Monday, March 13, 2006
"We have met the enemy and he is us."
By C.B. Forgotston
If anyone is wondering why the recovery in LA is taking so long, these words from a Texan tells it all:Congressman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas said: "The camera lens doesn't do it justice."
But what came into focus for him, he said, was a disturbing sense of entitlement and a deficit of self-reliance. "I saw public officials who took very little responsibility (for failures in responding to the hurricane) and are looking for large checks from the federal government. . . . Where's the plan? Where's the accountability? What is the city doing? What is the state doing? Those able-bodied individuals under 65, what are they doing to help themselves?" Times Picayune, March 12, 2006
One can only wonder if Cong. Hensarling also knew at the time he made those statements, that Governor Blanco was proposing the largest operating budget in the history of LA that included pay raises for school teachers while hundreds of thousands of Louisianians remain in exile in Texas and other states with no jobs to return to in LA and no place to live even if they have a job for which to return.
It's hard to explain to explain to those outside of the LA and especially citizens of LA living in other states, that a teacher pay raise is a higher priority than providing for the homeless, jobless, people still living in exile in the other states. LA's public officials need set better priorities for the existing dollars in LA and it is up to us citizens to demand it.
Pogo said it best. "We have met the enemy and he is us."
