Open letter to the White House - Defending those on the front lines
Dear Mr. President:
Congratulations on your willingness to take responsibility for the failures of the federal government to do its job on behalf of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It's only been a few weeks. That's got to be some kind of record for you.
I'm rather confused, though, by this remark of yours: "I'm not going to defend the process going in, but I am going to defend the people who are on the front line of saving lives." As usual, you make a statement that contradicts pretty nearly everything you have done. I wonder if you'd be good enough to explain yourself this time.
First of all, as far as I know, no one has actually attacked the people who are on the front line of saving lives - that is, those private citizens trying to help each other as best they can while waiting for their elected officials to use their tax money to help them. Perhaps you meant to assert that you want to defend federal troops, the national guard and so on; if so, you are sadly deluded. Those people, with good intentions and without, are not on the front lines of saving lives, thanks largely to you and your friends; let's not forget that some of them were actually prohibited from saving lives and required to do public relations work for FEMA instead. If anyone has attacked the people who are on the front line of saving lives, it's you. You can hardly claim to defend the citizens of New Orleans and other devastated areas when you've been attacking them, by neglect if nothing else, all along.
This brings me to my next point; your claim that you will not defend the "process going in," the federal government's woefully inadequate aid to the Mississippi Delta. Saying you will not defend the "process going in" is as ludicrous as your claim that you will defend the people on the front line of saving lives. Once you finally cut last month's vacation short by two days and got back to Washington, flying as quickly as possible over the disaster areas, you immediately started to "defend the process going in," and you've barely stopped for breath since. You told the world that, as far as you knew, no one anticipated that New Orleans' levees would break (a lie); you praised your horse-racing appointee Michael Brown, a man with no experience in disaster management who had delayed any action for precious hours, for doing "a heck of a job" (a piece of self-serving nonsense); you delayed evacuation efforts by hours so you could land in New Orleans undisturbed, days after your presence might have done some good (a cynical manipulation), you have accused those seeking the parties responsible for this debacle of playing the "blame game" (an anti-democratic and anti-American accusation). All of these actions, and everything else you've done since the storm hit, are defenses of a pitifully desperate sort, and now you tell us that you're "not going to defend the process going in." It's a little late, sir.
Well, now that you've delivered yourself of this through-the-looking-glass statement - having proclaimed that you will do what you don't do and that you won't do what you do - you want us all to believe that "to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." Excuse me if I take that statement with a few shovels full of salt, Mr. President. I suppose I should congratulate you on adding even the word "responsibility" to your vocabulary after five or so years in office, but I haven't got time to give you even that much benefit of the doubt. Even the "extent" to which you take "responsibility" comes with limitations, as though your territorial dispute with state and local government was more consequential than saving people's lives. As though you dared not put a toe over the Louisiana border for fear of offending the governor, who begged you for help for days. The country needed a take-charge president, something you have pretended to be ever since you took office; you have now demonstrated conclusively that you are about as bold and decisive as any other invertebrate.
Some months ago you claimed to realize that words have consequences, so permit me to educate you on the consequences of using a word like "responsibility." Although you seem to believe that saying "I take responsibility" absolves you of all duty to do anything further, it actually means that you accept whatever results your actions produce. Your actions, regarding Hurricane Katrina and everything else the United States has faced since your "election," have produced violent death by natural and unnatural means, a bitterly divided nation, contempt from most of the rest of the world and an approval rating for you yourself that's lower than any previous president at this point in his term.
You are not in a position to defend anyone, nor to choose who you will or will not defend - you can't even defend yourself. Your administration is an utter failure and you yourself a first-class loser at everything but, apparently, mountain biking. A little while ago you said you needed to get on with your life. I agree. Let's be frank, sir; it's time for you to pack up your stuff, clear out of the White House and start enjoying your retirement. You've done little but practice for just that moment since January 2001. Enough is enough.
Congratulations on your willingness to take responsibility for the failures of the federal government to do its job on behalf of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It's only been a few weeks. That's got to be some kind of record for you.
I'm rather confused, though, by this remark of yours: "I'm not going to defend the process going in, but I am going to defend the people who are on the front line of saving lives." As usual, you make a statement that contradicts pretty nearly everything you have done. I wonder if you'd be good enough to explain yourself this time.
First of all, as far as I know, no one has actually attacked the people who are on the front line of saving lives - that is, those private citizens trying to help each other as best they can while waiting for their elected officials to use their tax money to help them. Perhaps you meant to assert that you want to defend federal troops, the national guard and so on; if so, you are sadly deluded. Those people, with good intentions and without, are not on the front lines of saving lives, thanks largely to you and your friends; let's not forget that some of them were actually prohibited from saving lives and required to do public relations work for FEMA instead. If anyone has attacked the people who are on the front line of saving lives, it's you. You can hardly claim to defend the citizens of New Orleans and other devastated areas when you've been attacking them, by neglect if nothing else, all along.
This brings me to my next point; your claim that you will not defend the "process going in," the federal government's woefully inadequate aid to the Mississippi Delta. Saying you will not defend the "process going in" is as ludicrous as your claim that you will defend the people on the front line of saving lives. Once you finally cut last month's vacation short by two days and got back to Washington, flying as quickly as possible over the disaster areas, you immediately started to "defend the process going in," and you've barely stopped for breath since. You told the world that, as far as you knew, no one anticipated that New Orleans' levees would break (a lie); you praised your horse-racing appointee Michael Brown, a man with no experience in disaster management who had delayed any action for precious hours, for doing "a heck of a job" (a piece of self-serving nonsense); you delayed evacuation efforts by hours so you could land in New Orleans undisturbed, days after your presence might have done some good (a cynical manipulation), you have accused those seeking the parties responsible for this debacle of playing the "blame game" (an anti-democratic and anti-American accusation). All of these actions, and everything else you've done since the storm hit, are defenses of a pitifully desperate sort, and now you tell us that you're "not going to defend the process going in." It's a little late, sir.
Well, now that you've delivered yourself of this through-the-looking-glass statement - having proclaimed that you will do what you don't do and that you won't do what you do - you want us all to believe that "to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." Excuse me if I take that statement with a few shovels full of salt, Mr. President. I suppose I should congratulate you on adding even the word "responsibility" to your vocabulary after five or so years in office, but I haven't got time to give you even that much benefit of the doubt. Even the "extent" to which you take "responsibility" comes with limitations, as though your territorial dispute with state and local government was more consequential than saving people's lives. As though you dared not put a toe over the Louisiana border for fear of offending the governor, who begged you for help for days. The country needed a take-charge president, something you have pretended to be ever since you took office; you have now demonstrated conclusively that you are about as bold and decisive as any other invertebrate.
Some months ago you claimed to realize that words have consequences, so permit me to educate you on the consequences of using a word like "responsibility." Although you seem to believe that saying "I take responsibility" absolves you of all duty to do anything further, it actually means that you accept whatever results your actions produce. Your actions, regarding Hurricane Katrina and everything else the United States has faced since your "election," have produced violent death by natural and unnatural means, a bitterly divided nation, contempt from most of the rest of the world and an approval rating for you yourself that's lower than any previous president at this point in his term.
You are not in a position to defend anyone, nor to choose who you will or will not defend - you can't even defend yourself. Your administration is an utter failure and you yourself a first-class loser at everything but, apparently, mountain biking. A little while ago you said you needed to get on with your life. I agree. Let's be frank, sir; it's time for you to pack up your stuff, clear out of the White House and start enjoying your retirement. You've done little but practice for just that moment since January 2001. Enough is enough.
posted by benshlomo at 10:02 AM
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