The Real Victims of Katrina

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
269

Headhunter,

You may deem this a hijack, and if so I apologize. However, I’d like to briefly move away from the specifics of the New Orleans situation and address one of the premises that seems to underlie your view. I’ve noticed that some of your sentiments echo an element of Rand’s work that has always baffled me. Rand and some of her enthusiasts claim that creative, visionary geniuses are routinely held back by a bunch of “evil parasites” who deny the heroes the liberty to create great things. This is simply not borne out by my experience.

The intelligent and innovative people that I know tend to be very successful. They also enjoy considerable liberty to indulge in their creative pursuits, however esoteric. I’ve known college students running small businesses out of their dorm rooms. I have friends who have founded multiple companies. I know people who have designed technologies used the world over. I’ve seen immigrants turn a tiny hole-in-the-wall into a thriving business. Moving away from the entrepreneurial world, I also know people who have dedicated themselves completely to their art, developing it even if only a handful of others appreciate it. These folks have all enjoyed the opportunity to succeed or create in whatever venue they chose. There are no parasites holding them back.

I will grant you that our system of government experiences corruption. It often allocates money towards goals I don’t support. Overall, however, I feel that in exchange for my tax dollars I get to live in a nation that does at least an adequate job of ensuring liberty. Most US citizens live in the way that they have chosen for themselves. Many of them may make choices that seem dumb to you or I, but they certainly do have a lot of freedom to choose.

At risk of reading too much into your comments, it seems like you might be blaming your own lot in life on your tax burden. I think that is excuse-making, plain and simple. If you actually try to pursue success, you might find that the evil parasites that plague you are not so potent after all.

270

FridgeRaider,

One of the best user names I’ve seen!

First, on a personal note, I’m a high school science/math teacher, I love what I do and always wanted to teach.

Secondly, on to Rand. I’d like to point out that there’s no substitute for reading the lady’s own words. She is awesome to say the least. Anyway, she sees the world much as you might see a great city if you were out at sea. Think of New York. You don’t see the muck and the tenements of the South Bronx, you see the Statue, used to see the Towers, and so forth.

When we look back at the people who’ve achieved great things, we see history in that way.

Each of those buildings was once an idea in one man’s head. He brought that idea into physical form. Did the muck and the tenements help? No. They were probably a hinderance. So, here’s her point: all great achievement occured at opposition to the ‘mob’.

Every great idea was at first denounced. Galileo was threatened with torture. Newton did not publish his calculus for 10 years, out of fear of the church. The train was denounced – all the blood would flow out of your nose and you’d die! Pasteur was thought to be insane for believing in ‘those little bugs’. The list goes on and on.

This is the reason I started this thread. Scattered throughout our country are people like those you mentioned. Are they to be taxed for the benefit of strangers? Suppose a scientist is at work upon a medicine that would totally prevent brain stroke – now his funding is taxed away for the benefit of others. A single mom wants to go to college – nope, she’s taxed to pay for rebuilding in a swamp (a city that the global warming crowd admits will be 20 miles out to sea in 50 years).

I wish everyone could see the injustice of taxing one person for the alleged benefit of another. It is not moral, even if the money is somehow returned as government ‘services’. There is no moral justification for theft. Ask.

271

Very sad in more ways than one. Not only because of the human displacement and suffering involved, but also because before very many comments were posted on this thread, we became the mirror image of the very politicians we always criticize - on both sides.

Apparently humans just cannot seem to resist the temptation to indulge in petty bickering, blustering, name-calling, political posturing, and fault-finding. I guess we shouldn’t be too critical of our leaders’ impotence if they’re only reflecting their constituents’ behavior. Including me.

With that, my most sincere apologies go to Headhunter or anyone else I offended or insulted. It was not my intent and I let human nature get the best of me.

In my opinion, yes, New Orleans should be rebuilt.

In my mind, the fundamental issue is not one of preferential treatment for one segment of the population. It’s not even the magnitude of human suffering and displacement we see - unprecedented as it is.

The fundamental issue is that New Orleans is so vital to America - and also to much of the rest of the world - that we can’t afford NOT to rebuild it. The only real question is: To what extent? And how much should be the involvement of the federal government?

Still trying furiously to place blame at this stage of the game is laughable. Suppose we round up all the politicians involved - local and federal, Democract and Republican - all the way back to whoever made the original decision way back when to limit the floodwall protection to no more than category 3 storms - and just shoot them all! What then? What have we accomplished? I guess we could all puff out our chests and crow, “Neener, neener, neener!” Sheesh.

And the city pretty much has to be located where it is. Placing the port farther upstream would be very difficult. There are highway bridges that ocean-going vessels cannot pass under. There is an issue of continually dredging the channel even more than is now necessary. There’s the issue of an ever stronger upstream current to battle. And the decreasing width of the river, along with its twists and turns, makes it very difficult for ocean-going vessels to pass each other without collisions.

And if you keep the port where it is, then you need housing reasonably nearby, and stores, and hospitals, and schools… And pretty soon you’ve got yourself a city by default.

Here’s my modest proposal:

The first and foremost issue is flood protection for the future. Everything hinges on this. No citizen and no business will be eager to return until they are reasonably sure the same thing won’t happen again next year! And I think rebuilding the flood walls is a federal job. They’ve got to be engineered and constructed to withstand category 5 storms to the very best of our ability. And it’s got to happen fast, before next year’s hurricane season returns. PLEASE write your congressman and support this step.

Let all the charitable donations go to relieve human suffering. Let insurance cover whatever it will cover first. Let large corporations absorb whatever losses they can and use their own funds to rebuild their structures as much as they can. It’s called the risks of doing business.

Then, assess where we are with the city and what’s left to be done. Make additional decisions based on the data at hand at that time.

And I am not too proud to ask for and accept any help the rest of the world is willing to offer. American grain, products, and raw materials flow to the rest of the world through New Orleans. Rebuilding the city is to everyone’s advantage to some extent.

But the floodwalls gotta be the first priority.