Corrupt,carefree city reaps what it sowed]Corrupt, carefree city reaps what it sowedBy BOB BARR
Published on: 09/07/05
Although the floodwaters in New Orleans have begun to recede, the problems they leave in their deadly wake will present challenges for decades to come, challenges that in much the same way changed the character of our nation when the Mississippi Delta was deluged in the great flood of 1927.
The New Orleans that lay in the path of the floodwaters of the mighty Mississippi River in 1927 was, like its modern incarnation, steeped in corruption, deep and pervasive. It was, in some measure, this man-made infliction that held back steps that could have avoided — at least in part — the devastation visited on the city in 1927, and it is corruption that plays a role in the dark present and murky future of the city.
Perhaps no response to the flooding speaks so eloquently, or painfully, of New Orleans' problem than the remarks by its police department leadership that its officers — overworked and "traumatized" by the ordeal of the previous week — deserved a weeklong Las Vegas vacation. The N.O.P.D. is possessed of a long-standing and apparently well-deserved reputation for corruption and incompetence. Yet in this latest crisis, it seems to have outdone itself.
Not only did many police officers not show up for work during the flood, but some reportedly even joined in the looting that rocked the city. The response of the department's leadership? To whine and complain that others (read "Washington") were not doing enough to save the city its officers were sworn to protect. Such an attitude should scare the dickens out of those contemplating a return to the city following its dry-out. It telegraphs that it will be business as usual in the city.
Perhaps even worse, the city leadership appears ready to refuse to assume responsibility for its own safety and instead place the future of New Orleans in the hands of the federal government.
Ironically, the seeds of this attitude — that it is the job of the federal government to protect all of us whenever there is a disaster manufactured by man or God — while prevalent throughout the America of this 21st century, was born after the great flood of 1927. Today, it has come full circle in the city of its birth
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