Hurricane Katrina Disaster
I sense that we in this country have Katrina fatigue. The New York
Times reported as much recently, saying that people in some of the
areas that welcomed Katrina evacuees last September are sick of hearing about the
hurricane, the flooding and the aftermath.
Well, my wife and I were in a car last Wednesday that toured the hardest-hit area of New Orleans, the Lower Ninth Ward. We worked a day at a nearby Habitat for Humanity site on Thursday, and we toured the Biloxi/Gulfport/Long Beach/Pass Christian gulf shore area last Friday. And let me just say this: I can absolutely guarantee you that if you'd been in the car with us, no matter how much you'd been hit over the head with the effects of this disaster, you would not have Katrina fatigue.
What I saw was a national disgrace. An inexcusable, irresponsible, borderline criminal national disgrace. I am ashamed of this country for the inaction I saw everywhere.
I mentioned my outrage to the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, on Thursday. He shook his head and said, "Tell me about it.'' Disgust dripped from his voice.
What are we doing in this country?
"It's been eight months since Katrina,'' said Jack Bowers, my New Jersey friend and Habitat for Humanity guide through the Lower Ninth Ward, as he took us through deserted streets where nothing, absolutely nothing, was being done about the wasteland that this place is.
"Eight months!" he said. "And look at it. When people talk to me about New Orleans, they say, 'Well, things are getting back to normal down there, aren't they?' I tell them things are a long, long way from normal, and it's going to be a long time before it's ever normal. And I tell them they've never seen anything like this.''
Our Mississippi guide, Josh Norman of the Biloxi Sun-Herald, put it this way: "People outside of here are tired of hearing about it. They've moved on to the next news cycle.''
How can we let an area like the Lower Ninth Ward sit there, on the eve of another hurricane season, with nothing being done to either bulldoze the place and start over, or rebuild? How can Congress sit on billions of looming aid and not release it for this area?
I can't help but think that if this were Los Angeles or New York, that 500 percent more money -- and concern -- would have flooded into this place. And I can't help but think that if the idiots who let the levees down here go to seed had simply been doing their jobs, we'd never have been in this mess in the first place -- in New Orleans, at least. Other than former FEMA director Michael Brown, are you telling me that no others are paying for this with their jobs? Whatever happened to responsibility?
Am I ticked off? Damn right I'm ticked off. If you're breathing, you should be morally outraged. Katrina fatigue? Hah! More Katrina news! Give me more! Give it to me every day on the front page! Every day until Washington realizes there's a disaster here every bit as urgent as anything happening in this world today -- fighting terrorism, combating the nuclear threat in Iran. I'm not in any way a political animal, but all you have to be is an occasionally thinking American to be sickened by the conditions I saw.
The Lower Ninth Ward is a 1.5-by-2-mile area a couple of miles from the center of New Orleans. It is a poor area. I should say it was a poor area. Before the storm, 20,000 people lived there. Fats Domino lived there. So, formerly, did Marshall Faulk. And now you drive through it and see nothing being done to fix it or tear it down, or to do anything.
In Mississippi, we drove through one formerly thriving beach town that has two structures left. We drove past concrete pads with litter and shards of wood around them. Former houses. The houses, quite literally, have been eviscerated. Hundreds of them. This is what nuclear winter must look like, I thought.
I'm a sportswriter. It's not my job to figure how to fix what ails the Gulf Coast. But the leaders of this society are responsible. And they're not doing their jobs. I could ignore everything I saw and go back to my nice New Jersey cocoon, forgetting I saw it. And I know you don't read me to hear my worldviews. But I couldn't sleep at night if I didn't say something.
On Saturday, at the Saints' headquarters for the draft, I watched the day unfold with a friend of the team, New Orleans businessman and president Michael Whelan. I told him what I'd seen, and asked him what he thought.
"We spend all this money on the war in Iraq and we can't take care of our own
cities?" he said. "You get out of downtown, and it's like a war zone in a lot of
neighborhoods still. The government has been a huge letdown. I've heard billions of
dollars are going to be sent here. Where are they? Nothing is taking place. I
certainly think that now it's back-page news; the government is sweeping it under the
rug.''
Your e-mail was heavy on draft thoughts, naturally. Here goes.
THE RICH GET RICHER. From Vince Chase of Winchester, N.H.: "With all the draft selection ink being given to the AFC bottom feeders, not much has been said about how well the top teams reloaded. So which of the following AFC powerhouses -- Colts, Steelers, Broncos and Patriots -- do you think reloaded for a championship run?"
I really like what the Broncos did, and I think I like what the Patriots did. The Broncos might have drafted the best quarterback in this year's crop, Jay Cutler. And assuming Javon Walker rehabs well from his knee injury, that's a great pickup from Green Bay that cost Denver a second-round pick. Walker is a tough, sure-handed receiver who has proven himself under pressure in big games, something Ashley Lelie hasn't done yet.
Regarding the Pats, Mike Shanahan thinks they got the best RB in the draft in Laurence Maroney. They got the No. 1 receiver on many draft boards in Chad Jackson -- and they got him in the second round. He should be a better-than-adequate replacement for David Givens.
While researching a Vince Young story a few weeks ago, I saw a bunch of highlight-film catches by Texas tight end David Thomas, including a spectacular seam route he ran to make a difficult catch while getting blasted at Oklahoma State by a safety. New England was lucky to get him in the third round.
