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From: LindyBill	9/3/2005 6:19:39 PM
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Government Tells the Red Cross to Stay Out of New Orleans Cafe Hayek By Don Boudreaux on Current Affairs The American Red Cross -- an exemplary voluntary disaster-relief organization with almost 125 years of experience -- was told by the National Guard and local authorities not to go to Katrina-devastated New Orleans. According to the Disaster FAQs section of the American Red Cross's website: redcross.org Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans? o Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders. o The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city. o The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents. Digest this: government turned away one of the world's most skilled and experienced agencies from bringing relief to starving, thristy, dying New Orleanians. Why? Why? Why??? The reason, according (above) to the Red Cross is that government feared that the Red Cross's presence would keep people from evacuating and even causing others to (re)enter. This reason does indeed sounds just like the sort of reason that government officials offer to justify their indescribable -- what to call it? -- stupidity? Illogic? Words fail me. Was the government worried that the Red Cross would deliver relief with such success that people would feel comfortable remaining in their hometown -- so comfortable that those who fled would want to return? Does fear of such an outcome justify the refusal of aid to dying people????? Yesterday, E.J. Dionne wrote in the Washington Post that major disaster relief cannot be done without government. The truth is that, at the same time the government was proving itself to be utterly incompetent at providing disaster relief, it was doing what it does with unparalleled skill: f*&King things up.

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