Saturday, September 24, 2005

The Spelling of RITA: Revelation of Intellectual Thoughtlessness Again

First there was the spelling of Katrina:

K is for the Knowledge that was ignored, A is for the Aftermath that was not early acknowledged, T is for the Test of leadership that failed, R is for Recognition of the deficiencies that was delayed, I is for Insight that was unfortunately late in coming,
N is for the Needs that were too long unmet, A is for Again. Will it all happen Again?


And Katrina was followed by Rita: Revelation of Intellectual Thoughtlessness Again

It is worrisome that those in government should be so casual in broadcasting the need for public evacuation of an area by hundreds of thousands or millions of residents in a day or two without doing the most basic analysis of the consequences of that order. With no provision for making the evacuation efficient (allowing travel out on both outgoing and incoming freeway lanes) or practical (providing access to gasoline for vehicles running low on gas) or safe (formally providing sources of water, preventing heat exhaustion, etc), the government again showed a flaw in behavior that is, to me, of concern. What happened was equivalent to a fire in a theater, the audience told to leave, but some of the exit doors had not been unlocked. Is this thoughtlessness, with the consequence of doing harm to the evacuees, an example of even worse inattention and inactions by the government to come? ..Maurice.

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