FEMA Shame

Let me say up front that I’m ashamed to admit that I ever was part of FEMA.

Let me also say up front that the FEMA I was part of is not the FEMA of today.

Under the command of James Lee Witt the agency had Cabinet stature and Witt had the ear of President Bill Clinton.

It’s not that way now.

FEMA is a poor stepchild inside the cobbled together Dept. of Homeland Security, its head, Michael Brown is a political appointee whose only disaster credentials are his own – trying to save a career after being asked to leave the International Arabian Horse Association.

Now, why am I writing this in a blog that ostensibly is about Zephyrhills, Florida?

Simple, the same government that abandoned its poorest and most helpless citizens in Katrina’s wake, no matter how lawless they became, can be depended upon to do the same to the citizens of this usually quiet community.

Here’s the deal, folks: Don’t put your hopes in your government when the chips are down. As long as we keep electing politicians who are beholden to themselves first and big business second, those of us who pay the bills will be left to suck hind tit.

A governmental failure of the magnitude we are witnessing and enduring often causes the knee jerk reaction of ‘throw the rascals out.’ Not a bad idea, but it fails to take account of the fact that one set of rascals has to be replaced by another set. Hopefully, a better bunch of rascals.

What does this mean to us here in Zephyrhills? It should be a clarion call for self reliance. We need to put in place, right now, the support infrastructure we’ll need to survive disaster when it hits us – and believe me, there IS a disaster with our name on it.
Arjay