Hurricane Katrina has caused deaths, misery, and destruction. However, the president, his government, and even his family have revealed their inability to understand the full scope of the disaster and their lack of sympathy for the victims. Why?
Many wealthy leaders in the GOP are far removed from the daily routine of taking care of children, working for a living, caring for elderly parents, participating in school/community activities, pumping their own gas, and buying groceries. If you don't deal with these day to day mundane jobs, you tend to forget how difficult living can be.
>Here are my examples:
President Bush's refusal to cancel a fundraiser, a guitar gift ceremony, a cake presentation with Sen. McCain, a talk about social security reform, and a ceremony commemorating the end of WWII, show that he is unable/unwilling to respond quickly to a disaster. These things could have been rescheduled. Instead of reading the newspaper and following TV news, he did not follow the unfolding of events on the gulf. Why?
Barbara Bush's remark about how the poor were better off living in the Astrodome shows her lack of empathy for the displaced families.
The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of FEMA did not know that thousands of people had taken refuge at the New Orleans convention center and had been there for days. If they personally didn't follow media reports, could they have had staff monitoring TV and radio news?
Secretary of State Rice saw a show and bought shoes while the gulf was in a crisis.
Tom DeLay had to be convinced to return to DC to move on disaster relief. Do you think he returned to the House out of sympathy for Americans on the gulf or for his own party's political survival?
It is time for Americans to realize that many of the cold, corrupt, self-absorbed members of this administration and the GOP do not care about us. We have got to vote for leaders who care and are able to respond to an emergency quickly and efficiently. This president, his cabinet, and the GOP majority had their chance and they failed.
