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Editor's Corner - Sep 5, 2005 - Printable Version
- National Preparedness Month
by Mark Faulk
It's Labor Day, six days before the "anniversary" of 9/11, and the first week of the Department of Homeland Security's National Preparedness Month. *sigh* I can't even force a weak smile at the irony of that. Since Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama one week ago, our country has been altered, and altered irreversibly. No longer can we sit back and watch our televisions in comfort, eat our plentiful meals without guilt, or go about our day-to-day lives as if nothing is wrong in our country. Something is terribly wrong, and has been for several years, and the tragic events of the past week just forced us to face it squarely in the eye. The Faulking Truth, like thousands of other news websites and blogs around the world, has been covering this disaster from every angle, and as we always try to do, we're looking for the things that the Mainstream Media might have missed. We promise to resume writing about our usual wide array of topics soon, but for now we will continue to expand our coverage of this unfolding human drama, and hope that we are doing a small amount of good by bringing the unvarnished truth to our readers.
Some of our recent articles are already in the archives (because of our extensive Hurricane Katrina coverage), so please take the time to read back on those pieces as you have time. Do what you can.....donate to an appropriate charity, offer your services to the numerous agencies and shelters that have been set up around the country to house and help the hurricane victims, and help us spread the truth by posting or forwarding any articles that you deem worthy to anyone who will listen, including other websites, public officials, and the media.
Send us your thoughts...post on the message board or in the guestbook, and above all, be safe, and keep the victims of Katrina in your thoughts and/or prayers.
Here are a few articles on Hurricane Katrina and the rescue efforts that have followed, there are many more to come (as I said earlier, a couple of these, and many other articles worth reading, are in the archives, or in the "Editor's Picks" at the bottom of the homepage):
"Baghdad on the Bayou -
The Calvary's Coming!"
Finally, people are seeing the Department of Homeland Security for what I've known it was since the beginning. An inexperienced, incompetent, facade, smoke and mirrors, overpaid, bureaucratic nightmare filled with cronyism, nepotism, and the worst government agency ever created in the history of this country
"They're Trying to Wash Us Away...."
While the tragedy unfolds in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama following Hurricane Katrina, and while Bush finishes his scheduled month-long vacation in Crawford, Texas, before even visiting the disaster site, questions already are beginning to arise amongst the rubble of New Orleans, LA, Biloxi, MS, and the numerous other towns and parishes devastated by Katrina. Is this continually unfolding drama just a unpreventable freak of nature, or were there things that could have.....and should have.....been done to lessen the impact of this hurricane?
"Our Government is KILLING the People of New Orleans"
Even the Red Cross hasn't been allowed to deliver food and water to those who were left to starve in the Superdome, the New Orleans Convention Center, on highway overpasses, and scattered across the city. This is from their website:
* Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.
* The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.
"It Ain't the Big Easy...It's Dunkirk!"
As the skies cleared, we caught our first glimpse of the apocalyptic nightmare that was once the Big Easy, with the first videos depicting desperate citizens who were lucky enough to live near a freeway, trying to walk out of the city with the few worldly possessions they could carry in a trash bag, slung over their shoulders.
"The Plastic President"
Once again, Bush has shown that every single thing that he's ever done in his entire life has been nothing more than sleight of hand. For all the good his staged trip to New Orleans did, he might as well have brought along the plastic turkey from his Thanksgiving 2003 trip to Iraq, and offered it to the starving victims of Hurricane Katrina
"Not Acceptable"
The responsibility for the (in Bush's own words) "not acceptable" response to this disaster of epic proportions lies squarely at the top. I was half expecting Bush to add to his comment...."The results are not acceptable. Who's in charge here anyway?" That's how clueless he has been through all of this. And that, fellow Americans, is simply....."not acceptable."
"Notes From Inside New Orleans"
While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.
And a couple of more from "Blogfest 2005":
"Hell on Earth...."
I'll tell you what they need here -
On the first day, they needed some food and water.
On the second day they needed some food and water.
On the third day they needed some food and water.
On the fourth day they needed some food and water.
And they got it on the fifth day......
"The Blood of New Orleans...."
Thousands feared dead....babies dying in the Superdome....rats feasting on corpses lying in the streets....only 2,000 National Guardsmen initially deployed (when there should have been 20,000)....and gasoline hits $6 a gallon in Atlanta....and on and on, and so it goes.
Until next time.....let's hope that things improve dramatically for those who have nothing left BUT hope, and that's the Faulking Truth.
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