The Discerning Texan

In a clean, civilized place like Helsinki, Finland, it is both heartbreaking and infuriating to watch the wall-to-wall coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on CNN-Europe (basically the only game in town). We have seen the images. In Europe they are showing the same angry people every 2.5 minutes, punctuated by Anderson Cooper screaming at some Louisiana Senator "why isn't the government doing more...how could you have let this happen...yada yada" The politics of blame has begun, and meanwhile the sense of humanity that all felt during the Sri Lanka tsunami disaster seems to have somehow deserted the American media.

Then, of course, there is the obligatory "reading of the email" from the London anchor: "how can we muster 150,000 troops for Iraq but none for our own people..." or "...if we had only paid more attention to Global Warming". Funny, after the Tsunami disaster, I don't recall the media talking heads screaming: "why didn't we spend money on the warning buoys..."

When tragedy struck during the Clinton Administration (Oklahoma City, Waco), most of the coverage was much more sympathetic to the human angle and much less about blame and recrimination. It wasn't "how could Bill Clinton have better protected government buildings". Yet in today's media environment, one it is almost as if if they could get away with it, CNN would have us believe that George W. Bush himself steered the hurricane into the Mississipi delta and ruptured the levee at Lake Ponchatrain.

I thought John Podheretz' column captured this quite well today (this is an excerpt):

At the beginning of the 20th century, something like 8,000 people perished when Galveston, Texas — unprotected from storm swells at the time — was hit by a hurricane. But when Hurricane Andrew leveled the entire town of Homestead, Fla., 13 years ago and became the most financially deadly storm in American history, it took only 15 lives.

Now we're talking about several hundred times that number in the literal swamping of one of the world's great cities.

There can be no doubt that the immediate response will be one of breathtaking generosity — financial, spiritual and personal. That's what we saw in the wake of 9/11, it's what happened after the tsunami in December, and it's what we will begin to see as the next few days pass.
But what we don't yet know is this: Are we going to try to look forward, to figure out how to save New Orleans and prevent another calamity of this sort there and elsewhere? Or are we going to begin finger-pointing, searching for villains among the debris?

Some of that villain-hunting has already begun, in the typically vulgar, unwisely speedy efforts made by overly assured ideologues certain that they can connect a cataclysm to a pet issue — whether it be the American failure to pass the Kyoto global warming treaty or making the claim that spending on the war in Iraq squeezed out the possibility of shoring up the New Orleans levees.

Here we see the stirrings of a spiritual divisiveness taking hold — in the form of a know-nothing populism that sweeps everything in its wake and brings everything into the courtroom.
What happened here was a natural disaster. But there will be the temptation to turn it into a human conspiracy of greed and selfishness on the part of oil companies, concrete companies, politicians, insurers, re-insurers, goonish cops and the like.

If the recriminations become the story of the next months, everybody will simply go to the usual battle stations. The tort reformers will take on the trial lawyers. The global-warming crowd will face off against American business. The politicians will scream at each other, scoff at each other, and try to find some cheap advantage that will turn the tide against one party or the other.

The good that will be done —person by person, donation by donation, community by community — will be in danger of getting swamped by the bitterness and divisiveness that characterizes contemporary elite politics. Rather than finding common ground, there will be ugly partisanship and a cold standoff.

The horror of a flood is literally, very nearly the oldest story in the Book. There have always been times that the water will rise higher than the walls men can build to contain it. The New Orleans system survived the battering of nature for more than 200 years — but it met its match and was overwhelmed by it.

The best we can do is comfort the afflicted, mourn the lost, and try to rebuild. The worst we can do is turn on each other.

So what shall it be?

A very relevant question. Peggy Noonan also weighed in, in her classy way, but somehow I was disappointed that she seemed to be giving the media a collective pass for what is obviously a coordinated media blitzkriueg (at least in the case of CNN Europe) to make this human disaster all about the war in Iraq or not enough social programs. Or perhaps not having had the foresight to know the hurricane was going to hit in advance and spending untold billions to shore up the levee system protecting New Orleans. Meanwhile there is no one who actually sat down to surmise that there was not way to understand the sheer magnitude of what would happen until it already had.

It is truly sickening, especially to see what Ted Turner's "baby" is passing for "news" here in Europe. It is no wonder the Europeans have such a low opinion of Bush: Goebbels himself could not have orchestrated a more effective 24x7 attack on the "evil American President". So, reading from Helsinki anyway, I thought Noonan was eloquent as always, but in her good heartedness was not paying enough attention to the connotation of the story lines, rather than their denotation. However I do give Peggy credit for this:

As for the tragic piggism that is taking place on the streets of New Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it is unforgivable, and I hope the looters are shot. A hurricane cannot rob a great city of its spirit, but a vicious citizenry can. A bad time with Mother Nature can leave you digging out for a long time, but a bad turn in human behavior frays and tears all the ties that truly bind human being--trust, confidence, mutual regard, belief in the essential goodness of one's fellow citizens.

