Katrina and the Party of Responsibility
What would have transpired regarding Hurricane Katrina if we Americans had been a people who accepted responsibility for ourselves? Responsibility for our own drinking water, our food, our health, our shelter, our power? Even if such weighty responsibility proves too difficult for any single individual, then how about our local communities? How about I cover my roof in solar panels, and you raise the vegetables, while she grows the fruit, and he sets up the water pumping, purification, and distribution system? OK, that probably sounds like a fantasy for people who live in huge cities. But for the place where my wife and I live, that is not a fantasy at all. It's all quite feasible in our local community. I'm sure there's an analogous story for city dwellers. But whatever the story, where does the Party of Responsibility come in? For me, it comes in to help make this all happen. To create, not a giant "Contract With America", but rather a few million hand shakes among the members of local communities. I know this is vague. So let me make it more concrete. Where is the story coming from New Orleans about some guy in a neighborhood who had stored many gallons of drinking water, and secured it against the threat of major hurricanes? Where is the story in which such a fellow has been sharing his stash with his dehydrated neighbors for the past few days?
[posted: 09/02/05]
