that it's all just a little bit of history repeating

If thousands of lives were lost in New Orleans, LA because local, state, and Federal officials couldn't agree upon who had authority and the responsiblity to act and make decisions, then:

to me it seems quite clear
that it's all just a little bit of history repeating

I'm specifically referring to the gargantuan task of setting up temporary housing in LA and MS for the thousands of people who have lost their homes.

I've been working on other issues but listening to the conversations and briefings about the housing and temporary bldg missions that my agency is involved in support of FEMA. Once again, no one knows who's in charge, who has the authority to tell the contractor to procure materials and spend money, and other organizational issues. Decisions are made. Decisions are countermanded. Promises are made and then the scramble is on to ensure that the promise-maker can spend the money to deliver.

What I never hear are discussions on the following items:

• Household size of displaced residents - based on census data and applications for FEMA assistance.
• Age distribution of displaced residents - to determine what services will need to be in place for these communities.
• Design considerations to make trailer parks a little more liveable.

In other words, I never hear substantive discussions about how the housing needs to address the needs of the people who will be living there. They pay lip service to serving the 'victims' but 95% of the time the big-decisionmakers are involved in turf-wars and not involved in understanding who they are going to be assisting. The big companies hired are all about construction and engineering - and they are all about bringing in big aluminum boxes by the thousands and lining them up in big ole grid. The FEMA decisionmakers are largely ex-military people who have plenty of experience in strategic planning to accomplish tactical objectives - but not humanitarian or community oriented objectives. Where are the urban planners? Where are the social workers/sociologists that might bring insight into the special needs of a traumatized community?

Maureen Dowd's column in the NYTimes almost brought me to tears in the middle of the office this morning. I cite it here not because of her condemnation of the President's past and current actions in this disaster, but because of her description of the fate of many who died and how they were ignored because of reasons too numerous and too flimsy to mention. Those horrible days of inaction finally, but slowly transitioned to a responsive rescue and relief effort. In response, the media commentary was about the 'hidden' nature of class, race, and poverty. Now that Katrina headlines have been replaced by confirmation hearings, airline bankruptcy, and Iraq, is it just a matter of a few more weeks until the disenfranchised are buried in the back of the newspapers, again?

The word is about, there's something evolving,
whatever may come, the world keeps revolving
They say the next big thing is here,
that the revolution's near,
but to me it seems quite clear
that it's all just a little bit of history repeating