There seems to be some confusion in terms of terminology on TV. People with no food and water who are walking into supermarkets and taking food and water off the shelves are not criminal, they are sane. They are not looters, they are people who are attempting to survive; they are taking the basics of survival off shelves in stores where there isn't even anyone at the cash register.

Looters are not looking to survive; they're looking to take advantage of the weakness of others. They are predators. They're taking not what they need but what they want. They are breaking into stores in New Orleans and elsewhere and stealing flat screen TVs and jewelry, guns and CD players. They are breaking into homes and taking what those who have fled trustingly left behind. In Biloxi, Miss., looters went from shop to shop. "People are just casually walking in and filling up garbage bags and walking off like they're Santa Claus," the owner of a Super 8 Motel told the London Times. On CNN, producer Kim Siegel reported in the middle of the afternoon from Canal Street in New Orleans that looters were taking "everything they can."

If this part of the story grows--if cities on the gulf come to seem like some combination of Dodge and the Barbarian invasion--it's going to be bad for our country. One of the things that keeps us together, and that lets this great lumbering nation move forward each day, is the sense that we will be decent and brave in times of crisis, that the fabric holds, that under duress it is American heroism and altruism that take hold and not base instincts born of irresponsibility, immaturity and greed.
We had a bad time in the 1960s, and in the New York blackout in the '70s, and in the Los Angeles riots in the '90s. But the whole story of our last national crisis, 9/11, was courage--among the passersby, among the firemen, among those who walked down there stairs slowly to help a less able colleague, among those who fought their way past the flames in the Pentagon to get people out. And it gave us quite a sense of who we are as a people. It gave us a lot of renewed pride.

If New Orleans damages that sense, it's going to be painful to face. It's going to be damaging to the national spirit. More damaging even than a hurricane, even than the worst in decades.

I wonder if the cruel and stupid young people who are doing the looting know the power they have to damage their country. I wonder, if they knew, if they'd stop it.

But (no surprise here) some of the best commentary on Katrina came in a Hugh Hewitt interview of the ubiquitously brilliant Mark Steyn (courtesty of Radio Blogger) Be sure to watch the CNN mpeg linked in the interview--I think it illustrates perfectly just what I have been talking about. CNN is a disgrace to the United States:

HH: Hi, Mark. Welcome to the program.

MS: Good to be with you, Hugh.

HH: Mark, there's a lot to talk about. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Let's start with the good. I'm glad you're joined in over at Steynonline.com. I'm impressed by how many people are willing to raise money. Do you think that the charitable capacity of America is up to this rebuilding effort?

MS: Well, I think that's not an issue, really. My little site, we've been giving the proceeds of book sales today, just for 24 hours. And when I checked this morning, we were up with a significant, five-figure sum, which rather took me aback by 6:30 in the morning. And not just from America. I mean, people complain about the lack of sympathy Americans are getting from around the world. But lots of people from Canada, to Australia, to South Africa, to Austria, to Germany, to Scandinavia have been contributing, at least at my site, which suggests that there is a genuine concern around the world for the situation down there.

HH: And I do believe that over the last couple of days, we've been telling people about Feed The Children, which is 888-58-CHILD. And that billions will be raised, eventually. Now let's get to the bad. The local and state government of Louisiana caught flat-footed. Now, there's a politicization of this going on. Are you shocked at how, well crass, really, the politicization of this disaster has become so quickly?

MS: Not really, because I think if you look at what happened on September 11th, for example, and September 11th, the federal government, every single federal agent, pretty much, failed catastrophically. And the local and state agencies, you know, the New York firefighters and the police department, and so forth, the local and state officials did very well. And what we've seen in Louisiana, particularly, and Mississippi is a slightly different situation. But in Louisiana, the city and state officials have not performed well. And you think to yourself, this was really the first big test of Homeland Security since September 11th. Imagine, for example, that Osama bin Laden had had a plan to blow a hole in one of these levees, and flood New Orleans.

HH: Right.

MS: Would the situation have been any better? And the answer is, no. And the reason is because the officials in New Orleans are out of their depth. I mean, literally. I mean, this poor woman who's the governor of Louisiana, and floundering away on TV, she'd be out of her depth even if her city wasn't flooded. I mean, there's a level at which at some point, you have to talk about the political authority. When you send in an inadequate police force, to relieve a stadium, where people have gone to take refuge, and instead they're being raped in there, and you send 80 police officers, and the police officers are being beaten back by the rapists, that's a poor political decision.

HH: Yeah, it certainly is, and that's the ugly part. The worst part of human nature. Even if it's only 3 or 5 percent, as people like James Q. Wilson estimates, is really preying on these victims in New Orleans.

