Open Letter

A friend forwarded this to me. I thought I'd share ...

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
http://www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

[HeartRN]

Perhaps there are some valid points there, but M Moore positively plucks my nerves!!! Plus, the bitter, ugly, sarcastic tone of the letter isn't going to help the cause of those who suffer from this disaster. Just my .02. Thanks for sharing, though! :!

[twinsmom]

I'll wait for this to enter the debate forum before I give my oh-so-ready reply to that letter...

Michael Moore... all i can say is ... well, I can't really say it due to some 'youngster ears' around here!

Jen B.

[Meenah]

I'll wait for the debate too!!! I'm sure it won't be a big surprise how I feel!!!
Luanne

[SueC]

Well, sure it's dripping with sarcasm, but he raises some good points. We could debate whether or not Michael Moore has any redeeming qualities until we are blue in the face, but I was wondering many of the same things myself. I really would like to know from any of you who do support this war how you feel about the fact that now that we are in need, our resources are diverted elsewhere. Is it just a horrible twist of fate that a natural disaster of epic proportions has hit our country while we are at war and the people down South are just SOL? As far as Bush's response, I haven't followed that at all (or lack thereof if that is the case) but it bothers the heck out of me that our troops are off fighting a war that I believe is not our war to fight while our own people are stranded on rooftops and scrambling to snatch up supplies that are dropped down by helicopter.

[migirl]

Well, sure it's dripping with sarcasm, but he raises some good points. We could debate whether or not Michael Moore has any redeeming qualities until we are blue in the face, but I was wondering many of the same things myself. I really would like to know from any of you who do support this war how you feel about the fact that now that we are in need, our resources are diverted elsewhere. Is it just a horrible twist of fate that a natural disaster of epic proportions has hit our country while we are at war and the people down South are just SOL? As far as Bush's response, I haven't followed that at all (or lack thereof if that is the case) but it bothers the heck out of me that our troops are off fighting a war that I believe is not our war to fight while our own people are stranded on rooftops and scrambling to snatch up supplies that are dropped down by helicopter.

Ditto.

I agree, it's very easy to simply dismiss Moore's statements just because he's ... well ... Michael Moore. However you feel about him though, I think those are some very valid points that he brings up.

I think Moore is asking the same questions we all are...or at least we all should be asking these questions...and demanding answers. Personally, I think Brown should have been fired a week ago. Maybe that would have saved more lives. How in the world could he have not known that people were stranded at the Convention Center with no food?? After all, that is where people were told to evacuate to. And I am so tired of him saying "if people would have evacuated like we asked them to...." Well, most of these people had no money and no transportation so how were they supposed to get out of the city? My favorite excuse, though, is that there was no way into the city so they were unable to rescue people. Well, if reporters were able to find a way in then FEMA should have been able to get in there. People are still dying...more than a week after the hurricane...and Brown is still making excuses.

[Vanquisher]

I'll say more when this is moved to the debate forum.

[HeartRN]

I definitely give FEMA and our fed govt a big "F" for the slow response. But seriously, why must the blame almost ALWAYS fall on the president, and many times regardless of party affiliation? (although I'm sure many of you feel Clinton would have responded to this crisis in a more timely manner, because, after all, George Bush doesn't care at all for black people, right? Never mind the fact that as president, he's assigned more African Americans to his cabinet and staff than any other before him, but I digress and that's another issue altogether).

The New Orleans paper (among others) warned about this very scenario in 2002, and legislative bodies failed to act. I think it's time that STATE legislative bodies review their inattentiveness and failure to act in this situation, also. Where's their accountability? In this country there seems to be the overwhelming belief that the president has much more power and control over situations than he truly does. There's plenty of blame to go around, and plenty of people should be held responsible for failing the people of New Orleans.

[DCJenn]

Personally, I think that the 'blame' will ultimately be spread around- but FEMA really screwed up.

So, on the local front, why in the middle of a mandatory evacuation, did the city of NO not commandeer their entire fleet of buses and school buses and haul people out of there. Why did Greyhound shut down 12 hours before the storm hit? Why did the CEOs of the nursing homes and hospitals not ensure that their staff had enough food for a week available?

