Misdirected Outrage at the FEMA villages
After a more than a week of articles in the Advocate our federal representatives have gotten together and decided to be outraged. But their outrage is misdirected.
At issue is the indeed outrageous FEMA rules that prohibit a resident of a FEMA village from talking to the press without FEMA "keeper" trailing along to make sure that the residents don't say anything that cause bad PR. This comes up at a trailer village near Morgan city where Advocate reporters were ordered off the premises for the offense of talking to citizens in the nearly empty village. When they tried to leave behind a business card the FEMA rep called the police.
Really, you can't make stuff like this up. Who'd believe you?
It's not some overly officious underling; it's FEMA policy:
Our representatives are right to join us in outrage at this clear violation of our civil rights. It'd be nice if they were out ahead of this and didn't have to decide how to react after it had been in the paper for a week. At least they came out on the side of democracy--not at all a certian thing for some of our more supine Republican congressmen whose outrage on the storms seem calibrated to offend the fewest possible administration bureaucrats while leaving the vauge impression that they still care about their citizens.
But every citizen should be outraged by this unconstitutionally arrogant set of policies. A congressman isn't special in that regard. But Congressmen do have some special responsibilities and their delayed outrage at the constitutional issues of the FEMA village conceal how poorly they've done their real job.
The bigger issue is the attitude of FEMA hasn't changed: FEMA remains more interested in protecting their butts from bad publicity than in honorably doing their job of helping citizens. This is what caused a fair portion of the problems last year and this fiasco is evidence that IT HAS NOT changed. Our congressmen not only haven't fixed it; they can't even recognize the real problem it when it rears its ugly head again. FEMA is not ready for another season of storms, not because they don't have the resources or the organization; FEMA is not ready because they care more about saving their careers than they do about saving lives and communities. It isn't complicated. And fixing things like that is why we elect representatives of the people.
We deserve better. Mike for Congress!
At issue is the indeed outrageous FEMA rules that prohibit a resident of a FEMA village from talking to the press without FEMA "keeper" trailing along to make sure that the residents don't say anything that cause bad PR. This comes up at a trailer village near Morgan city where Advocate reporters were ordered off the premises for the offense of talking to citizens in the nearly empty village. When they tried to leave behind a business card the FEMA rep called the police.
Really, you can't make stuff like this up. Who'd believe you?
It's not some overly officious underling; it's FEMA policy:
“If a resident invites the media to the trailer, they have to be escorted by a FEMA representative who sits in on the interview,” said Rachel Rodi, a FEMA spokeswoman. “That’s just policy.”"Just policy?" "Just Wrong" is more like it. The institution of public "minders" has long been a trait of totalitarian regimes. We saw it in Russia and see it in China and Cuba still. It's intended to intimidate both citizens and the press.
Our representatives are right to join us in outrage at this clear violation of our civil rights. It'd be nice if they were out ahead of this and didn't have to decide how to react after it had been in the paper for a week. At least they came out on the side of democracy--not at all a certian thing for some of our more supine Republican congressmen whose outrage on the storms seem calibrated to offend the fewest possible administration bureaucrats while leaving the vauge impression that they still care about their citizens.
But every citizen should be outraged by this unconstitutionally arrogant set of policies. A congressman isn't special in that regard. But Congressmen do have some special responsibilities and their delayed outrage at the constitutional issues of the FEMA village conceal how poorly they've done their real job.
The bigger issue is the attitude of FEMA hasn't changed: FEMA remains more interested in protecting their butts from bad publicity than in honorably doing their job of helping citizens. This is what caused a fair portion of the problems last year and this fiasco is evidence that IT HAS NOT changed. Our congressmen not only haven't fixed it; they can't even recognize the real problem it when it rears its ugly head again. FEMA is not ready for another season of storms, not because they don't have the resources or the organization; FEMA is not ready because they care more about saving their careers than they do about saving lives and communities. It isn't complicated. And fixing things like that is why we elect representatives of the people.
We deserve better. Mike for Congress!
posted by John at
12:10 PM
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