Same Ol' Song & Dance

Good afternoon,

In the aftermath of Florida's Hurricane Wilma, there appears to be a unsettlingly familiar finger being pointed, once again pointed at the citizens for not being prepared or heeding the warnings prior to the storm. All I can say is "Oh brother, it's the same ol' song & dance goin' on here". Actually it is a brother of sorts, our President's brother Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida, blaming the people of his state for the long lines to distribute food and water.

"People who have waited in line for hours seeking relief should have done more to prepare for the storm."

“People had ample time to prepare. It isn’t that hard to get 72 hours worth of food and water."

Yep, those are quotes from the "compassionate conservative" governor, the president's brother, who somehow found it difficult to imagine that some people were without transportation, or who might have had little or no money to purchase needed items prior to the storm, or at least before the supplies ran out in the grocery stores as they tend to do. Did he not watch the news at all during the whole Hurricane Katrina fiasco? In the days immediately following Katrina, I heard some of those same words mentioned in response to the terrible difficulties the hurricane survivors were facing, when the news media began widespread coverage of the survivors plight, telling of their socio-economic status being a restrictive factor for evacuation from the city, such talk of "it's the people's fault" ceased almost immediately. I believe much the same will happen here, if only the press would take issue with the governor being so out of touch with the realities many of the regular ol' normal people face. I believe blaming the people is a cowardly move to slough off blame for yet another slow response to a crisis. Such an "I'll point the finger at you, before you point it at me" kind of move is both predictable and sad. Rather than moving in a timely manner to fix what slowed food and water distribution during our most recent of desperate times, our nation once again finds itself at the crossroads of "we'll take a look into the problems and try to learn from the mistakes we made". Ahem, how many looks do these guys need? While they're taking another look, all I can say is that tonight a family will go hungry or will sleep with thirst, in their home that may not have electricity restored for weeks. In the bureaucracy that is our government of late, it seems lessons are learned slowly, and at the expense of the citizens who elected these slow learners, though I don't hear them blaming the people for that mistake.