to my congressman
<< Sep 7, 2005 @ 15:08 >>
Dear Congressman Sabo,
Hello, I am one of your constituents from the Whittier community of Minneapolis. I'm writing you for the first time, sadly as I'm sure is often the case, because I'm unhappy with my government.
The Federal government's handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster has been horrifying and completely incompetent. Think about the fact that we knew the hurricane was coming and that the majority of the city of New Orleans had been evacuated. Now imagine terrorists releasing a biological agent or detonating a nuclear or dirty bomb device in the heart of a city without warning. I think we all know for a fact now that the Federal government wouldn't be prepared.
Don't be fooled. Don't let anyone tell you that this was a rare and special case because state and local government was hit by the disaster directly as well. That could happen in a terrorist attack. Don't let somebody cite the excellent response to the 9/11 disaster... there was nothing for the government to do on 9/11... everybody was already DEAD. There was nobody to bring food and water to. No houses were destroyed. No towns were flooded.
Why do we have a government? Why do we pay taxes? For protection. And this executive branch has ridden a platform of "you'll be safe with us, and you might be dead with the other guy." And they have failed. They have failed miserably.
Bush has stated in front of a video camera that "nobody thought those levees would break." Brown and Chertoff have both blamed the surpise of the broken levees and flooding for the slow response. THIS IS INARGUABLE INCOMPETENCE. It is a FACT that it has been well known that the levees in New Orleans and the pumping systems there as well would fail in the event of a category 4 or 5 (maybe even a category 3) hurricane. How can these people who we have elected to be accountable to protect us claim they were caught off guard by something everybody else knew would happen? What if terrorists had set off a bomb on the levee system? Would we wait five days to find some boats and some helicopters and some food and some water?
Bush makes a point of saying how we cannot bring our troops home from Iraq because a) Iraq isn't ready to defend itself and b) it would give the terrorists reason to believe they can defeat us. I mostly agree with Bush there. However, if seeing the American government's complete lack of a response to save its citizens in the event of a disaster that was stewing in the gulf for days ahead of time isn't going to give the terrorists a boost to attack us, I don't know what will. They pretty much know that their attacks could be much more successful than they ever dreamed now. And our National Guard, that is supposed to be here to help AMERICANS, is spread thin and out-of-country.
Impeachment starts in the House, congressman. All of you are up for election in 2006. I suggest you get something done now, or you can bet your ass you've earned yourself staunch opposition to your re-election.
We need new leadership in this country. We need new leadership for FEMA and for the Department of Homeland Security. Neither Bush nor Cheney are acceptable leaders of the Executive branch. We need some leaders who will structure our emergency services in such a way that they are prepared. Don't you dare give me some "changing a horse in mid-stream" B.S. They've failed. They are not qualified to be in office. Someone else needs to fix it, not them.
I don't know where you get your facts. I don't know what papers you read, or television stations you watch. I don't know what websites you visit. But I can tell you that if you aren't in 100% agreeance with me, I have plenty of pure objective primary resources you should maybe see, hear, read.
The only reason you have this job is to work for your constituents and be accountable to them. NOW GET GOING.
Zachary Johnson