KIERA SCHOLTEN
Living Assistant
Is it still really about color? The slow federal response for Hurricane Katrina victims has caused some to criticize the government because many of those affected are black.
I find it hard to believe that this could be overtly, or even covertly, a racially motivated issue. Although racism has certainly not been defeated, I do not believe that we are in an age that would wait to help people merely because of the color of their skin.
Some say it is a political issue. Both the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans are Democrats. President Bush is Republican — is it possible that he would hold off aid simply because the leaders of the affected areas are not from the same political party?
Slow aid response is political suicide. Bush’s ratings have already dropped; he certainly could have boosted his ratings with a quicker response to a predominantly Democratic region.
We, who live in Southern California, have been told for years to prepare for the big earthquake. Among the instructions we are given, is often this statement: “Be prepared to live for four to six days without any outside help.” We are called upon to stock water, nonperishable foods and develop a plan to get along without basic services.
We also know that most of our friends and neighbors have not made these kinds of preparations. Though people of the Gulf Coast live in hurricane-prone areas and are told how to prepare, most of them, like us, have not taken steps for adequate preparation.
It seems that of all natural disasters, hurricanes should be the most easy to prepare for, having several days notice before they strike. Many risks were being taken before the hurricane hit. The residents of New Orleans were taking a risk merely by living there. New Orleans’ peculiar geography has been called a disaster waiting to happen. It is built on reclaimed swampland, below sea level, with Lake Pontchartrain on one side and the Mississippi River on the other. Such a precarious position as this would seem to indicate that a flood would be inevitable.Not only were citizens of New Orleans taking a risk, leaders of our nation were taking a risk by not fixing levees they knew would fail in a good size hurricane. Neither Republican nor Democrat administrations allocated new funding to reinforce these levees because of the great expense that would be incurred for a storm that would only come once a century.
I don’t believe that the federal government views the nation’s poor as less important. I do think the socio-economic status of the area may have played a role. The limited resources of poor citizens made it difficult for them to obey evacuation orders.
I hope that this terrible disaster will bring forth at least two results that will help our future. One, that federal, state and local authorities will continue to refine and develop emergency plans so that resources can be quickly brought to people. Second, that citizens will take responsibility for their families, neighbors and themselves as we adequately prepare for what could be the inevitable.
In addition, I hope that we stop playing the blame game. While it may be natural to assign blame when things go wrong, it is not productive. It is better to fix the problem than to fix blame.
Want to help even more? There are many things that can be done. Though it is difficult for students to physically help with aid, donations can be made to organizations that have begun aid relief funds by visiting www.give.org
Submitted 09-08-2005