DeFazio Storms Against Bush
America’s Bad Example
C
A
ongressman Peter DeFazio of Springfield calls the
Bush administration’s response to Hurricane
Katrina “disastrously inadequate.”
“There are probably people that died because of
the inadequate federal response,” DeFazio said.
He said that it was “astounding” that TV trucks
were able to drive into the city for days while the
federal government claimed it could not reach
storm victims.
DeFazio blamed the failure on Bush’s reorganiza-
tion of FEMA (the Federal Emergence Management
Agency) into the Department of Homeland Security bureaucracy.
DeFazio said the Homeland Security consolidation was a hurried and poorly con-
structed political plan “scribbled on the back of a napkin by Carl Rove,” the presi-
dent’s pollster, to respond to criticism that the government had failed to prevent the
9/11 attacks.
FEMA and other disaster programs like emergency communication have gone beg-
ging for money for years, DeFazio said. “The Bush administration can’t be bothered;
it’s tax cuts, tax cuts, Iraq.”
DeFazio said the head of FEMA “should be fired” and said his hiring in the first
place was “ridiculous” political patronage.
Bush has praised FEMA director Michael Brown for doing a “heck of a job” after
the hurricane. Brown, a Republican activist, was reportedly forced out of his previous
job overseeing horse shows.
Congress should investigate what went wrong and “heads should roll,” DeFazio
said. But, “I expect the Republican majority will drag its heels” in investigating the
Bush administration.
“There’s a lot of obfuscation and outright lying here,” said DeFazio of statements
by FEMA denying that there was a refugee crisis at the New Orleans convention cen-
ter. DeFazio said state and local officials also share some of the blame for their part in
failing to provide buses to evacuate the poor and elderly before the hurricane hit.
DeFazio faulted Bush’s initial response of flying over the disaster in a 747 at
30,000 to 40,000 feet, “he failed to grasp the magnitude of the disaster.”
While the president was talking about how “Poor Trent Lott [a Republican senator
from Mississippi] had lost one of his houses,” DeFazio said, “people were drowning
in their attics.”
DeFazio said race and class were “certainly a factor” in the failure to help the
largely poor and black storm victims. “You got to ask that question, why the seeming
indifference for days?” DeFazio said. “It was pathetic.”
DeFazio questioned whether taxpayers should fund the rebuilding of casinos along
the Gulf Coast, an area repeatedly ravaged by hurricanes. He said rebuilding New
Orleans completely was a “more complicated question” and that parts of the city could
“just be too vulnerable” to future storms to rebuild.
With the nation facing the “incredibly expensive” and long-term costs of helping
the impoverished victims of Katrina and rebuilding, DeFazio said Republicans should
reconsider their push for cutting taxes for wealthy inheritance heirs and investors.
But he said tax breaks remain Republicans highest priority. “This is insanity, these
people are looting the country to benefit just a few people.” — Alan Pittman
merica’s slow, uneven and inadequate response to
the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe has
demonstrated our national hypocrisy with the
whole world watching, says Eugene black
activist Charles Dalton.
“We have once again seen the time-hon-
ored American tradition of democratically
supported policies having racial over-
tones,” said Dalton this week.
“The whole world watched our per-
formance,” he said. “They will never trust
us to do the right thing when we tell them
we know what to do to make the world bet-
ter. They have watched us air our collective
dirty laundry.”
Dalton, a program manager at EWEB, said watch-
ing the unfurling drama in New Orleans and elsewhere in
the Gulf has been emotionally difficult for him, and has brought to the surface years of
resentments against “our domestic system of white privilege.”
He figures if a similar disaster were to happen in predominantly white Des Moines, Iowa,
both the preparations and the response would be have been much better. “The feds knew in
advance that the levies (in New Orleans) could not withstand a level 4 or 5 hurricane. They
knew there were at least 100,000 people with no transportation and no money for necessities
if they left. The disaster planners also knew that about 90 percent of those stuck in the city
would be black.”
“No matter how the aftermath of Katrina plays out, the damage is done,” he said. “Bush
has destroyed any chance of convincing black folks that they can trust Republicans for at
least a generation. The rest of the world will not trust us when we tell them we know what
we are doing unilaterally.”
Dalton said he’s also disappointed with the lack of response from conservative Christian
churches. “I have not heard of any of those mega-churches offering to take in the displaced
from New Orleans,” he said, “I did not hear them advising their flocks to carry less stuff in
their SUVs so they could offer rides to those they passed seeking rides on their way out of
the area. To the contrary, a few conservative Christians have chosen to blame the victims for
being liberal sinners.” — Ted Taylor
The Music Lives On
Rumors have been rampant about Fats Domino, Alex Chilton and other musicians
missing in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. But those two musicians are alive
and well, according to a running list of surviving musicians and bands now posted at
the non-profit radio station WWOZ in New Orleans. The website is www.wwoz.org
The long list of survivors also includes names familiar to Eugene audiences, such as
Tab Benoit, Gatemouth Brown, Galactic, the Neville Brothers, Juanita Brooks, Dirty
Dozen Brass Band, Doc Otis, Hot Club of New Orleans, Funky Meters, The Radiators,
Mother Tongue, Scott Saltzman, Rebirth Brass Band and the Marsalis family.
How To Help Victims
The best way to help people in the most need is to donate money rather than goods,
says local pediatrician Todd Huffman, MD. He recommends the following charities:
• U ni t e d W a y O f Ho us t o n: Katrina Refugee Relief Fund:
www.houstonhurricaneaid.org
• Sa l va ti o n Ar m y o f H o us t o n:
www.salvationarmyhouston.org
• A me r ic a n R e d C r o s s : www.redcross.org
• T e a m R e s c ue O ne : www.teamrescueone.org
• A me r i Ca re s : www.americares.org
• N or th we s t M e di c al Te a m s: www.nwmedicalteams.org
• A me r ic a’ s S ec o nd Ha rv e st : www.secondharvest.org
• S al v a ti o n A r m y: www.salvationarmy.org
• St . V i nc e nt d e P a u l So ci e t y of Ho us t on : www.svdphous-
ton.org
• M er c y Co r p s: www.mercycorps.org
• NA AC P : www.naacp.org/disaster/contribute.php
• N at i o na l C o un ci l o f C h ur c he s: www.ncccusa.org
• Co n vo y o f H o p e : www.convoyofhope.org
• Ha b it a t Fo r Hu m a ni t y : www.habitat.org www.habitat.org
• Ba t o n Ro u ge A r e a F ou nd a ti o n: www.braf.org www.braf.org
• G o od wi ll I nd u st ri e s o f H o us t o n: www.goodwillhouston.org
And if you’d like to open up your home to Katrina victims,
contact: www.HurricaneHousing.org
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SEPTEMBER 8, 2005 13