Today is a distressing timely moment to pause briefly to reflect on both the principles and plans, as well as our actions, in response to tragedy. Though phrases like “things will never be the same” or “never forget”, “always remember” or other similar sentiments will be liberally deployed as a visceral, emotional salve, the painful and ugly logistics and still remaining challenges mandate a more precise accounting, to both hold accountable those who failed, and to help those still suffering. The early reports of poor communication and what seems like benign neglect is a horrifying failure on the part of the federal government. Years of highly constructed conservative attempts to fray the federal structure (the ideological impact of what such a stance does to our generally held notion of democracy I won’t go into) has laid the groundwork for much of the discussion stemming from the right about local responsibility, all of it geared towards shifting blame away, even though we have witnessed an unprecedented concentration of federal powers over the past four years, under the guide of terror preparedness.
Commentators on the left are grasping at the intertwined relationship between FEMA and Homeland Security — rightly so, since the former was essentially gutted in the service of the latter, and both seem packed with dense, incompetent frat boys that are the hallmark of the Bush administration — to argue that this cock-up exposes us to greater threats of terrorism, by demonstrating the inadequacies of the new mega-bureaucratic structures established by the Bush Administration.
Lacking a framework for everyday conversation about the significance of federalism, hanging on the narrow issue of terrorism ignores the fundanmental threat to our notion of democracy in the form of conservative efforts to destroy a centralized government (and worse, one that doesn’t have a shred of an idea for its replacement). It begins to look like tinfoil-hatted conspiracy to argue that the pig trough that DC has descended into as a result of the current administration has cravenly exploited the terror threat simply to further an extremist agenda of permanently debilitating the federal government, but at the same time, it’s hard to find a more rational explanation. One reason it is hard to posit this argument is accepting as normal or real the mind-boggling principles that necessarily under-gird this program.
Rather than try to overtly legislate their implicit goal, we instead are besieged by inept government, in the form of the Department of Homeland Security. The long-term effects of this are clear: there will be no tax relief for the majority of workers (in sheer numbers), nor will there be any relent in the expenditures this monolith demands, even as the expenses are siphoned off to the rich and connected (Kellogg Brown & Root, having clearly demonstrated that they are willing to commit fraud that may have causal connection to the death of American soldiers, have once again received a no-bid contract, one powered with the suspension of federally-mandated minimums for worker wages but does not similarly cap what they can bill).
Perversely, here in New York, we are insulated from this to a degree. As we watch in crippling horror (eleven days after landfall of Katrina, the NOLA weblog is still posting notices daily regarding people still desperately stranded, including an entire community in Mississippi that has yet to receive any assistance whatsoever), the success of our local support services becomes more evident. Even as we commit the largest percentage of our income to tax payments to the federal government of any locality (never receiving a similar level of services), we rail most vehemently against its continued failures to help the neediest, here, and around the country. And as the events of the past two weeks make clear, on this very particular day, we — meaning the New York City area — are far better at managing catastrophe, better than other local governments, better than the federal government.
This is not simply braggadocio, though it is a intentional acknowledgment of what the rapid and well-planned response was able to do to repair our city, even as the current state of development of the site would seem to contradict this. It also underscores the hopeless state of just about everywhere else when presented with a similar challenge. It is impossible to draw direct corollaries between the two events, and, more importantly, the scale — physically — of Katrina’s devastation and our own cultural remoteness and foolish sense of imperviousness from what large scale “natural” disasters can cause, means that a finely grained comparison is an unfair and misplaced endeavor.
But there are two crucial areas where parallels should be drawn, in hopes that the eventual recovery is markedly better than the initial response. One is the ability of local politicians and cultural figures to assert leadership and inspire confidence. Even allowing his myriad failings and flaws, former mayor Guiliani is the standard bearer for effective leadership in crisis. Likewise for former president Clinton, whom no one doubts could bring the necessary mixture of empathy and gravitas to the situation, since often the Commander in Chief serves best when his symbolic actions inspire more tangible and beneficial efforts of thousands of anonymous volunteers and workers.
The second is the role of public discourse in the both the current reportage and follow-up transparency. Bringing to bear the most sophisticated and best-funded local press in the country to the WTC redevelopment process has at best only attenuated the worst aspects of bureaucratic self-interest and short-sighted scheming. What potential fraud or worse might be perpetrated throughout the Gulf Coast during the recovery is doubly horrifying because of its base immorality.
What these two conditions will hopefully conspire to achieve is a sea change back to an accepted and celebrated notion of federalism that takes pride in its role as protector and unifier of this country and its citizenry. New York is often left to its own devices, for good and for bad. Our wealth affords us myriad privilege and protects us from what now seems distressingly routine to the less fortunate elsewhere. We can’t, and don’t, expect the same self-sufficiency of smaller cities and towns that face threats as dire, and occasionally, worse. We deserve and demand a response to Katrina that clearly establishes as a mandate our national duty to repair the lives of those left exposed as a result of years of lackadaisical disregard, and more recently and tragically, far more active neglect. Hopefully this process will leave us in a place where we can proclaim proudly that “never again” will be our standard, but now is not the time for such empty proclamations. Now is the time for “Where can we help?”