You never know about young kickers, but the kid they got in the fourth round from Memphis, Stephen Gostkowski, was 10 for 10 on field goals outside of 40 yards last year, and he'll be given a chance to compete with Martin Gramatica to replace the legendary Adam Vinatieri. Those are the two AFC contenders that I think did the best.
NOT HAPPY WITH ESPN. From Chris of Hoboken, N.J.: "I love Chris Berman, but I have to say he ruined the first round of the draft for me. Before the pick was announced he pretty much told us who it was going to be. Obviously he knew who was going to be picked because someone was telling him in his earpiece. Berman needs to stop ruining the suspense of the draft. Also, Michael Irvin brought nothing to the telecast except for a loud mouth."
As someone who experiences the draft from a team's site every year, I'm not a 24-7 ESPN watcher on draft day. But I see enough to know that Berman gives away secrets and Irvin screams a lot. I may be in the minority on this, but I happen to think Berman is a very good traffic cop. He's funny. And having been in that situation, with people saying different things in your ear while you're supposed to be making sense and being a tad comedic in front of the camera ... that's pretty tough business.
NO NEED TO MAIL ME GIFT CARDS. From David of San Antonio: "Well, you were off by a few rounds, but you were right about the Jets taking Kellen Clemens. So where would you like your Starbucks card sent to?"
Keep the Starbucks card. Now, if I'd had a direct hit on Clemens, I'd want a lot more than a Starbucks card. I'd want a round-trip to Vegas, because I'd be pretty good at gambling. In the last week before the draft I heard so many teams talking about Clemens, I felt confident he'd be the fourth quarterback picked, and I really thought it would be at the end of the first round. I was a little off there.
LAMBASTING THE LIONS. From Bill of Joliet, Ill.: "In case you were wondering why the majority of us Lions fans want Matt Millen fired, hopefully Sunday cleared it up for you. It was extremely disappointing to see the Lions pass on Matt Leinart. I think the Lions could have tried to use Jon Kitna the same way the Bengals did with him and Palmer. Nevertheless, that really is not what upsets me. Everyone and their brother knew the Cardinals wanted Leinart, and the Lions' chronic problems at the QB position are no secret. Therefore, what really irks me is that the Lions did not seem to try to get anything for their pick. How difficult would it have been to pretend they wanted Leinart or even Cutler? It seems to me they could have easily positioned themselves to get something out of Denver or Arizona for the ninth pick and still get that injury-prone LB they wanted. Am I just way off base on this one, or is this another example of Millen's ineptitude at the GM position?"
The Lions are paying offensive coordinator Mike Martz $2 million a year to do the same thing he did with the Redskins and the Rams: develop underrated quarterbacks. Martz helped make a seventh-rounder, Trent Green, a valuable commodity. He did the same thing with a street free agent, Kurt Warner, and likewise with Marc Bulger, after he was waived by the Saints in 2000. Had Detroit picked a quarterback in the first round, I think it would have been lunacy. It would have meant that in the last five first rounds Detroit would have picked three wide receivers and two quarterbacks, all in the top 10 picks. Insane. You can't go so crazy trying to fix your offense that for five years in a row, in prime draft position, you ignore the rest of the team. As much as I like Leinart, the Lions will be fine at quarterback with Martz tutoring Jon Kitna and Josh McCown.
DID DA RAIDERS DO GOOD? From Sam Eisenberg of Oakland: "I can't believe how many sportswriters outside of Northern California commented that the Raiders made a big mistake by not taking Leinart. Do you guys know that they already have a young talented quarterback they are grooming in Andrew Walter? Walter will probably take a year longer to develop than Leinart, but the Raiders can afford to wait because they have Aaron Brooks (and yes, I think Brooks sucks, but he'll play better than a rookie QB). Why take another young QB when the Raiders have so many other weaknesses? If they took Leinart, they would be hurting this year on defense. How would that help the team? I am not saying Leinart won't be good. In fact, I think he'll be very good in the NFL. But so will Walter."
Very good point, and I've heard this from many pro-Raiders people in the last 48 hours. My only point is this: Are you confident that over the next five years, the combination of Brooks and Walter is going to be a playoff combination? Are they a duo that will maximize the Raiders' offensive potential and help justify the money spent to get Randy Moss? Look, I love Michael Huff. Anyone who starts 50 games in a program like Texas' and consistently makes big plays there is obviously a great NFL prospect. I just don't think he can impact the Raiders over the next 10 years as much as Leinart could have.
THANKS FOR THE DIME! From Kevin Shelley of Buffalo: "Assists in basketball are called 'dimes' because before cell phones that is how much it cost to make a call; you were asked, 'Hey, man, can you spare a dime?' You 'assisted' him!"
You learn something new every day. Thank you.
ALL CAFFEINE NOT CREATED EQUAL. From Dan Anzini of Newark, Calif.: "When does coffeenerdness become teanerdness?"
What can I say? We grow. We get into green tea.
"By Saturday September 3, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, a senior Bush official said."
–Washington Post writers Manuel Franzia and Spencer Hsu, who did not fact check the LIE
by the Bush admin as part of its attempts to blame state /local officials , when
the "emergency declaration" HAD BEEN MADE on Friday August the 26
mediamatters.org/items/200509070002
"I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina to make sure their children are in school." –First Lady Laura Bush, twice referring to a "Hurricane Corina" while speaking to children and parents in South Haven, Mississippi, Sept. 8, 2005
Critics Say Bush Undercut New Orleans Flood Control
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/peter_king/05/02/mmqbte/index.html