Why New Orleans
Is In Deep Water
By Molly Ivins
02 September, 2005
Chicago
Tribune
Like
many of you who love New Orleans, I find myself taking short mental
walks there today, turning a familiar corner, glimpsing a favorite scene,
square or vista. And worrying about the beloved friends and the city,
and how they are now.
To use a fine Southern
word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are
even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs
to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies
have real consequences in people's lives.
This is not "just
politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the
real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities.
And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.
This is a column
for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm
sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's
nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."
Nothing to do with
me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look
around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle Association would
argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill
people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.
One of the main
reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance
of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer
between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance
of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular
administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats
did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault." Many environmentalists
will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow
of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the
movement of alluvial soil to the river's delta.
But in addition
to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps
of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term
consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration
set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush
administration repealed those policies--ordering federal agencies to
stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.
Last year, four
environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administration's
policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.
Does this mean we
should blame President Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater?
No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Category 3 or Category 2 hurricane
puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of making a bad
situation worse, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes (when
you're in one, stop digging).
Had a storm the
size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a while, it's quite
likely no one would even remember what the Bush administration did two
months ago. The national press corps has the attention span of a gnat,
and trying to get anyone in Washington to remember longer than a year
ago is like asking them what happened in Iznik, Turkey, in A.D. 325.
Just plain political
bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million
from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent
reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time,
that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded
to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect
the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."
The commander of
the corps' New Orleans district also immediately instituted a hiring
freeze and canceled the annual corps picnic.
Our friends at the
Center for American Progress note the Office of Technology Assessment
used to produce forward-thinking plans such as "Floods: A National
Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards Management."
Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich and the Republican
right, and gutted years ago.
In fact, there is
now a governmentwide movement away from basing policy on science, expertise
and professionalism, and in favor of choices based on ideology. If you're
wondering what the ideological position on flood management might be,
look at the pictures of New Orleans--it seems to consist of gutting
the programs that do anything.
Unfortunately, the
war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane.
About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guard is now serving in Iraq,
where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the
Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being
sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.
The Louisiana National
Guard also notes that dozens of its high-water vehicles, Humvees, refuelers
and generators have also been sent abroad. (I hate to be picky, but
why do they need high-water vehicles in Iraq?)
This, in turn, goes
back to the original policy decision to go into Iraq without enough
soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that mistake and to rectify
it by instituting a draft.
The levees of New
Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also
victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief
for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the
money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security
and the war in Iraq."
This, friends, is
why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities,
and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.
Molly Ivins is a
syndicated columnist based in Washington.
© 2005 Chicago
Tribune