MS: Absolutely. I mean, Robert Kaplan, when he talks about what's happened in failed West African states, calls it the re-primitivation of man. And that's actually what we're seeing in New Orleans. If looting were a question of stealing bread and milk, that would be one thing. But when you've got people who are firing on childrens hospitals, that is a slightly different level of societal breakdown we're talking about here. And yes, it is humiliating that the world's preeminent superpower can be reduced to a third-world basket case, within the space of 48 hours.

HH: Now, we will restore order. I actually think the tide has turned now, from what I can judge in terms of flooding the zone...not with water, but with National Guard, etc. But already, the media overkill...I've got to play you what for me is a Wellstone funeral moment. Jack Cafferty of CNN, melting down in his rage against George W. Bush, to the point where you have to wonder if CNN hasn't lost all credibility here. Let me play you a little clip from Jack Cafferty, oh, about an hour and a half ago: 09-01cafferty.mp3

HH: Mark Steyn, dropping sandwiches into the Superdome aside, that's just so stupid as to defy comment.

MS: Yeah.

HH: What's wrong with these people?

MS: I don't understand what that's meant to be about. The big lesson of September 11th, in fact, is in the end, the more the people are self-reliant, and take control for themselves, the more they're likely to be able to withstand these things. If you entrust yourself to the government, then you will be vulnerable. The people who had reviled SUV's, that the environmental want to get rid of and want to ban, they were able to drive away from the city. The people who were dependent on public transit, and did what the government did, and went into this appalling situation in the Superdome, they're the ones that have been failed by their governments. It's not a federal government issue.
You know, the lesson of September 11th is that the president of the United States, when something bad goes wrong, the president of the United States won't be there, either up in the airplane, or down in the swamp to save you. All he can do is hold a photo-op afterwards, which is what Jack Cafferty was urging him to do, you know, to fly down there the day afterwards. That's pointless. You've got to have a situation where people are encouraged to be self-reliant, and exercise responsible choices themselves.

HH: I'll tell you. It's the best commercial for owning a gun I've ever seen.

MS: Absolutely. And I would say that the last thing...anyone who wants to talk about gun control these days, I'll tell you something. If I had property in New Orleans, and I was there, the one thing I'd want to do, when some of these people come a-callin' is make sure I was armed.

HH: Well, that recalls the Korean immigrants on the roofs of their buildings during the Los Angeles riots. And of course, the three days of utter carnage that raged in this city in 1992. Same sort of deal, except that the cameras couldn't get in as close, because people were shooting at them. Mark Steyn, the Coast Guard pilots, who have now rescued three thousand people...I mean, there are so many brave public service people out there working. When I hear a Jack Cafferty in a studio rant like this, I just think they must turn purple with rage at the studio second quarterbacks.

MS: Well, you know, one of the interesting things about this...if you compare it with the tsunami, in some respects, the U.S. Navy had an easier time getting aid to some people in the tsunami, than it did here. And you have to ask yourself why that is? Well, it is to do, a lot of the time, with political choices.

HH: Yeah.

MS: The way each levee in New Orleans, and they failed, these levees. They weren't over-flooded. They weren't over capacity. They failed. They broke. They didn't work. These levees are all run by different levee authorities. You think to yourself well, isn't that New Orleans' responsibility, instead of a make-work job, public service program. Why not have one that actually is there to do the job it's meant to do? Why is this...you know, it was a close election for governor in Louisiana last time. You think to yourself, when you're electing a local official, imagine them standing up the morning after a September 11th or a hurricane. Who do you want up there? It's not just about political partisanship. You've got to think about what leadership, and effective political leadership means.

HH: Now Mark Steyn, you drove into Fallujah the week after the war ended. Would you have rather taken your chance in Fallujah the week after the war? Or New Orleans the week after the levee breaks?

MS: Oh, no question. I'd go with Fallujah, because I think what you're dealing with there is human failings. You can read the situation in something like that. What you're witnessing in New Orleans is the combination of a tremendous force of nature, exacerbated by poor political decisions. And as I've said, by this depravity of a sub-section of the population, that has taken advantage of the situation. That's a combination of factors that's actually far worse than the Sunni Triangle.

HH: But the good news is, I don't think Americans are going to let their generosity to be stifled by that lowest element. I think they're going to realize the number of people that have devastated. Last question, Mark. We haven't seen much from Mississippi, because there just aren't any ways to get trucks and cameras in there. 90,000 square miles. What do you think we're going to be talking about a week from today?

MS: Well, I think one of the things that will be interesting, is that Haley Barbour has been much closer to a Giuliani figure, in Mississippi. Somebody said something very interesting to me a few weeks ago. They were talking about Haley Barbour as a possible presidential candidate. And I hadn't paid that much attention to him, and I did say that I thought, generally speaking, Mississippi was one of those states that people outside Mississippi didn't pay a lot of heed to. And I think from what I understand of what's gone on down there, he's certainly been much more forceful on TV. He's been much more forceful on the question of looters.

HH: Yeah, he's been very much in charge. Mark, we're out of time. I want to send everyone to Steynonline.com. Take advantage of the book offer.