I have very carefully spent the last few years avoiding the sound of President George W. Bush’s voice. There’s just something about it — No, not like that nails on chalkboard think. This is more like when animal trainers use an unpleasant, nasty sound to train cats and dogs not to climb on the furniture or counters or maybe it’s like that ultrasonic sound they use to stop dogs from barking.
Whatever it is, I have learned that in general I prefer to read any sound bytes or speeches the next day in the paper or online. I find I remain much calmer that way too.
But yesterday the media was out of control. Every news talking head had to play something from Bush’s last press conference. He was everywhere with that smug chimpanzee face you just want to punch…and I’d seen all the NCIS, House, and Law & Order episodes on USA and TNT.
At first I thought I was doing O.K. I was pretty proud of myself. He was talking about that stupid “Mission Accomplished” banner and I was flipping through my new copy of Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better and he’s blathering on…
” You know, people said, ‘Well, the federal response was slow.’ Don’t tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. You know, I remember going to see those helicopter drivers, Coast Guard drivers, to thank them for their courageous efforts to rescue people off roofs — 30,000 people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. That’s a pretty quick response.” [Pres. George W. Bush, Jan. 12, 2009]
I can’t swear to what happened in the next few seconds, but I believe that my brain imploded; my house must have been invaded by howler monkeys because the daycare pooped pup and the pretending-to-be angelic kitties, who had all only a moment ago been curled around me on the sofa, were suddenly alert and startled and ready to run as echoes of “The Coast Guard and the National Guard weren’t fucking there thanks to you! And someone ask why the fucking water-based rescue equipment was in Iraq already!” My blood pressure, which I have managed to keep at 90-something over 60-something for 2 – 3 years spiked to blood throbbing in my ears and bulging out of my temples.
Thankfully, the sight of the startled furry companions, brought me back to sanity.
It is not 2005. I am not still spending days trying discover if my friends and loved ones made it out of the city because all of the cell phone towers from that area are down or tied up. Everyone I know has somehow survived, even if their possessions, jobs, homes, and regular lives haven’t. I am not back in that hotel in Atlanta with my friends from New Orleans a week after Katrina watching people gather at the Super Dome and the Convention Center on the television while my friends try to spot their home near the 17th Street Canal in the broken levee footage.
It’s been 4 years. I cannot go home. I cannot bear to return. Nothing is the same; not even close. I realize it’s one thing to blame Mother Nature. Hell, I always expected Mother Nature to spank the hell out of New Orleans — I lived in fear of it every year I was there. However, I find I cannot forgive a leader who cared and cares so little for people under his care when they suffered such an outrageous, grievous tragedy. For some reason, America is the first country to come to the aid of any other country in need, but we are the last to come to the need of our own people when they suffer. President Bush is the epitome of that America — unfeeling toward victims of Katrina,forget about the children who need health care, but let’s send money to help the sick in Africa, to help rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq, to fight drug dealers in Mexico…
I don’t want to end this post without observing that I did spend some time today actually reading the transcript of Bush’s last official press conference rather than relying on the sound bytes I heard on the news last night. I was much calmer. There were no howler monkeys. He comes off better when his statements are actually in context, but he still doesn’t come off good. I found it interesting that he said Abu Ghraib was a “disappointment”; he didn’t refer to it as a mistake. Not “having” WMD was a disappointment too, which makes me wonder if he made a Freudian slip meaning that no one would let him play with our WMD. He said those things weren’t so much mistakes as things that didn’t go as planned, which makes me wonder what was really planned for Abu Ghraib. And for some reason, he mistakenly still believes that America is still well-respected in the world (except for among “the ellite”) and the world understands that we stand universally for freedom, that Gitmo did nothing to harm our reputation. (There are some days when I’d like to drive down to Kennebunkport, hug George Sr., and tell him that it’s not his fault that Barbra was drinking while she was pregnant with George W. I mean, it’s that or the nany dropped him on his head once too often.)
One of the talking heads on Anderson Cooper 360° last night observed that he had previously thought that in Bush’s final days there would be “a warmth” toward the departing President, but he was retracting that prediction and made the new observation that not since Nixon has there been a President that the American public were so relieved to have out of office.
“Clearly, putting a “mission accomplished” on a (sic) aircraft carrier was a mistake. It sent the wrong message. We were trying to say something differently, but, nevertheless, it conveyed a different message.” [Pres. George W. Bush, Jan. 12, 2009]
I wonder if they still have that “Mission Accomplished” banner around somewhere. Maybe we can hang it up on the White House exit door on January 20th.
{ 2 comments }
I worked at FEMA during several natural emergencies in 1999, when Clinton was still in charge. The place ramped up days before a hurricane, with relief workers and equipment lining up, state emergency managers on the line. Once I even saw Bill Clinton come in for a briefing the day before a particularly nasty hurricane hit.
What Bush is talking about is *reaction.* FEMA also used to do *preparation.* There was zero response time before because FEMA was already there. So the fact that FEMA got to LA in a hurry after the fact is not impressive.
Thuds last blog post..The Politics of Children
The Republicans and the Democrats have very different ideas of what FEMA is supposed to be about.
Having grown up with a mother who worked every Red Cross Disaster all over the country, I have a deep respect for disaster workers and rescue workers and I also understand how it should be done and I know how screwed up the bureaucracy can be. I’ve heard it all from the victims, from the workers, from the thankful, from the angry, from the bitter, and from the blessed. I’ve seen third world countries handle a disaster better than we’ve handled, are still handling, Katrina. My mother was so scarred from the experience — and she only got as close as Houston — that she says she’s never working disaster recovery again, only helping local disaster victims (like fires, etc.).
I appreciate your work with FEMA. When I was flying back from Atlanta the weekend after Katrina, I stopped every National Guardsman in the airport and thanked him or her for their service whether they were going to Iraq, the Coast or home. Most of them were going to the Coast that week.
You’re right, it shouldn’t have been a response. They should have been at the ready.
I remember when Hurricane Georges hit New Orleans years ago — the first time they shut down the city (and also when the Superdome had been looted and the Mayor had declared that the Superdome would never be used as a shelter again). Entergy, the electric company, had moved all of their trucks and equipment out of the city in case of flooding — they were expecting damage like Katrina. After the storm, it took days to get the power back on because Entergy had to bring it’s people and equipment back into the city and people were furious. I was part of a focus group about it and I said flat out that I didn’t mind having the inconvenience because they prepared for the worst; I said that people would have been just as upset if Entergy couldn’t fix the power because their trucks were under water and they would have accused Entergy of being short-sighted then too. It was a no-win situation for Entergy’s popularity. Yet, everyone got their power back either way.
People need to start being practical and start thinking ahead, especially the government, especially the President.
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