Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Heeding a call for help

Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005 | 3:05 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

WEEKEND EDITION

September 3-5, 2005

Are we our neighbor's keeper?

I don't know anyone who can watch the horrific pictures of total personal and physical devastation that have been left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and not feel compelled to do something, anything to help our fellow Americans whose lives have been turned upside down.

That doesn't mean there aren't people in this country who sound heartless in the face of millions of uprooted Americans -- homeless and helpless -- because there are and we can do nothing but feel ashamed of them. But the vast majority of the people in America are willing, able and eager to do whatever they can to help. And that message is playing loud and clear around the world.

Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi says what he has seen up and down the coast is the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States. Total destruction is the norm in his state near the coastal cities. And while he is convinced and somewhat convincing that life will get back to normal, it is obvious that it will be a long time and a very painful process to bring normalcy back to that part of our country.

Anyone watching the news and seeing New Orleans under water has to believe that this is not going to be an easy fix. A city that is basically at or below sea level can hardly be expected to dry out anytime soon, if at all. Certainly not soon enough to save homes, office buildings and a great deal of the infrastructure that has made New Orleans a thriving city. The pictures of people wandering aimlessly in the flooded streets, looking for loved ones they know are gone and searching in vain for places they once called home, are a grim reminder that Mother Nature reigns supreme and that man's technology is and never will be a match for her fury.

There is a surrealism attached to the hurricane and its resulting devastation. You want to say, "I've already seen this movie," because only in the movies does this kind of script get played out. And, yet, here we are days later with very few answers for those hungry, thirsty and dying. As hard as FEMA and other governmental authorities are working, it is far too little and too late for many Americans who might have expected that this level of unpreparedness would not exist in the United States. In fact, if there is one thread of unbelievability running across this great country it is the inability to understand what took so long to get food, water and the basics to Americans in their own backyards.

If there is any good news it is that governments at all levels are getting their acts together so that those people in need -- there could be millions of them -- are attended to today, not tomorrow. The fact that President George W. Bush cut his vacation short to personally attend to the disaster is proof enough that this is a matter of grave public concern.

What he needs to do next is bring Congress together with its first order of business being the appropriation of whatever funds are necessary to help these people put their lives, their homes and their businesses back together. He has assured us that he will, so we can only hope that politics and other business will take a back seat while the president drives this relief and rescue effort forward.

The current setup is not equipped to handle all the problems that Katrina has caused. There are always cracks in any bureaucratic effort into which people fall and never get help. So I trust that President Bush and congressional leaders will act expeditiously to empower whomever and whatever it takes to make sure that there is money, there is food, there is moral support and there is compassion for the people displaced, disgorged and discouraged by the hurricane.

Neighboring states are already reaching out to help without regard to budgets and abilities. People are just doing what they need to do. If there is any silver lining it is that Americans are showing the world, once again, what it means to be an American.

While it would be nice if our "friends" called to offer help, the fact of the matter is that we don't need their help. We have the people and financial resources to do this ourselves. It would be nice, however, if our friends offered to run things in Iraq while we tend to our problems at home, but that won't happen. What that really means is that Americans must always be prepared to fight on multiple fronts at the same time, something the politicians argue about continually to little avail.

It is a safe guess that at least one person in the past few years sounded the alarm about the levee in New Orleans that might break should the "big one" happen. And it is a safe bet that the politicians deferred any maintenance because the cost was prohibitive in light of other priorities. Make that in light of voter displeasure in spending any tax monies on something seemingly so remote. What do you think those folks in Louisiana would say now to the idea of shoring up the river?

The fact is that cities across the country are constantly making the easy decisions, which include not riling the taxpayers, and that means that needed infrastructure -- be it roads, water delivery systems, decaying tunnels and bridges and other necessities -- are not being attended to properly. And then along comes a Katrina and guess what? When will we ever learn that if we don't spend it wisely today we will be overspending it most unwisely tomorrow?

If we learn nothing else from this disaster it should be that we are an interdependent world and interdependent country. What happens here affects everyone else and what happens around the world will, eventually, affect us here at home. None of us in Las Vegas drowned from the storms or lost our homes as thousands of people did in the Gulf States. But all of us will pay a very heavy price. Whether it is in volunteer time to give aid and comfort, or more tax dollars to help fix those states over a long period of time, or the more immediate expenses we will have to pay at the gas pump because of the loss of refining capacity caused by Katrina, the fact is that we will all have to share in the cost of that hurricane. But our price will be cheap by comparison.

Can we do better next time? Sure we can, but it takes a commitment of not only the resources necessary to plan for contingencies but to fund them as well. So far we have been reluctant to do that in this country, thinking that's the other guy's problem, not ours. So now we know better.

For those who believe that government has a role to play in making people's lives better, here's your chance to make sure that happens. For those who believe that God is the one who must play that role, well, now's his chance, too. And for the rest of America which hasn't given all this that much thought, now's a good time to start thinking.

We have learned this past week that we must be our neighbor's keeper. For as we help keep our neighbor, we also keep ourselves.

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