Subj : Re: Um...no comment?
To   : Angus McLeod
From : Frank Reid
Date : Wed Sep 07 2005 15:43:00

  Re: Re: Um...no comment?
  By: Angus McLeod to Frank Reid on Wed Sep 07 2005 14:02:00

 > Bullshit.  If there needs to be funding for golf courses to give
 > employment to groundskeepers, then let that money come out of the
 > Groundskeepers Employment fund.  Money budgeted for and earmarked for
 > flood prevention systems should not build golf courses no matter HOW many
 > unemployed groundskeepers there are!  Oh, and I'm not saying that it
 > *doesn't* happen that way, just that it *shouldn't* happen that way, and
 > when, from time to time, as now, it hits the public in the face, heads
 > should roll.

I'm not arguing the delta between the real and the ideal, but rather just
exposing and explaining it.  And I agree completely we should strive for the
ideal.  However, neither you, nor I, nor "the commission" is going to change
that reality.  In fact, it might be postulated that government "dependency"
actually manifested itself in this disaster.  I've heard a figure that one in
three New Orleans residents lives below "poverty" income levels and receives
some form of government subsidy, e.g. welfare, food stamps, etc.  Could there
be a correlation?

I remember you mentioned an approaching storm this season, where you gathered
up Dot, some provisions, and then headed for higher ground.  Did you wait for
government officials with megaphones blaring outside your home before taking
measures to protect yourself?  I suspect not.  Maybe one of the findings of
this investigation will be that states, cities and people themselves shouldn't
expect the federal "teat" to be hanging overhead everytime they're hungry. 
Mommy's just not that fast, and she has all your other brothers and sisters to
feed, too!

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