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9/02/2017

Houston Problem Runs Deep

“HOUSTON, we have a problem!”  The tragedy of Houston is much on the minds of citizens of all areas of the country, as it was for residents of New Orleans during the devastation of Katrina, and for residents of eastern states during Sandy.  We applaud the neighbor-to-neighbor assistance, help, bravery and caring that has been the most inspirational aspect of this dire situation.  But we grieve and blanch at the scenes of devastation and loss that pervade that area.  We have contributed to the Red Cross as much as possible, but we know that it will take many more private contributions and the dedication of governmental resources to heal this region over time. We pray that those children and adults affected may find the way back to a stable status and to a life that brings its own measure of happiness. 

We visited in New Orleans several years after Katrina hit there.  We saw new modern alternative energy homes built at the initiation and sponsorship of movie stars, we heard of special efforts to bring back musicians who had been affected by the storm.  Progress had been made, the city was alive and vibrant, but some people had never recovered, and the lack of flood insurance meant they had a minimal chance of doing so.  Government help, whether in New York and New England for damaging floods there, or in New Orleans, or in Houston, has been both good in some respects and bad in others.  But, without government help at all levels, the devastating effects would be much worse, rescues would have been many fewer, and recovery much slower.. 

However, the problem of which we speak goes deeper.  There is the problem of flood insurance that few can afford.  There is the loss of lives because of several reasons, one of which is the inability of official or unofficial responders to get to all those who were trapped.  That was also a sad story in New Orleans where people died in their top floors and attics because no one could get to them.
 
There is also the problem of budget cuts, especially at the federal level, that will reduce the ability to respond from that level.  FEMA faces a $ 875 million cut in the 2018 proposed Trump budget even while Trump promised $1 million of his own money in aid to Houston residents. The AP raised the following question: “As the death toll from Hurricane Harvey reaches 47 and damage estimates approach record-setting levels, the need for financial assistance for the victims has become frantic. But will the tragic scale of the storm affect a proposed $876 million cut to FEMA’s future relief funding?”  Will Trump deliver on his promise of $1 million of his own fortune to help?  His record on this score is not good.   Remember, if you will, part of the $875 mil in cuts was meant for building the Wall on our Mexican border. 

But, there is something far deeper here that can definitely get lost in the tragedy of this event. That is, the inability of government to fully protect and defend its People.  Government (as well as the private sector) is unprepared at all levels to deal with these disasters in the manner that will produce optimum results.  FEMA doesn’t have enough resources.  Local governments do not have enough resources (and sometimes no emergency plans) to deal most effectively with these disasters.  Just how long have we had the opportunity to address these natural disasters with modern implements?  Almost a century perhaps.  In all that time, what has government (and the private sector) done to learn lessons from these events and experiences?  What is it that we need, based on all the emergencies we have faced?  Another cabinet department to deal with emergencies only?  Maybe; but I doubt it
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Of course, there is a reserve emergency fund at the national level to enable people to recover from such natural disasters, and the AP did report preliminary discussions in the WH to add substantial amounts to that reserve fund. Apparently, a decision has been made to send lawmakers an initial request for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts.  “The request, expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, would add $7.4 billion to rapidly dwindling Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid coffers and $450 million to finance disaster loans for small businesses.”  Republican leaders are already making plans to use the aid package, certain to be overwhelmingly popular, to win speedy approval of a contentious increase in the federal borrowing limit.

So, why can’t they also address the sticky issue of flood insurance and come up with a public option much like we should have had in the ACA?

Finally, it goes much deeper still.  Yes, we do have a problem, and it goes to something that prevents us from dealing in a fundamental way with what you and others, have experienced.  We have a government—and an agency responsible for our environment: the EPA -- being run by people who actually deny the existence of climate change, of environmental crisis, of the importance of being in on a world-wide pact – the Paris Accords.  That Agreement actually brought the whole world together to work on the attack upon our planet by human beings and business enterprises being their most thoughtless, greedy, stupid and uncaring.  They are poisoning our planet and ignoring the causes and the consequences.

