Another Outrage

Their neighbors knew. The New York Times knew. But it took four months for John David Allen’s parents to find out he was dead and to recover his ashes and those of his wife. They were about to be, “disposed of.”

Allen’s parents got no answers when they called the Red Cross; too busy with the living to list the dead. Worse yet, FEMA had, “no information,” for months. Finally Allen’s father asked, “Where do you take the bodies?” He was told to call the local coroner. He finally got an answer. The coroner’s office had known for two months. The bodies of John David Allen and Susan his wife had been cremated.

When questioned by the media about this shameful episode, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said it was the local medical examiner's job to call next of kin. If that does not work? They might have ''some discussion in the future of ensuring that the local coroner has the ability to do that.''

''We grieve with this family,'' he said.

Hello, is anyone home?

Why? With all the technology available today, why would the coroner and FEMA not have a central list? Why after being told that “Brownie” was, “doing a great job,” is there still so much incompetence in an agency that is integral to our response not only to natural disasters, but to terrorist attacks?

The Bush administration thought that FEMA was unimportant. Because of their radical ideology, they thought that disaster response was the work of faith-based (read churches) groups. Even after 9/11/2001, they downplayed FEMA’s work. They gutted the agency and replaced disaster professionals with political cronies. After all, Brown knew Arabian horses!

It is part of a pattern driven by the Bushies right wing ideology. Conservatives think that government is part of the problem giving us things like welfare fraud and lack of personal responsibility. To those who think I am a conspiracy theorist I offer a quote from a conservative guru, Grover Norquist. He says, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." So FEMA became one of their targets. What they gave us was shameful incompetence in the face of tragedy.

There is something ironic about this administration. They are social conservatives, even fundamentalists, but they are not true conservatives in the classic sense. They have not made government smaller and leaner. They have created bloat and deficits for as far as the eye can see. Don’t take my word for it; read George Will the columnist, he is fed up. Now there is a smart conservative!

Although the conversation may never be resolved, I welcome a discussion of the proper role of government. I get frustrated and indignant when the Bush administration cuts away at vital programs without public debate. Not that we should expect dialogue! This administration excludes alternative viewpoints and cordons opponents behind distant barricades whenever Bush appears.

What are proper government roles?

Faith-based groups have been nothing short of heroic in the face of the Katrina tragedy. My own brother was in the Gulf Coast region for about a week with a church group. There is a place for disaster response by churches, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other charities.

However, they cannot provide the overall management that must be the responsibility of government, specifically FEMA. Each level of government; municipality, state and federal have their roles. When a major disaster strikes, someone should have a plan and someone should know who is in charge. FEMA has to know what the plan is and FEMA bears the burden of coordination. Only the federal government can bring enough resources to bear, both on the eve of impending disaster, and in the aftermath.

It seems to me that there are two issues here. First, we need a public dialogue about government roles. We could use the help of Congress here. Second, we need competence in government, not cronyism. Maybe we should hire some of the professionals who run their churches better than this crowd runs our government.

Now, if we could get the other party to see the light and provide a vision for change.