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Today.
Today is a distressing timely moment to pause briefly to reflect on both the principles and plans, as well as our actions, in response to tragedy. Though phrases like “things will never be the same” or “never forget”, “always remember” or other similar sentiments will be liberally deployed as a visceral, emotional salve, the painful and ugly logistics and still remaining challenges mandate a more precise accounting, to both hold accountable those who failed, and to help those still suffering. The early reports of poor communication and what seems like benign neglect is a horrifying failure on the part of the federal government. Years of highly constructed conservative attempts to fray the federal structure (the ideological impact of what such a stance does to our generally held notion of democracy I won’t go into) has laid the groundwork for much of the discussion stemming from the right about local responsibility, all of it geared towards shifting blame away, even though we have witnessed an unprecedented concentration of federal powers over the past four years, under the guide of terror preparedness.
Commentators on the left are grasping at the intertwined relationship between FEMA and Homeland Security — rightly so, since the former was essentially gutted in the service of the latter, and both seem packed with dense, incompetent frat boys that are the hallmark of the Bush administration — to argue that this cock-up exposes us to greater threats of terrorism, by demonstrating the inadequacies of the new mega-bureaucratic structures established by the Bush Administration.
Lacking a framework for everyday conversation about the significance of federalism, hanging on the narrow issue of terrorism ignores the fundanmental threat to our notion of democracy in the form of conservative efforts to destroy a centralized government (and worse, one that doesn’t have a shred of an idea for its replacement). It begins to look like tinfoil-hatted conspiracy to argue that the pig trough that DC has descended into as a result of the current administration has cravenly exploited the terror threat simply to further an extremist agenda of permanently debilitating the federal government, but at the same time, it’s hard to find a more rational explanation. One reason it is hard to posit this argument is accepting as normal or real the mind-boggling principles that necessarily under-gird this program.
Rather than try to overtly legislate their implicit goal, we instead are besieged by inept government, in the form of the Department of Homeland Security. The long-term effects of this are clear: there will be no tax relief for the majority of workers (in sheer numbers), nor will there be any relent in the expenditures this monolith demands, even as the expenses are siphoned off to the rich and connected (Kellogg Brown & Root, having clearly demonstrated that they are willing to commit fraud that may have causal connection to the death of American soldiers, have once again received a no-bid contract, one powered with the suspension of federally-mandated minimums for worker wages but does not similarly cap what they can bill).
Perversely, here in New York, we are insulated from this to a degree. As we watch in crippling horror (eleven days after landfall of Katrina, the NOLA weblog is still posting notices daily regarding people still desperately stranded, including an entire community in Mississippi that has yet to receive any assistance whatsoever), the success of our local support services becomes more evident. Even as we commit the largest percentage of our income to tax payments to the federal government of any locality (never receiving a similar level of services), we rail most vehemently against its continued failures to help the neediest, here, and around the country. And as the events of the past two weeks make clear, on this very particular day, we — meaning the New York City area — are far better at managing catastrophe, better than other local governments, better than the federal government.
This is not simply braggadocio, though it is a intentional acknowledgment of what the rapid and well-planned response was able to do to repair our city, even as the current state of development of the site would seem to contradict this. It also underscores the hopeless state of just about everywhere else when presented with a similar challenge. It is impossible to draw direct corollaries between the two events, and, more importantly, the scale — physically — of Katrina’s devastation and our own cultural remoteness and foolish sense of imperviousness from what large scale “natural” disasters can cause, means that a finely grained comparison is an unfair and misplaced endeavor.
But there are two crucial areas where parallels should be drawn, in hopes that the eventual recovery is markedly better than the initial response. One is the ability of local politicians and cultural figures to assert leadership and inspire confidence. Even allowing his myriad failings and flaws, former mayor Guiliani is the standard bearer for effective leadership in crisis. Likewise for former president Clinton, whom no one doubts could bring the necessary mixture of empathy and gravitas to the situation, since often the Commander in Chief serves best when his symbolic actions inspire more tangible and beneficial efforts of thousands of anonymous volunteers and workers.
The second is the role of public discourse in the both the current reportage and follow-up transparency. Bringing to bear the most sophisticated and best-funded local press in the country to the WTC redevelopment process has at best only attenuated the worst aspects of bureaucratic self-interest and short-sighted scheming. What potential fraud or worse might be perpetrated throughout the Gulf Coast during the recovery is doubly horrifying because of its base immorality.
What these two conditions will hopefully conspire to achieve is a sea change back to an accepted and celebrated notion of federalism that takes pride in its role as protector and unifier of this country and its citizenry. New York is often left to its own devices, for good and for bad. Our wealth affords us myriad privilege and protects us from what now seems distressingly routine to the less fortunate elsewhere. We can’t, and don’t, expect the same self-sufficiency of smaller cities and towns that face threats as dire, and occasionally, worse. We deserve and demand a response to Katrina that clearly establishes as a mandate our national duty to repair the lives of those left exposed as a result of years of lackadaisical disregard, and more recently and tragically, far more active neglect. Hopefully this process will leave us in a place where we can proclaim proudly that “never again” will be our standard, but now is not the time for such empty proclamations. Now is the time for “Where can we help?”