Call it therapy: I've had to say it. I've had to write it. Pieces of it come from Kos and pieces come from elsewhere. I wanted to find a way to present some of the backstory of the Bush Administration to the folks here who only watch Fox News.
It's yours. Take and use it if you wish. But here it is.
To the Editor:
As we have all watched and listened and read about the horrific events that have unfolded this last week-and-a-half in New Orleans and Gulf Coast, we may have forgotten one essential fact: This could happen here.
Consider the consequences of a terrorist attack at Kirtland AFB or Sandia Labs. Or a dirty bomb set off in a truck on a typical windy Albuquerque day on I-25 or I-40. Or even a natural disaster like a major tornado or a massive, unexpected earthquake.
If the disaster had occurred in Albuquerque on August 29th, the following would have been the response from our clueless, inept, criminally-negligent leaders in Washington, because this is exactly what our clueless, inept, criminally-negligent leaders in Washington did during the first few days of Hurricane Katrina:
On the first day of the Albuquerque disaster, President Bush flies to a major American city to deliver a "hooray for America" address, pretend to play a guitar, and celebrate a Senator's birthday with a cake. In Albuquerque, hundreds of people are trying to escape the death and chaos of the disaster. On his way back to the White House, President Bush flies Air Force One over Albuquerque to view the disaster up close.
Vice President Cheney stays on vacation in Wyoming. In Albuquerque, roads are blocked with toxic debris, forcing citizens, tourists, and families to seek alternate routes to survival. Fires are beginning to break out. The Pit at UNM fills with 15,000 Hispanic refugees with nowhere to go when they couldn't comply with the evacuation order because they were too poor, or too old, or too sick to leave, or they had no car or no gasoline.
Secretary of State Condolezza Rice takes in a play on Broadway and then goes shopping for shoes. Fire spreads throughout the University District and the houses and businesses of Nob Hill. Looting begins to break out as desperate survivors try to survive in the late-summer heat with no food, shelter, water or sanitation. The police begin to arrest the largely low-income, Hispanic looters.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld continues planning a giant party and concert to commemorate the 2001 terrorist attacks. Looting and burning continues to spread the length of Central Avenue. Hispanic refugees at The Pit are told to walk the mile or two to the Convention Center where buses and food are located. But when they get there they find that there are no buses or food at the Convention Center and they are forced to wait in the sun. Many are sick and dying. Women and children are raped or shot. Babies die.
FEMA Director Michael Brown discovers for the first time, three days into the disaster, that the Convention Center has thousands of refugees and is overwhelmed. He then arranges the evacuation of residents in affluent neighborhoods in the Northeast Heights to Edgewood by way of Placitas. Edgewood has nowhere to put 30,000 people and East Mountain resources are overwhelmed. Refugees start hitchhiking to Amarillo, Tulsa, or El Paso in the desert heat. In Albuquerque, conditions at the local hospitals are said to be "comparable to Third World Countries." Doctors work with flashlights while looters pillage the floors below.
Three days into the crisis, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff says, "We're much better prepared than we've ever been." FEMA Director Michael Brown says "I understand their frustration, and help is on the way." Bodies are starting to stack up at the Convention Center as Hispanic refugees die of hunger and thirst. At the same time, CNN, Fox, and MSNBC show clips of Northeast Heights Anglos in front of their destroyed homes, telling their friends and relatives that they are OK, they escaped, and they have a place to stay in Santa Fe.
The United States Congress, four or five days into the crisis, convenes to approve emergency legislation, (unlike a special session for Terri Schaivo, whose approval was overnight). Buses finally arrive and patients at private hospitals are evacuated along with guests and employees from the Hyatt and other major hotels. Hispanics at the Convention Center refugees, as well as doctors and patients at the public, University Hospital are told they have to wait. Old women die in wheelchairs. Babies die on blankets and are wrapped in sheets.
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert says, "Maybe we shouldn't rebuild Albuquerque. It will cost a lot of money." How much? Maybe $25 billion, the amount we spend in Iraq every three months. Fire has spread to the center of downtown and Old Town is consumed in the flames. Doctors at University Hospital plead for help.
Despite Hastert's suggestion, Halliburton subsidiary KBR is given a $500 million no-bid contract less than a week after the disaster to rebuild military facilities in Albuquerque. The government whistle-blower who complained about awarding no-bit contracts to Halliburton has already been fired, so it doesn't matter.
OK...so this didn't happen here. But the actions of the individuals from President Bush all the way down to the Speaker of the House and the Halliburton contract are exactly what happened in New Orleans during the first few days after Hurricane Katrina.
We are being governed by morons, inept, criminally-negligent, greedy morons who think only of themselves, their wealth, and their own political capital, not about American citizens (especially low-income American citizens) in times of crisis. Our "leaders" are clueless. They have no concept of "government for the good of all people." They have lied to us about war. They have lied to us about our Nation's preparedness for terror and disaster. They have lied to us about the economy. They have gutted the protection of citizens like you and me to feather their own nests and the nests of the wealthy and continue to shield their greed with still more lies.
And if a disaster were to occur in Albuquerque tomorrow, they would lie to us about that, too.
Chris James
Sandia Park
That's it. I welcome your comments. And I'll join you in the cheering crowd when Bush and all his evil is flushed away.