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Sep. 10th, 2005
This lady sums it up very plainly.
Sep. 10th, 2005 07:13 pmLetter to the editor, from the online edition of the Sunday StarTribune for 9/11/05:
Everyone's president?
Two Fridays ago President Bush said, "I know the people of this part of the world are suffering."
Was he in a refugee camp? A developing nation? Some far-flung corner of the world?
No. The president was at New Orleans International Airport. These are not distant unknown people who are suffering. These are our people. And they're my people. They're not my relatives. And they're not my neighbors. But they're fellow American citizens. They are my people.
I can't drive a bus or reinforce a levee, much less command the armed forces of the United States of America. But surely, if I could, and I saw a killer hurricane coming for my people, I would've come to get them.
And if that hurricane had already ripped through the Gulf Coast, I would not have remained on my working vacation, mute on the subject, while my people were drowned, swept away, driven to attics to fight for their lives. I would not have flown the opposite direction to deliver an unrelated speech while my people waded past dead bodies and begged for rescue from rooftops.
If President Bush really identified with these fellow Americans as the people he was hired to serve -- if he saw them as his people -- then the response would've been compulsory. Involuntary. He would've felt the instinctual urgency that I feel when I hear one of my children crying.
So what now? What do we do now that the dire consequences of disconnection from the American people have been demonstrated? I gave to the Red Cross. But this feels, to use the president's word, inadequate.
We must remember, as though anyone could forget, Katrina. And when next it is time to choose our leaders, we must know: Are we your people? Or are you only interested in taking care of your people?
Mxxxxx Mxxxxx, Edina.
Everyone's president?
Two Fridays ago President Bush said, "I know the people of this part of the world are suffering."
Was he in a refugee camp? A developing nation? Some far-flung corner of the world?
No. The president was at New Orleans International Airport. These are not distant unknown people who are suffering. These are our people. And they're my people. They're not my relatives. And they're not my neighbors. But they're fellow American citizens. They are my people.
I can't drive a bus or reinforce a levee, much less command the armed forces of the United States of America. But surely, if I could, and I saw a killer hurricane coming for my people, I would've come to get them.
And if that hurricane had already ripped through the Gulf Coast, I would not have remained on my working vacation, mute on the subject, while my people were drowned, swept away, driven to attics to fight for their lives. I would not have flown the opposite direction to deliver an unrelated speech while my people waded past dead bodies and begged for rescue from rooftops.
If President Bush really identified with these fellow Americans as the people he was hired to serve -- if he saw them as his people -- then the response would've been compulsory. Involuntary. He would've felt the instinctual urgency that I feel when I hear one of my children crying.
So what now? What do we do now that the dire consequences of disconnection from the American people have been demonstrated? I gave to the Red Cross. But this feels, to use the president's word, inadequate.
We must remember, as though anyone could forget, Katrina. And when next it is time to choose our leaders, we must know: Are we your people? Or are you only interested in taking care of your people?
Mxxxxx Mxxxxx, Edina.
"Terrorists Don't Do Movie Plots"
Sep. 10th, 2005 08:53 pmToward a truly safer nation by Bruce Schneier (published in the 11 Sept 05 StarTribune)
Schneier is a world renowned expert on security technologies and cryptography. His most recent book is Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World; some of his other titles include Applied Cryptography and Secrets and Lies.
Alternate links to this article: on his website and as published 8 Sept 05 in Wired as "Terrorists Don't Do Movie Plots"
( Included because I want to make sure more people will read the darned thing. )
Schneier is a world renowned expert on security technologies and cryptography. His most recent book is Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World; some of his other titles include Applied Cryptography and Secrets and Lies.
Alternate links to this article: on his website and as published 8 Sept 05 in Wired as "Terrorists Don't Do Movie Plots"
( Included because I want to make sure more people will read the darned thing. )