Um, John, that may be a wee bit too harsh. I'll grant you have a point when it comes to Michael Moore and the rest of the prominent blame-America-first crowd, but most of their followers are, as you say, Euro-sheep. They, unlike Moore & Co., are not so much malicious as blind, and it's unfair to liken them unto murderers. They are victims in a way-- victims of the doctrine of "Rule by Experts" that I've written on here before, and are so used to looking to the "experts" for direction that they've forgotten how to think (and do) things for themselves.

Maybe Katrina will show them how high the price of being sheep is, instead of being the people they should be.

Well, Tom Ridge is an expert......

I suppose, if those people really didn't know that having emergency supplies is a good idea, then one shouldn't call them murderers. But I have a hunch and a suspicion that they knew it perfectly well, and even while they were flinging abuse on a good man who was trying to help people, they were making a mental note to tuck a few more boxes of biscotti away in the pantry, just in case.

Umm, if you're living from paycheck to paycheck and aren't even sure if you'll have enough money to make the rent, buy food, gas, and other daily necessities, as was the case with so many people in NO, how can you even afford an emergency preparedness kit? I read somewhere that the median income for black people in NO is somewhere in the range of $12K a year.

For people like you and me, you're right: preparedness is not to be mocked. Deborah and I are right now discussing ours, especially in light of the possible avian flu pandemic, which could be as close as a couple of months, worst case. But for the extremely poor, a preparedness kit is way, way down the list of priorities, and it's quite unfair to expect that of them. They have enough trouble just holding their lives together in good times.

BTW, an excellent resource for anyone preparing an emergency kit is maintained by the SF writer Jim Macdonald, who is Nationally Registered Wilderness EMT-I, as well as a 20-year naval veteran (ret.). You can find it here.

My criticism is not of the poor, but of the leaders and pundits who encourage them to be dependent and weak.

Obviously a poor person can't collect a kit like the admirable Jim McDonald suggests. But the people in NO didn't need that, they just needed to endure for 2 or 3 days. Even the poorest people can scrounge empty bottles and fill them with water. And find some beans and crackers. And get together with neighbors to pool resources. Some did.

But they were not urged to do that, or to do anything. They've never been encouraged by the sort of leaders they have in that area to be self-reliant in any way. (And if somebody did suggest that poor (black) people get busy and fend for themselves they would be denounced as racist by race-baiting politicians.)

The besetting sin of all governments is to want people to be weak and docile. Republicans are by no means free of this, though it is a Democrat specialty. But it is wrong, and it is spiritual poison. And very un-American, and alien to our traditions. We should all be striving to be able to care for ourselves and our families. And after that to turn to local and volunteer groups. And only last to turn to local government, and then state and federal.

And even the poorest should be encouraged to have pride and to contribute, though they will obviously be able to do less. Some of the poor are always going to be people who are incapable of helping themselves. But many of those people in NO are capable of being strong, but they have been destroyed by a culture of welfare-dependency and corruption and low expectations.

But all of us, not just the poor, are harmed and diminished by a culture that tends to rely first on government to solve problems, and last on individual initiative. Which is why the criticism of Tom Ridge is infuriating, because he was telling people to be strong, and was ridiculed. Some of the scorn was pure political opportunism by people who would have praised Bill Clinton for saying the same thing. But it also had the flavor of elitists instantly scoffing at a suggestion that ordinary folks should take care of themselves,

And, er, how are you preparing for Avian Flu???

Actually, I think the poor should have been evacuated. Did you see that picture of all the flooded school buses in NOLA? But that's a failure at the local level.

As for Avian Flu, do check out the Flu Wiki and especially The Coming Influenza Pandemic by Dr. Grattan Woodson. That's the document Deborah and I are reviewing.

The scariest thing is that the fatality rate of HN51 is declining, which is a signal of approaching pandemic. A really virulent disease kills too fast to spread very far, but that very virulence selects for less virulent strains, and at some point the fatality rate drops into the pandemic zone and it takes off. Some scientists, including Dr. Woodson, believe we are within months or even weeks of that point.

And when it happens, there will be almost no warning. The 1918 pandemic spread worldwide in six weeks--when intercontinental travel was by ship. It will spread much faster this time, and given how badly government at all levels responded to Katrina, a much more focused disaster, worst case we could see the temporary collapse of the health system, widespread power outages, food shortages, and the like. And we on the West Coast, and especially in the San Francisco area, are at the highest risk because we are a hub for travel from the Pacific Rim.

Thanks for the info. Scary!

Of course they should have been evacuated. My comment was an example of the type of self-reliance that is never requested of the poor. A similar example would be to ask the evacuees to organize themselves into bus-sized groups, with leaders and supplies and making sure no children were left behind...

NO did have a plan that included using buses, but they never implemented it. The problem with top-down efforts is that you can never guess the possible variations that will arise. In this case the President was urging total evacuation before the storm struck (which may have tipped the balance towards evacuation and avoided a far-worse case) but no one could have anticipated that NO would ignore their own emergency plan (published on the Web).

Or that relief efforts would be delayed while thousands of NG military police were flown in to deal with anarchy. Planning is important, but much more important is having a system that adapts and improvises and learns when, inevitably, the plan goes awry. That's the important metric.

Dave T:

What, exactly, are people too poor to stockpile?

It seems that this is a matter of choices as much as anything else. Poor people (like the rest of us) drink soda and water. Saving 2-liter bottles and filling them w/ water from the tap is hardly beyond their means.

These people eat, and yet they often eat out. Let's be frank, the cost of buying prepared food is far higher than the cost of canned and non-perishable food. Are you really suggesting the poor cannot save enough money to put away three days worth of peanut butter, canned beans, and soup?

What exactly are these people eating on a normal day, then, ketchup sandwiches? Yes, some are---but there seems to be a suspiciously high rate of McDonald's consumption out there (not to mention junk food).