On Friday, the House approved 9.7 billion in relief for Hurricane
Sandy victims, nearly 2 months after the storm.
The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut originally
requested 83 billion in relief and the senate approved 60 billion.
Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid claimed on Friday, that
“Hurricane Katrina was nothing in comparison to what happened to the
people of New York and New Jersey.”
While I can appreciate a politician making a plea for his
case, this was way off, even by a politician’s standard. Getting approval for only a small portion of
what was requested will be devastating and is certainly not the precedent that
we want our government to set with regards to helping our own in times of
crisis. We will not, however, make a
compelling case for helping current victims but stomping all over the tragedy
and governmental failings of previous victims.
Here are just a few of Harry Reid’s quotes from Friday:
“When we
had that devastation from Katrina, we were there within days taking care of
Mississippi, Alabama, and especially Louisiana -- within days. We are now past
two months with the people of New York and New Jersey."
That’s just bullshit, no way to sugar coat that. It’s a
straight up lie. “Being there” and “doing something” are 2 different
things. Bush showing up a few days later, bringing power to illuminate
Jackson Square for his press conference, and then taking the power with him when
he left, isn’t “taking care” of people.
Flying over it in your fucking plane and making your sad face, isn’t “taking
care” of it.
“The
people of New Orleans and that area, they were hurt but nothing in comparison
to what happened to the people in New York and New Jersey. Almost 1 million people have lost their
homes; 1 million people lost their homes. That is homes, that is not people in
those homes. So I think it is just unfortunate that we do not have the relief
for New York and New Jersey and the rest already. It has to be done. We have to
meet the needs of the American people when an act of God occurs.”
There are a couple of things in the second quote that I’m
really excited to touch on. And by
excited, I of course mean that Harry Reid can kiss my ass because I’m about to
tear him a new one. Before I do, here are a few quick stats that I grabbed so
that we can all look at the big picture:
Hurricane
Katrina left 1,836 people dead, 705 people are still missing.
Hurricane
Sandy caused 120 deaths.
Katrina caused
145 Billion dollars in damage, making it the costliest hurricane ever in US
history.
Sandy caused 80
Billion in damage
Katrina had a
high wind of 174mph and was a category 5 hurricane.
Sandy had a
high wind of 110mph and was a category 2 hurricane.
Katrina was
the second strongest storm ever recorded in the US.
Now, back to Mr Reid and his misguided and factually
inaccurate statements.
"The
people of New Orleans and that area, they were hurt but nothing in comparison
to what happened to the people in New York and New Jersey"
I honestly don’t even know where to go with this
remark. It literally makes me want to
cry. Hundreds of thousands of people all
along the coast are still rebuilding,
7 years later. Bodies were left in the road
and piled up in ditches and it took weeks to get them out. People came home to find their loved ones
dead inside after they’d been cleared by government agencies, weeks
before. I’m not saying that Sandy victims
aren’t suffering but, there’s no way you can fairly compare the two, nor should
you.
Almost 1
million people have lost their homes
While this is true, it’s also to be taken with a grain of
salt. Many of these homes were vacation
or summer homes that were not occupied at the time. This does not represent 1 million families that are now homeless, which he does more or less say later on in the quote.
We have to meet the needs of the American people
when an act of God occurs.
By now, you’ve realized where I stand on this whole “act of
God” business. On the one hand, I realize
that it’s just what you say but personally, I’d go with “natural disaster”. Why in the world would anyone who glorifies
God, want his name or his “acts” associated with this kind of destruction?
Beyond that bout of semantics, I finally agree with something that he
said.
Hurricane Sandy victims deserve whatever relief their local
governments are asking for, at least within reason. 9.7 billion of a requested
83 billion is a slap in the face to every person in the region trying to recover
and move on. While I’m not surprised, I
am disappointed. The cogs in the wheel
of government seem to move particularly slow in times of crisis. These people are our own and they do deserve
help. I could not agree more with the
spirit that the Democrats are trying to convey here but rather, the completely asinine
execution of their objective.
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) even weighed in with
a verbal gem:
"But as we did in Katrina, we should have acted almost immediately to
meet the pain and suffering and loss of the citizens -- our fellow citizens,
our fellow Americans --who were the victims of Sandy, but should not have been
the victims of our delay"
I’m a pretty liberal gal.
I’m an atheist, feminist, freethinker, pro choice, do-what-you-want-and-have-a-damn-good-time-doing-it
, let’s take care of each other, kind of person. However, don't patronize me and act like we can't remember what actually happened 7 years ago. There was no "acting immediately" in response to Katrina, from our government. Even waiting 10 days to vote on a relief package was ridiculous. These idiots, quite frankly, have me wanting to pack up my liberal hat and find a new camp to hang out in. I completely agree that Sandy victims need
support because I’d hate nothing more than to see what happened on the gulf,
happen in New York.
This is not about Katrina Vs Sandy. Both storms claimed human lives and the government failed victims of each. The problem is, why it's seen as acceptable to trivialize and compare the suffering of people for your own advancement. What he should have said if he wanted to draw a parallel, was:
Let's avoid another Katrina. Let's make sure that we're doing everything we can for everyone so that our citizens aren't freezing and starving to death waiting for help to come. Let's not repeat that bleak time in our history. Let's treat our citizen's like people, instead of political pawns.
That's what I would have said, anyway.
We did learn things from Katrina. FEMA's eager attitude to avoid another PR nightmare like the one they so rightfully earned after Katrina, weighed heavily in the favor of Sandy victims. Pitfalls that the gulf saw with regards to evacuation were avoided during Sandy, thanks in large part to things we learned from the evacuation failures of Katrina.
I get that Reid's points were about money but, it’s not all
about money. You can’t say things about
a smaller storm with less devastation being “worse” than a storm that killed 10
times as many people without incurring some wrath.
Reid is talking about money, I’m talking about lives. We can’t bring back the people we failed
during Katrina. But we can honor them by
not trivializing any death or loss for our own political gain. We shouldn’t be playing childish games with
people’s lives or the tragedies they’ve experienced to make a point. The sooner
Reid is gone, the better. Victims of natural disasters whether they lose one
thing or everything, deserve respect. We failed them yet again, with these remarks from our government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy