Calling On Their Nation

The Times-Picayune ran a front page editorial entitled:
"It's Time for a Nation to Return the Favor" in which they called on the Federal government for help.

Here is part...

Some voices in Washington are arguing against us. We were foolish, they say. We settled in a place that is lower than the sea. We should have expected to drown.

As if choosing to live in one of the nation's great cities amounted to a death wish. As if living in San Francisco or Miami or Boston is any more logical.

Great cities are made by their place and their people, their beauty and their risk. Water flows around and through most of them. And one of the greatest bodies of water in the land flows through this one: the Mississippi.

The federal government decided long ago to try to tame the river and the swampy land spreading out from it. The country needed this waterlogged land of ours to prosper, so that the nation could prosper even more.

Some people in Washington don't seem to remember that. They act as if we are a burden. They act as if we wore our skirts too short and invited trouble.

We can't put up with that. We have to stand up for ourselves. Whether you are back at home or still in exile waiting to return, let Congress know that this metro area must be made safe from future storms. Call and write the leaders who are deciding our fate. Get your family and friends in other states to do the same. Start with members of the Environment and Public Works and Appropriations committees in the Senate, and Transportation and Appropriations in the House. Flood them with mail the way we were flooded by Katrina.

Remind them that this is a singular American city and that this nation still needs what we can give it.

Last week I urged people to call on their reps to demand a search of the Lower 9th Ward for the bodies that remain. One conservative blogger, the aptly named Hubris INDC, thought this was stupid as it was not a federal case. I guess he'd be one of those Washington voices that views the people of NOLA as having acted as if their skirts were too short and invited trouble.
But the editors of the Times-Pic make the case for more federal help.......Do as they ask, call your reps.