Imagine

Posted by Mary Mancini on September 2, 2005 under Uncategorized |

We thought there was a line the right-wing smear-merchants wouldn’t cross but we were wrong. They vilified Cindy Sheehan. We thought there was a line that the Bush Administration “apologists” wouldn’t cross, but again we were wrong. They continue to make excuses for the lack of leadership while the victims of Hurricane Katrina languish in their destroyed city, begging for help. To these people we say:

Imagine the President is vacationing during the time a major metropolitan area prepares for a Category 5 hurricane to hit.

Imagine the President is still on vacation and playing a round of golf on the day a category 5 hurricane slams into a large part of his country leaving panic and devastation in its wake.

Imagine it’s the day after the hurricane hits and the levees that protect the major metropolitan area break creating even more devastation and the President decides to stay on vacation and gleefully pretend to play guitar while posing for a photo op with a country music star.

Imagine the President’s administration, during his first term, turning down requests from the state of Louisiana for the funds to build the levees surrounding the city of New Orleans so they can withstand the Category 5 hurricane that scientists know will inevitably hit the city.

Imagine FEMA warning that a hurricane striking New Orleans was
one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. and the President’s administration deciding to cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for an opportunistic war.

Imagine the President giving an interview to Diane Sawyer a full three days after the hurricane saying that “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

Imagine the President’s Director of Federal Emergency Management Agency saying, a full four days after the hurricane, that he had not heard reports of people in the Superdome without food and water when the reports are pouring out of the city on every news channel and in every newspaper.

Imagine it’s day 5 after a category 5 hurricane hits a major metroplitan area and people that survived the initial storm and the floods are now dying of dehydration and heat exposure in the streets and the President says in a brief state that morning that “we’ll deploy the assets necessary to get the situation under control” because the assets necessary to get the situation under control have clearly not yet been deployed.

Now, imagine that President is Bill Clinton.