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9/11/2001 changed the way most Americans viewed their world. Every anniversary of that day has been poignant, but this, the fourth anniversary seems more so. The government has been predicting another cataclysmic attack every since 9/11. We, the American people, have allowed the federal government to undermine our personal freedoms, all in the name of safety. We were promised that these measures would make us more secure, safer. Well we had the attack, but it wasn’t terrorists. It was a natural disaster. The southern coastline of our country is devastated. New Orleans is a city forever changed. The government had at least three days warning that the storm was coming. Three days warning, and the reaction from Homeland Security, FEMA, every branch of the government seemed confused, unfocused, and inadequate to meet the terrible force set against us. Everyone finally agrees that the government, whatever branch, did not react in a timely manner. Lives have been lost, and my understanding, are still being lost for lack of proper care. The people on the ground in New Orleans and elsewhere, they are doing their best. I cannot imagine the conditions they must be working under. I cannot imagine what the survivors are going through. Our best wishes and prayers go out to everyone involved.
After the tragedy of 9/11 people were so afraid, that they voted their fears. They have allowed the federal government an unprecedented erosion of our own freedoms as Americans. Jon and I have stood in a lot of airports with our arms out, and our legs spread. We toured in early October just after 9/11. We were in San Francisco airport when it was evacuated for a bomb scare. Three hours we waited outside the mostly glass structure wondering when, and if, all that glass was going to be blown our way. Luckily, it was a false alarm, just some careless person leaving a package. Or at least, that’s what we were told. We’ll never really know. Don’t have the clearance for it. But if we are in danger to the degree that our government has told us, then why are they going to get rid of thousands of the TSA workers at the airport. Their are reports of ten thousand, or more, being let go, from individual airports. If the danger is as grave as we were led to fear, then how can the government be cutting our safety measures at the airports? It makes no sense.
We were told that if we allowed them to begin to eat away at our personal freedoms, that we would be safer. I had hoped that they were right, but after what has happened in New Orleans, I do not believe it. The government had three days to plan, and they failed that city, miserably. Three days to plan. What would happen if we truly did get that terrorist attack out of the blue, no warning? Would the federal government be there to save us? I’m not saying they wouldn’t want to save us, but I simply no longer believe that they have the organization or leadership to figure out how to save us. Jon and I had talked about getting a generator, and going more solar. That is no longer idle talk. We’re not going to go all survivalist, but having power of our own, and extra food put by, is beginning to seem like a good idea. If the events in New Orleans had happened before the edition to our house was this close to finished, there would be an extra room with a generator, more solar power, and a stockpile. I do not want to frighten people, but I am frightened. I may complain about our current president, and be less than thrilled with him, but I had entertained that he had a plan. That someone on his cabinet, in his administration had a plan. I no longer believe that. We, the American people, have let the government eat away at our freedom of speech, dictate who we can and cannot marry, and are in danger of loosing even more of our rights as free citizens of this great country. All that we have given up, or had forced from us by the votes or apathy of our fellow citizens, and are we safer than we were three years ago? Has everything we gave up made us safer? If you said, yes, to that question, then I do not understand you. The government’s failure, at every level, in New Orleans, makes the only answer to; are we safer now than three years ago, no. We are not safer. Our government is not more able or ready to help us. In fact, the government seems lost. I do not like feeling that my government is this out of touch, this confused. They have scrambled in the last few days to point fingers and blame like children a when a lamp gets broken. It wasn’t my fault, it was his. I feel like the governed needs a mommy to come in and say, “I don’t care whose fault it was, clean up this mess, and help these people.”
We have donated in small ways to the relief efforts happening in the wake of this awful storm. We are trying to decide how to help in more major ways. It is all so overwhelming. I have found hurricane Katrina to be a more personally overwhelming disaster than 9/11. Why? Because I felt that our government did it’s best during 9/11. I did not like that the federal government was trying to take away our rights as free citizens of this country. I didn’t like the extra rules. I did not have the faith in the concept of Homeland Security that others did. But I had hoped, that even if they were doing it in ways I didn’t like, that they had a plan. That the governed knew something I didn’t. I now believe what I thought all the time, that some parts of our government used 9/11 for their own political agenda. That they fostered fear and anxiety among their voters to get re-elected. Their lack of sympathy and action about this predicted, anticipated disaster, has made it clear that they are not prepared. I do not believe that the answer is to give Homeland Security, or FEMA, or any federal agency more control over our state government, or the personal lives of the people. I believe that the answer lies at a more local level. We must regain our freedoms, believe in our selves, and not let anyone use our fear against us again. I’m not talking about the terrorists. I’m talking about our own governed officials. They used our fear of another attack from terrorists to pass laws, and institute new government programs. All to keep us safe. I believe that some of them will try and use this abysmal failure of the government to protect it’s citizen to try and give the federal government more power over us. Do not let them. Do not let them use this for political clout. This isn’t about politics. This is about all the people who have lost loved ones. Who have lost everything. But they are playing games with the survivors, even now. Countries around the world have offered us help, and the federal governed is refusing it. We need it, so why refuse it? They say it’s for security reasons. That they don’t want foreign planes in their air space. I just don’t buy that a plane load from Sweden is a danger. Which is one country, among many that they have refused aid from. Why? Is it to keep us safer? I do not believe that. A lot of the countries that we helped during the tsunami have offered aid, but we are refusing it, or most of it. Unless the governed changed it’s mind since last I checked. If they have, then I’m sorry, but to my knowledge we are turning away help. Help that the people of our southern coastline need. Why is our government turning it down? I don’t believe it’s security reasons, they’ve used that line for three years, I don’t believe it anymore.
I believe the reason that our governed is not wanting to take the aid from other countries, is because we’re America. We’re a super power. We don’t need anyone’s help. Maybe the federal governed doesn’t need the help of other countries, but the people of Louisiana do. I believe that the federal government is afraid to take up the offers of aid, because if they do, then it says, we, the super power need the
help of other countries. If we, the United States of America, need the help of other countries, then it begins to beg the question, are we a super power? I believe the federal government fears to take in all the foreign aid because it will make us look weak as a country. I believe that some of the federal governed are afraid to take all the foreign aid, because they fear it will lead to criticism of them. I believe that many of our politicians are more worried about politics than saving lives. I do not want to believe this. I disagreed on ideological grounds with many of the leading politicians, but I had thought that at some level they understood that politics isn’t about power, not ultimately. Ultimately politics is about people. Please, anyone who is actually in charge of this disaster. Please, take the aid. Help these people. Fix this mess. Worry about our standing in the world community after the survivors have food, shelter, clean water, health care, and safety. We are the United States of America. We will still be that, if we let a plane from Sweden land in our country. We will still be America if we let all the countries we have helped over the years help us. Taking help from your friends is not weak. That is what friends are for. I know that it is naive to talk of friendship on a international political level. But, maybe, in this time of crisis, we could begin to realize that we have more friends than enemies in the world. The world may be puzzled by America. We are unique, and sometimes too loud, and too full of ourselves, too sure, but we are, after all, only 230 years old, as a country. We are a teenager, as countries go. Maybe it’s time to grow up, and realize that we aren’t isolated in our fears. That there are millions of people around the world, right now, right this minute, that are worrying with us. Strangers we will never meet have cried at the news of our losses. As we cried when the tsunami hit. As we cried when we heard of the tragedy on a bridge in Iraq. Tears do not make us weak. Tears prove that we have hearts.