter how inconvenient for the Administration'’s and GOP'’s political objectives for the approaching 9-11 5th anniversary. They bear witness to, and show the results of, the most shameful failure of those charged with protecting the public. The failure of the politicians must not be allowed to sweep away the results of their deliberate actions and inactions, the deaths, destroyed property, and shattered, uprooted lives we’ve seen uncorrected since then

There has been far too much sympathy for the idea that those who were negatively affected by Katrina, those who were stranded in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast were somehow deserving of the misery they went through, a hateful joy aimed at those in already wretched circumstances

Such an attitude is obscene, such beliefs are incompatible with anyone calling themselves civilized and should be vigorously attacked when encountered

On the anniversary of Katrina, we also note this Administration’'s overarching-and false-claims regarding National Security, an ugly, dishonest attitude which states only the President’s political party can and does keep the US public safe from terrorist attacks, while at the same time claiming that the opposing political party not only is harmful to the US public, but actually sympathizes with, and enables, the same mentality that struck the US on September 11

In case after case, with either missed deadlines for tightening various holes in national security, or refusing to fund, competently, if at all-budgets relating to port security, nuclear weapons inventories, developing universal communications systems for first responders that would allow all involved to communicate with each other, developing chemical & radiological detection systems for use with every piece of cargo that comes into the US-this Administration and it’s political party have put the corrupt interests of cronies and campaign contributing entities far ahead of serving the national interest, to the point of actually endangering people and material national interests

And the result is that this Administration, as shown by it’s clearly ineffectual short-term response to Katrina, is even less likely to efficiently deal with a terrorist attack now than it was on September 11

This Administration’'s allegiance to an entrenched GOP Culture Of Corruption is taking place at exactly the same time it’s brutal foreign policies are inflaming ever-growing numbers of people, and in the same violent areas the corruption most richly profits the Administration’s financial backers

Indeed, the problem when focusing on Administrative or GOP malfeasance, wrongdoing or malign neglect is the sheer volume of examples that can be presented, a constantly expanding array of corrupt Matryoshkas, one scandal engulfing the next

It’s long past time for legislative and judicial branch oversight of the Executive Branch

With both Katrina and the September 11 attacks showcasing the Administration'’s lack of patience, will, desire or results in terms of actually protecting the US public, there'’s no better time to bring as many of this Administrations failures regarding national security and disaster relief to the fore as possible

If these articles/posts/stories lead to badly needed attention, or votes for executive branch oversight in November, then the lives and deaths of those betrayed at the deepest level by this Administration may have borne positive results from the most unnecessary of waste