If we continue to regard each of these climate events as separate occurrences, unrelated to a systemic problem that most likely causes all of it, we shall be buried by the consequences.  Just as certain animals are becoming extinct, and just as other planets may once have nurtured life forms that died out as the planet over-heated or was made unlivable (by gasses or chemicals, by bacteria or viruses -- by whatever might be unrecognized and uncontrolled), we could face an atmosphere that becomes unfriendly to human life.
 
The rub is this:  extinction or unlivable conditions or poisoned water, air and food seem a long way off, the time to deal with such events is not when they are happening; the time is right now.  The future is the present, because it is now that the remedies and solutions and actions must take place or the problems will be beyond the reach of those immediately threatened by them.  We are called to act in the present to save the future for others.

This is the epitome of a contractual society: acting on behalf of others who will not have the ability or opportunity to save themselves.  It is a concept that applies to the welfare of human beings: a contract we have with unknown people to protect and defend them even though we don’t know if they ‘deserve’ that help.  Can a government that denies the imperative of social responsibility for one another, supported by wealthy industrialists who also deny any responsibility for their communities or their neighbors – ever understand and act on that unsigned social contract?  It is very doubtful.  Can a government that denies a need for food stamps or flood insurance options, or health care as a right not a privilege or social security as a necessity for retirees, or who deny the necessity of Head Start or of Meals on Wheels for children and Seniors – can such a government even be trusted to address the saving of our planet?  I doubt it very much.

The answer to “Why?” Is disturbing.  They cannot allow their ideology to be compromised, even with human lives and life at stake.  Take another example to see this clearly.  Trump has put aggression and toughness at the top of his definition of leadership.  He desperately wants to prove that he is an authoritarian leader.   Despite the findings of science that a nuclear war would be fatal to much of our civilization and to much of our environment, depending on the power of the bombs used, Trump insists on acting very aggressively toward Kim Jong Un and North Korea.  He has threatened ‘fire and fury as never seen before.’ 

So, no matter what scientists say will happen to human life and the life span of the planet, Trump is willing to put authoritarian leadership – a staple of the Right-wing – very high on his priorities list to be seen as more important than life itself.  He is a damn fool, crazy enough to place all of our lives on the sacrificial altar of Fuhrership.  Ideology before People – that is Trump – that is the Republican Right-wing – that is the Alt Right and that is Fascism.

Yes, we do have a problem, and its name is Trump/McConnell/Ryan/Alt Right/climate change denier/Myron Ebell/EPA.

In stark contrast, without regard to worthiness, or differences in social class, race or political or religious creeds, citizens of Houston (and elsewhere) reached out to people in peril and in need to fulfill the responsibility that belongs to us all: the responsibility of caring for people, no matter what differences may exist.  If ordinary human beings can do that in times of crisis, they can do it in other critical times as well.   
Instead of being inspired by the beneficent actions of people helping people, this Trump administration will continue to place partisan political and conservative economic ideology plus de-(con)struction higher in priority than the general welfare of the People.  Watch carefully how this prediction will come forth out of his Tax Reform proposals and his proposed budget.

We, the People, must continue on a different path, for we know the mission, we know the purpose, we know the way that our democracy must progress: toward the light of freedom, equal opportunity and justice for all.  And we know what it takes to fulfill that promise – to survive the bad and to rejoice in the good.  We know it takes grit, determination and hard work, but we know too that survival and progression depend on the help and benevolence of other resources – our families, our friends our neighbors, our fellow citizens, and on government that is dedicated above all else to the welfare, protection, and fulfillment of individual potential and aspiration by providing a myriad of opportunities for all our People. Let us not waver in our commitment to one another.  It is the bedrock on which our nation grows in moral strength, in greater unity forged from diversity, in a meaningful purpose of community service that can be shared with the world.  Thank you Houston for reminding us that there are some fundamentals that we must re-capture if we are to survive.