The devastation of Hurricane Katrina is a monumental catastrophe. The response from our national government is a monumental disgrace. The people of New Orleans and other areas along the Gulf Coast called desperately for help and nothing came. I listened to a FEMA official deny that there were people in the New Orleans Convention Center without food or water, while a reporter stood in that hall and interviewed those people. I saw pictures of people standing on highway overpasses, on the tops of buildings or on any high spot they could find, waiting desperately to be rescued. And I heard a cabinet secretary declare that everything was under control, that rescue efforts were reaching those in need, that food, water and medical supplies had been delivered where they were needed, and that the evacuation was under way
Some people survived for days in the blazing sun, without water, without food, without sanitation, waiting to be rescued or evacuated. Others did not. They waited, and they died. Just yesterday we heard reports of residents in a nursing home who drowned on Friday, four days after the hurricane hit, four days after they were promised they would be picked up and evacuated. For four days they waited. And then they died.
This is what homeland security is all about. When disaster strikes, either from terrorism or from natural causes, our emergency response teams need to be in motion within hours, not days or weeks. Helicopters and boats should be moving to rescue those whose lives are in danger. Trucks and busses should be rolling to bring supplies to the survivors and to evacuate them from the devastated areas. But four years after 9/11 our disaster preparedness completely collapsed. For four years we've been told that homeland defense and disaster readiness were our government's top priorities, but when the levees around New Orleans were known to be in dangerous condition, there was no money to fix them. When they broke and rescue and relief forces were needed, they didn't come.
The news media moved in and out of the city and the other devastated areas along the Gulf Coast telling and showing us what was going on, but official sources seemed to know nothing and to be doing nothing. The people of this country have responded to the disaster with compassion and generosity. They have said what they always say, "we are all in this together. These are my brothers and sisters and I will be there for them in their time of need"
But we are led by a government that operates by a different code, a government that believes in every man for himself and let the losers fall by the wayside. A government that regards government itself as a burden upon the people rather than the way the people organize themselves to meet their most fundamental needs; needs such as rescue and relief in the face of disaster. Grover Norquist, one of the leading thinkers of the conservative movement said, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." New Orleans is that bathtub. It is full of water, and our national government is drowning in it.
And the response of Grover Norquist and our leaders in Congress is that now we must move ahead immediately with eliminating the estate tax on the wealthiest one percent of Americans. Now, in the face of unimaginable disaster, in the face of vast human suffering, in the face of the monumental task of rebuilding New Orleans and the rest of the devastated Gulf coast, the nation rallies around and asks, what can we do to help? And our government responds, more tax cuts for the rich. They should be ashamed, but they have no shame.
So, as the people drown in the bathtub of New Orleans, let this government drown with them. And as we rebuild New Orleans we will rebuild our government as well. A government worthy of a great people. One that recognizes that we are all in this together and that what befalls the least of us, befalls us all.