Are We a Nation of Bureaucrats?
By now everyone has heard about Mayor Nagin's comments about the lack of progress in rebuilding at the World Trade Center site when pressed by a 60 Minutes reporter on the slow pace of recovery in New Orleans.
But with the amount of scrutiny and venom directed towards this city, our government and our people it is fair of Nagin to point this out. Why has nothing really been done to build anything on that national site almost five years later?
Where is the gumption and can-do spirit that built and made this nation great?
I see it every day on the streets of New Orleans in the eyes of her people who are down here rebuilding and trying to salvage and ressurect their city one house at a time. I see it in the flourishing grass roots neighborhood associations which have quite literally become the only functioning government on all levels. I see it in the thousands of volunteers from around the country who are still down here a year later gutting the homes of strangers.
Where did this disconnect that our government has from the needs of her people come from. Does this government of ours not understand that we are Americans battling for our homes and lives?
If not, governement at all levels had better get out of the way, because we New Orleanians are just doing it... with or without the bureaucrats.
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During the “60 minutes” interview, a correspondent pointed out flood-damaged cars still on the streets of New Orleans’ devastated Ninth Ward. Nagin replied, “You guys in New York can’t get a hole in the ground fixed, and it’s five years later. So let’s be fair,” according to CBS.Let's be fair and honest here... To compare the excruitiating and horrible attacks on this country on 9/11 to the massive destruction that Hurricane Katrina poured onto the Gulf Coast and then onto New Orleans through this country's biggest engineering failure is completely misguided.
But with the amount of scrutiny and venom directed towards this city, our government and our people it is fair of Nagin to point this out. Why has nothing really been done to build anything on that national site almost five years later?
Where is the gumption and can-do spirit that built and made this nation great?
I see it every day on the streets of New Orleans in the eyes of her people who are down here rebuilding and trying to salvage and ressurect their city one house at a time. I see it in the flourishing grass roots neighborhood associations which have quite literally become the only functioning government on all levels. I see it in the thousands of volunteers from around the country who are still down here a year later gutting the homes of strangers.
Where did this disconnect that our government has from the needs of her people come from. Does this government of ours not understand that we are Americans battling for our homes and lives?
If not, governement at all levels had better get out of the way, because we New Orleanians are just doing it... with or without the bureaucrats.
__________
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posted by TAG at 9:55 AM
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