Charles Shiflett Column September 11, 2005

Lessons From New Orleans

Maybe it's too soon to talk about this… the death, destruction, and human misery of Katrina is still too
fresh. However, I bet the events of the past two weeks have most of us reassessing the safety and
security of our families and possessions in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

The tragedy in New Orleans should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Government officials,
weather forecasters, and engineers have issued warnings for decades that a hit by a major hurricane
would be disastrous. No city planner would ever pack that many people in a flood prone city that lies
below sea level and is protected by a series of dikes, but that very situation existed.

The levy system around the city was only designed to withstand a category 3 storm. Yet year after
year the leaders of New Orleans went about their business hoping the day of reckoning would not
come on their watch. Stories are now surfacing about tens of millions of dollars designated for levy
improvements that were instead wasted by local officials on frivolities.

Then there's the question of leadership. After the terror attacks of 9-11, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani
perfectly blended compassion and toughness to effectively reassure New Yorkers and lead them
through their crisis.

After Katrina, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lost it. Instead of showing leadership, he screamed,
yelled, cussed, and pointed fingers. Instead of reassuring his citizens, he fueled their discord. His
failure to issue a shoot to kill order to stop looters and rapists in the opening hours of the disaster
contributed to additional loss of life.

Both Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco blamed the federal government. A point needs to
be made here… the federal government can not send in troops unless requested by a state. In
Louisiana it appears state authorities were late in assessing the impact of the storm and were thus
late in notifying the feds of the resources needed.

Of course, in the weeks ahead there will be a lot of analysis of what went right and wrong with the
federal response. No doubt a number of problems will be identified that will need to addressed before
another disaster strikes.

The biggest lesson from New Orleans though is that of the failure of decades of liberal poverty
programs like Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Maybe government do-gooders will finally come to the
realization that poverty is not the lack of material goods… poverty is a mental disease.

The people in New Orleans who suffered the brunt of this catastrophe were those dependent on
government for their existence. There will always be elderly and infirmed individuals who government
and society at large must provide for… no argument here. Did government fail those people during
Katrina? Absolutely!

But there were tens of thousands of able-bodied folks in New Orleans dependent on government who
should not have been. Most of these individuals had no cars and were reliant on public transportation.
Even if they could have evacuated the city, they had no money to pay for a few days in a motel. Their
only response was to sit there and expect the government to take care of them.

We have institutionalized poverty in this nation with multiple generations of families basing their
existence solely in public housing projects or slums… dependent on government for handouts.

These people are our brothers and sisters and the purpose of this column is not to chastise them for
where they are in life. No, the reason for addressing this is that we as a nation have failed in our big
government attempts at reducing this disease of poverty that plagues our inner cities.

The scary thing is this dangerous urban inner city mindset lives in every large city in this nation and
most smaller ones. You can even see it in various pockets in Cartersville, Adairsville, and Kingston.
People who have given up… people with no hopes, no dreams, and no reason to join productive
society. They occupy our jails and they drain our public and private resources.

The many stories of looting, rapes, and murders in New Orleans were numbing. How, in the midst of
tragedy, could people throw elderly people out of nursing homes and steal their food and medications?
How could thugs attack doctors and nurses as they tried to save lives? It's a mental disease called
poverty.

You can be poor in material goods and still be a clean, honest, and valuable member of society. It's
the others we must turn our attention to… those for whom drug dealing, theft, and illegitimate births
are a way of life.

One thing is certain though; big government is not the answer. The restoration and rebuilding these
individuals need will not come through government welfare programs. It will only come through tough
love, the outreach of individuals and churches… and maybe we could throw in a spiritual revival for
good measure. That's the lesson of New Orleans.