You Are On Your Own
September 4, 2005
By Douglas B. Wakeman
You are on your own. This country is broken. The simple tasks with which we entrust our leaders are abandoned. While they pretend to concern themselves with the insolvable social problems that plague mankind and attempt to reverse the laws of nature and of the universe in their lofty visions and all-knowing wisdom, the most basic chores of maintenance, to which every person of the least common-sense attends, are utterly neglected on a national scale.
Don’t we lock our doors and install security systems? Don’t we plan for emergencies? Don’t we have fire drills at home, school and work? And, don’t we institute governments to do the same? Don’t we willingly pay our taxes, assuming that our elected representatives are seeing to the basic chores?
Were you shocked to discover that the all-powerful and knowledgeable security and investigative services of the greatest country on Earth knew the players of 9/11 years in advance and were powerless to do anything about it? Did it surprise you that many tried to raise the alarm that malevolent foreigners were learning, in our own schools, to fly airliners, and that those alarms went ignored? Did you think that it was a one-time failing that had now been addressed with our newly opened eyes and our new department of Homeland Security? Did you think that the 9/11 Commission found the problems and offered the correct solutions?
Well, now we know the truth. It took Mother Nature to open our eyes to the sad, despicable truth. While new departments were created and big speeches were made, it was all for political points and the awarding of patronage positions for political allies. The lives and fortunes of the American citizen never played the least role in the new re-organizations and strategies.
Bush and his entire team need to be removed. 4 years after 9-11, we have no disaster response in place. None. Nothing at all.
Even the most somnolent among us awoke to the fact that there are people planning attacks on this country equal to, or worse than Katrina. Do we have response teams set up across the country with food and water and crews at the ready to get to any affected area in hours, at a moments notice? Obviously not. Isn’t this the very first step that even a drooling idiot would take? Are you telling me America can’t afford to keep those men and supplies at the ready? We can marshal the incredible effort to mobilize hundreds of thousands of men to remove the government of Iraq, where in a few years we have built schools, power stations, military bases, bridges, roads, hospitals, pipelines and restored infrastructure of every kind. We can send 15 billion dollars for the chimera of having any affect on AIDS amongst the savages of Africa, but we cannot set up 10 or 20 disaster relief centers across America? We can send billions to Israel and The Palestinian Authority so they can wage war on each other, but we can’t stock a few warehouses and keep some Chinooks fueled and pilots at the ready?
It is now 4 years after 9/11 and our borders are worse than ever. What was our president’s plan for the southern border after 9/11? He proposed an amnesty, fueling a frenzy of illegal immigration, overwhelming the minimal border security we did had in place.
Now, a disaster strikes an American city and 5 days later, not one bottle of water had been delivered to the starving, dehydrated victims by our federal government.
Instead, FEMA was transferred to this "Homeland Security" fiasco and gutted. It's now run by patronage bureaucrats who are concerned only with feathering their nests and those of their political ringmasters. Did you see the disgusting shuck-and jive shuffle exhibited by the Homeland Security chief, Michael Chertoff? I remember how all the conservatives praised this clown, just like they are praising Judge Roberts now. He is nothing but a political hack! He’s a prancing buffoon! Why is this jerkoff in charge of anything beyond his own dick??? And the chief of FEMA, Brown, was taken completely by surprise when he was informed in a radio interview that people were dying at the convention center after it was on all the cable channels for two fucking days!!!!! What was he doing?
You are on your own. You may be far from the hurricane and earthquake zone. You may not live down-valley from a damn. But, you need gasoline. You need telephone and electricity. You need things supplied from other places. That city down the road could be targeted by a dirty bomb or a nuke. You better have plenty of bottled water and canned food. You better have a generator and fuel for it. You better have plans for the things you need and love and want to keep, because the folks running your city, state and country are busy doing other things. They need to slander that other political party. They need to dig up dirt and spend millions spewing propaganda over the airwaves. They need to retain power! They have not given you a single thought. They think of you when it might affect their poll numbers, and by then you may be in big, fucking trouble.
Watch the political scum mobilize now in, what to them, is a real disaster! Public opinion may go against them! They need to shift blame! Now you'll see the kind of emergency response that disaster victims can only dream of. Committees will be formed. Inquiries will be made. Millions will be spent. A list of recommendations will be generated. No one will be fired, no one will be reprimanded. The conclusion to be reached will be determined at the very start. If you want to see impressive, flawless efficiency in response to a disaster, watch a politically appointed committee respond to public outrage in whitewashing their own incompetence. Now, that's where these idiots, thieves and losers really excel!