The unbearable lameness of Aaron Brown
Glenn Reynolds
Slate - MSNBC
September 18, 2005 | 2:30 PM ET
I was scanning across the news channels Friday night, and I came to CNN's Aaron Brown making this statement:
<<< FOREMAN: (voice-over): It may be more important to
understand the limits of government help.
FALKENRATH: People thought with all this attention to
first responders and to incident management at the
federal level that the federal government was really
going to be able to respond instantaneously or very
rapidly to a disaster. And that's just not the case.
FOREMAN: So the new leader of FEMA is saying get ready.
Have water, food, blankets, radios, flashlights,
medicine. He says it's not paranoia to be prepared.
It's simple prudence. Others put it more bluntly for
cities and their citizens.
RANDALL LARSEN, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: In the first 72
to 96 hours after a big disaster, you're probably going
to be on your own.
FOREMAN: Just like so many in Katrina's terrible wake.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: I shouldn't say this but when you see the pictures on the ground and you go to these towns in Mississippi and Louisiana and you see what's going on there now, still and you hear the official sound bytes, they sound a little lame.
>>>
After uttering these words, Brown went on to a story about "the pets left behind by Katrina," but I'd like to dwell on this subject a bit more.
Brown apparently thinks that it's "lame" for authorities to tell people to be prepared for disasters. I guess as soon as the hurricane winds slack off enough for their tiny translucent wings to function, the FEMA Fairies are supposed to fly through the broken windows and sprinkle pixie dust that turns into bottled water and MREs on contact with the survivors.
But if you look at these aerial photos showing damage to bridges and roads,
murdoconline.net
or read this account of problems with downed trees in Southern Mississippi,
instapundit.com
it's obvious that in the real world getting disaster aid in takes time. If Brown thinks that government instructions to be prepared are just some sort of new CYA move from FEMA, then he's woefully ignorant of the subject, since in fact FEMA, and other organizations like the Red Cross and the Los Angeles Fire Department, have been saying that for years. (He should be spending more time over here at MSNBC.com!)
Nor is this just an example of American individualism and hard-heartedness. Just ask this blogger from Japan:
<<<
I write, of course, from Japan. You know, the Japan that makes social-democrat/third-way types feel all warm and fuzzy? The Japan in which enlightened technocrats, enshrined in the federal ministries in Kasumigaseki and insulated from elections and politicking and evil market forces and stuff, guide the nation toward a bright nationally-insured future? Yeah, the bloom is somewhat off the economic rose, but in social policy terms, a lot of my left-leaning acquaintances still swoon over the degree of ministry control here.
Well, I will tell you as someone who has lived here for a decade: what you hear about disaster preparedness ALWAYS involves local intiatives. Sometimes, municipal governments are involved; other times, it's smaller public institutions. 1 September, the anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, was Disaster Prevention Day here. Apparently, over a million people participated in demonstrations and drills and things. Our apartment building's management company distributed leaflets to our mailboxes, outlining what would happen if a quake hit and our building were declared unsafe until inspection. New survival gadgets are always cropping up in human interest features on NHK.
...
In Japan, what we're told is this: A disaster may render you unreachable. It may cut you off from communication networks and utilities. The appropriate government agencies (starting at the neighborhood level and moving upward depending on the magnitude of the damage) will respond as quickly as they can, but you may be on your own for days until they do. Prepare supplies. Learn escape routes. Then learn alternate escape routes. Know what your region's points of vulnerability are. Get to know your neighbors (especially the elderly or infirm) so you can help each other out and account for each other. Follow directions if you're told to evacuate. Stay put if you aren't. Participate in the earthquake preparation drills in your neighborhood.
If that's the attitude of people in collectivist, obedient, welfare-state Japan, it is beyond the wit of man why any American should be sitting around entertaining the idea that Washington should be the first (or second or fifteenth) entity to step in and keep the nasty wind and rain and shaky-shaky from hurting you. Sheesh.
>>>
Sheesh, indeed. What's troubling is that some people may pick up on Brown's attitude, and fail to prepare. That could cost them their lives -- or the lives of rescue workers who have to save them, or the lives of other people whom rescue workers couldn't save because the system was overburdened looking after people who could have prepared to look after themselves, but didn't.
Sorry, Aaron, but that really is lame.
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transcripts.cnn.com |
