The moment for leadership is now

A few more thoughts…

There's no denying that the hurricane-swept events of this past week have exposed serious flaws in our national priorities. These failures simply must be addressed by our government with honesty, foresight, and intelligence in the weeks and months to come. Yet, given its track record so far (particularly during the last seven days), I have my doubts that this bunch is up to the challenge. I pray I’m proven wrong.

To begin with, the Homeland Security implications are terrifying. I’ll concede that the scope and size of the devastation on the Gulf coast is unimaginable, and that our government agencies, no matter how well prepared, would still be fighting an uphill battle. Try and picture the horror and rubble of the World Trade Center, and then multiply that image by tens of thousands of square miles. And that just describes Mississippi alone.

But the fact that’s been made apparent is that these agencies were not prepared in the way we should have expected them to be. A great deal of that unpreparedness is directly attributable to this Administration’s single-minded obsession with waging a war that from the start had no rational justification (as evidenced by the ever-shifting justifications shoveled at us for the last two years). This obsession has stolen attention, personnel, and huge sums of money away from our readiness for disaster at home.

With complete disregard for the very real implications in American cities and towns, Mr. Bush has stretched our ability to respond to man-made or natural catastrophe to the breaking point. “Fightin’ ‘em over there so we don’t have to fight ‘em here” rings pretty hollow now that we’ve witnessed our inability to save American citizens within our own borders, and it’s long past time to wake from our collective slumber and take all our elected officials to task.

An equal share of the blame must be immediately directed at “Congress as usual”. We need Mr. Bush to insist that our Senators and Representatives sit down without delay and re-examine their ridiculous, pork-filled Transportation Bill. Could it be any clearer now that America needs a forthright, non-partisan, “no lobbyists allowed” re-evaluation of how and where this money is going to be spent?

Verified reports of Louisiana’s failed attempts (for three years) to get promised funding for it’s levee system are a glaring example of misplaced Washington priorities, specifically when protecting and strengthening the weak spots in our infrastructure. When are we going to see some signs of fact-based, well-researched common sense from our elected “leaders”? I know it’s a tough job – but it’s their job, dammit.

What's more, the economic impact of Katrina on the nation as a whole will be staggering. Louisiana’s southern coast is America’s single largest port. The Gulf provides one-third of the nation’s seafood, one-fifth of the nation's oil supply, one-quarter of the nation’s natural gas. In just a few moments’ time, Katrina wreaked billions of dollars in damage, and threw millions of homeless, jobless, demoralized citizens into our already-shaky economy at large.

Here again, what we need immediately is a show of smart, decisive leadership from Washington. We deserve an honest, pull-no-punches message from our President about the shared realities of this situation. We must be told in no uncertain terms what we all need to do and to sacrifice in order to prepare for the economic fallout of this disaster. We need someone at the microphone with the courage to admit mistakes and miscalculations, and the fortitude to give us all the straight dope instead of talking points and platitudes. We need a leader with a vision.

In short, we need Mr. Bush to act… well, Presidential.

This is the moment. This is crunch time. No more spin. No more clichés. No more partisan wrangling. The shameful cracks in our national policies and preparedness have been on public display for the past week in a way they’ve never been exposed before, and our elected officials (at all levels) had better rise to the occasion. If they don’t, then the time is here for “We the People” to throw da bums – and I mean ALL da bums – out on their deaf ears. Our survival as a nation depends on it.