George W. Bush is a Ginormous Idiot as far as I can tell, but there's plenty of blame to go around on this huge pulsating pile of poo. (and Michael Moore would be far more effective if he got off his fat ass and started coordinating some relief efforts. People who sit around and bitch but do nothing to fix the problem are even more annoying than the initial idiots who did nothing in the first place.) (and I'm a huge fan of his but come ON...)

and the blame must always fall on the President because he's the guy who is ultimately responsible for the actions of his staff, and Homeland Security and FEMA head honchos are his staff. He's the guy who hired Mike Brown in the first place. (who by the way had NO emergency management experience before getting the FEMA job...)

Jenn

[Meenah]

Jenn, I couldn't have responded any better than you did!! Big surprise.
Luanne

[PrincessFiona]

For the most part, I don't fault Bush. I don't really care for him as you all know, but I'm not going to get into blaming him. I don't think anyone here would imply that Bush doesn't like black people either...I've never heard that as a complaint against him, actually. Stupidity, yes...racism...no.

I have a problem with how he oversaw/managed this disaster. For example, the mayor of NO got into his jet and begged him for help. Bush responded that he'd love to give it, but it had to be approved by the governor and she said she needed 24 hours to make the decisions. The mayor said he begged Bush to give him the power to get the busses moving and get the people out because he's the prez, and Bush said no.

I believe that if this incident had happened in a lily white area of the country that the response might have been quicker...maybe I'm wrong. Hopefully, I'm wrong. I don't blame Bush though. I just think that we, as a nation, have very little regard for those who are seen as being unworthy due to poverty and lack of education. We are a country that doesn't provide universal healthcare and has everything invested in a 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' mentality. The thing is...how do you pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you don't have any? Already there are catcalls from the 'right' that if people were too 'dumb' or 'poor' to 1. evacuate or 2. purchase the 'inexpensive' govt. flood insurance then they deserve nothing. "Why should my tax dollars go to these people?"

NO one is out there screaming at our govt to QUIT providing flood insurance to these people who continuously build and rebuild homes in flood prone areas...because most of them are wealthy. No one is crying "Not my money" about these people being cut checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to rebuild yet again. And yet when we have a disaster here of epic proportions people are going to complain about the tax dollars going to help the disadvantaged? :!

What is wrong with this country. Is the accumulation of more and more things all that matters?

[SuzySunshine]

Jen's first paragraph sums up the start of all of this mess. In a city where 20+% are below the poverty line you better have some transportation for them when you issue a mandatory evacuation.

I agree that FEMA and everyone else screwed up AFTER the disaster but where is the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana's blame for not getting those people out in the first place!

[mommax3]

I agree that there are plenty of people to blame, but the guy in charge of FEMA is going to be hung out to dry, rightly so. We have friends stationed at Keesler AFB, in Biloxi. The hurricane was not looking like it was going to hit them directly (until it veered to the east right before it hit) and yet they evacuated most of their people, and sent their hospital patients and pregnant women in their last trimester by air to Wilford Hall in San Antonio. How come they had the foresight to do that, yet NO ONE in New Orleans (which everyone thought would take a direct hit) thought to do the same for the hospitals there? Ditto for the nursing homes and for the poor.....why didn't they get those people out of there?

I don't think our troops are stretched so thin that there weren't enough to help with this situation. I do think that they weren't called for soon enough. My stepmother is a Lt. Col in the Nat'l Guard, and she was called up Wednesday night and left for Mississippi early Friday morning. Why was she not activated Sunday night, along with thousands of other troops? I don't know too many people who couldn't see that this was a disaster in the making!

I have read that since 9/11, the role of FEMA has changed, and maybe that has contributed to this tragedy. I also read that the govr. of LA is not fond of Pres. Bush and perhaps pursued help through her own channels rather than use the channels that went through the federal gov't and could cause her in effect to ask her "enemy" for help.

I don't know the answers, but I think it would be foolish to say that the blame falls on just one person, and asinine to make it a partisan issue.

Sally

[Sheherezade]

On NPR the day before the storm, reporters claimed that buses were going up and down the streets of the city with bullhorns announcing the mandatory evacuation. My impression was that they were providing transportation in the buses. Did that not happen? Or was it extremely limited? I remember the reports distinctly because that's when DH and I said "This is gonna be bad.....". At least that suggests that NOLA made an effort the day before.

Now they can't get the last 10,000 people to leave. Today they said that the National Guard was withholding food rations from the hold outs to pressure them into leaving. Apparently, they can't force them out because martial law has not been declared. From the interviews, these people don't want to leave. So ...how far do you go to get people out?