Austin Motel
All Our Leaders Failed Us
RECEIVED Thu., Sept. 8, 2005
Dear Editor,
I have observed a desire to blame our inadequate response to the hurricane on leaders at the local level. And indeed, local leaders throughout the region failed abominably. But the true extent of failure reaches far beyond them.
We have three levels of government in this country – local, state, federal – and each level is subordinate to the next. Local laws are superseded by state, which are in turn superseded by federal. Federal law, based on the Constitution, is the final law of the land. In turn, the president is the final leader.
What does this mean? It means that each mayor should have stepped forward from the first minute and demanded support, supplies, and help maintaining order. When they failed to do that, state leaders should have done it. When they failed, federal leaders should have done it. They did not.
The mayors offered little guidance. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi showed no forethought, no strength. The U.S. senators from those states paid little more than lip service to the need to act. Homeland Security and FEMA showed a stunning lack of insight into the horrific conditions of, and measures needed to mitigate the suffering in, this disaster. And in the final analysis, our president played guitar while people died.
Our leaders failed at every step, in numerous ways. And we, as a people, are so starved for examples of true leadership that we don't even understand that our leaders should have delivered more. We make excuses for our failed leaders, pass the buck on their behalf, and refuse to understand that they were weak and foolish. We hold no one accountable. We ignore the complete dearth of leadership and direction this nation has exhibited and focus our eyes elsewhere, and pray that we need no more leadership any time soon.
Rudy Giuliani is out of office, and there are no more leaders to be had.
I have observed a desire to blame our inadequate response to the hurricane on leaders at the local level. And indeed, local leaders throughout the region failed abominably. But the true extent of failure reaches far beyond them.
We have three levels of government in this country – local, state, federal – and each level is subordinate to the next. Local laws are superseded by state, which are in turn superseded by federal. Federal law, based on the Constitution, is the final law of the land. In turn, the president is the final leader.
What does this mean? It means that each mayor should have stepped forward from the first minute and demanded support, supplies, and help maintaining order. When they failed to do that, state leaders should have done it. When they failed, federal leaders should have done it. They did not.
The mayors offered little guidance. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi showed no forethought, no strength. The U.S. senators from those states paid little more than lip service to the need to act. Homeland Security and FEMA showed a stunning lack of insight into the horrific conditions of, and measures needed to mitigate the suffering in, this disaster. And in the final analysis, our president played guitar while people died.
Our leaders failed at every step, in numerous ways. And we, as a people, are so starved for examples of true leadership that we don't even understand that our leaders should have delivered more. We make excuses for our failed leaders, pass the buck on their behalf, and refuse to understand that they were weak and foolish. We hold no one accountable. We ignore the complete dearth of leadership and direction this nation has exhibited and focus our eyes elsewhere, and pray that we need no more leadership any time soon.
Rudy Giuliani is out of office, and there are no more leaders to be had.
Sam Romero
