real quick post i hope to get back to later:
the national guard is dropping off food for cattle in eastern colorado. this immediately makes me think of hurricane katrina and the slow response of the government for people.
my next thought is, these are privately owned animals that are insured against loss, although frequently not insured for blizzard. is it the proper role of the government to step in here? where is the line (we protect homes in fires, they are property.)
feel free to comment, if you like, before i make this into a more comprehensive and thought out post. i admit i want to get it up before it is no longer timely.
4 comments:
I think this is a good move. The cattle aren't just property-- they're livelihood. It's a lot easier to help someone continue to make a living than it is to try to pick up the pieces after they can't earn a living and default on loans, etc. And it takes a lot less scratch to drop bales of hay from a helicopter than it does to shuttle people to Houston.
It's possible to intervene in this hardship because it was so easily observable. Katrina was more sudden (unless you consider all the studies saying that the levees wouldn't hold).
The more I think about this, the lesss I think the two are in the same category.
Easier doesn't make it righter (yeah, I'm a decider).
You mentioned it yourself, they knew a Katrina-like disaster was pretty inevitable. That's what happens when you build a city below sea-level. There have been experts talking about it for years.
I still don't think the two are very comparable.
I think both are good things for the government to do.
word ver: zeebao! (Fed Ex's next smash hit? You be the judge, Fresno.)
i think that the two present an interesting picture of the the response of the government. a tremendous tragedy became much worse because of an ineffective govenmental response.
this could also have happened with the co. situation, but i'm not sure.
but, i do think it is odd to see the level of response, the amount of news coverage for a blizzard mainly killing livestock, as if it were the level of the complete destruction of a city.
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