Purpose of Government

Hurricane Katrina's aftermath

The shock of the rest of the country concerning the poor of Louisiana or of the South in general, is curious. Louisiana consistently comes in as one of the poorest states in the union. Although, their poor rate has gone down from the 1990 census and the education level in Louisiana has made strides since that same census, there is much to still be done in many areas of the South.

What should have been done to insure their safety? With hurricanes, unlike the Midwest's tornados, you have some time to prepare or plan. The National Guard, the army, the reserves, whatever it took should have arrived prior to this monster storm to evacuate those who had no means to do so. Why were they not called?

Just as doctors have been educating the public to practice preventative medicine as opposed to curative medicine, FEMA along with state and local governments should have established emergency disaster plans for large cities and also should have offered training for personnel on how to evacuate the poor and infirm prior to the actual storm hitting. (What they have been doing for the last 25 years, now has me rather concerned--more about that at a later post.)

To finger point and access blame helps no one. Instead, we need to use our energy and resources to learn what went so terribly wrong and make the necessary corrections so it will not happen again.

As terrible as hurricane winds are, it is always the storm surge that causes the most damage and death in a hurricane. Boats were desperately needed to help evacuate those trapped by the aftermath of the storm. There were not nearly enough. How do you logistically rescue 100,000 when you do not have the boats, helicopters or vehicles to get to them? When an entire city is nearly under water, it becomes a logistical nightmare.

The states surrounding Louisiana (and Mississippi) sent personnel and vehicles quickly to try to help. But with the city under water it made it more difficult to get to the people.

Quite frankly, it is not the government's sole responsibility to rescue its citizens. As a united states, we the people, must jump in and do what the government is not able to accomplish. To expect the government to be the sole source of our rescue whether during times of crisis or just in the general day to day living, is wrong. To expect something as unwieldy as the government to get anything done quickly; because, let's face it, they have more red tape than a dog has fleas; is ludicrous.

Our government was established to provide 5 basics of living:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, 1) establish Justice, 2) insure domestic Tranquility, 3) provide for the common defense, 4) promote the general Welfare, 5) and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. "

But it was NEVER intended to personally take care of individuals on a day to day basis! Only the general welfare of the nation at large. Aid and benevolent societies, the church, and local organizations were and should still be the ones helping those on a day to day basis when needed.

Galatians 2:10 Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia. He mentions that the apostles James, Peter, and John had encouraged him to: "remember the poor, and I have certainly been eager to do that."

Leviticus 25:35 If any of your Israelite relatives fall into poverty and cannot support themselves, support them as you would a resident foreigner and allow them to live with you."

This does not mean God expects us to solve the world's poverty problem--in fact we cannot. Nor does He want us to deprive our own families. But, whatever we can afford to do, then do it! If this means offering hospitality, then we do so.

I am very Proud of my own community. They HAVE opened their arms to help these evacuees. They have sent enormous amounts of food and clothing to our local distribution center. They have voluntarily given hours to sort clothing by sizes and to check food for expiration dates and then packaging everything up and getting it to where it needs to go. I know there are countless communities around this nation that are also doing exactly this.

While this is wonderful; how much more wonderful would it have been, if we could have responded prior to the landfall of this monstrous storm and helped those people who couldn't help themselves to escape. How many lives could have been saved?

Let us learn from this tragedy. Let us plan better. Let us not rely solely on the government to get done what needs to be done. Let us be willing to go in harms way ourselves to help our fellow Americans. There are those who did exactly that.

But it wasn't enough.


Top of Page