Can extremists shelve the politics long enough to help the country?
By Frank Salvato
web posted September 5, 2005
For the second time in four years the United States is dealing with a disaster of unparalleled proportions. The first disaster, generated by the evils of terrorist heretics on September 11th, 2001, took over 3000 lives. The latest devastation, caused by an act of God in the form of Hurricane Katrina, could very well surpass the loss of life that occurred at the hands of terrorists on September 11th. Once again, the power of nature dwarfs the powers of men, even evil ones.
Before I address the main topic of this article, I would like to take this opportunity to urge everyone to do everything and anything that they can to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Log on to www.fema.gov for a list of emergency response organizations and directions on how to help. Every dollar counts, so please don't hesitate.
In the face of the massive devastation throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida the extreme liberal left has decided that the best way to help the victims of this catastrophic natural disaster is to politicize it. One truly has to question whether these people are capable of any humanity at all.
It wasn't two hours after initial reports of the destruction that took place in New Orleans and Gulfport that I received an unsolicited email from a woman named Darlene. She was forwarding a blog piece that took issue with, among other things, President Bush's fiscal policies in the face of the catastrophe on the Gulf Coast. Darlene's forwarded article blamed the as of yet unrealized lack of federal emergency management resources in the wake of Katrina on the Iraq war budget, the Bush tax cuts, the Democrat-obstructed energy bill and the big kahuna of enviro-nuts, global warming and President Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
To point a finger at non-existent short-falls in national emergency preparedness is lunacy enough, but to insist, in hindsight, that the country shouldn't have handled its fiscal or national security business as it did is just plain ignorant.
With regard to global warming, Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute cites records showing that almost three times as many major hurricanes hit Bermuda, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico in the half-century between 1701 and 1850 – during the depths of the Little Ice Age – as in the much warmer half-century from 1950 to 2000. He further cites records which indicate that both the Arctic and the Antarctic have been cooling in the last several decades.
In light of historical evidence to the contrary it is hard to argue that global warming was in any way the cause of Hurricane Katrina. But that doesn't stop the extremists on the left from saying that it still isn't so.
A piece that ran in the Boston Globe by Ross Gelbspan blamed the ravages of Hurricane Katrina – as well as every other catastrophic meteorological event – on global warming, big oil and, you guessed it, President Bush. It didn't seem to matter to him that his assertion that "the year began with a two-foot snowfall in Los Angeles," is proven inaccurate by the weather records from that time period. Los Angeles had no snowfall recorded in January of 2005. In fact, throughout recorded history the record for snowfall in Los Angeles during the month of January is only 9.6 inches, a far cry from two-feet, and it didn't occur in 2005.
Even the Germans, premier platinum-card carrying passengers of the five-year-long hate-Bush party train that they are, jumped onto the criticism bandwagon. In an article entitled, "Katrina Should Be a Lesson to US on Global Warming" that appeared on August 30th in their publication Spiegel, it is stated, "Regardless of how one views it, Katrina has not only devastated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi and killed dozens, it also has threatened the US and its trading partners with economic instability."
How very self-serving of the Germans to care so little about those who have been left homeless and the hundreds, if not thousands, left dead at the hand of Mother Nature. Then again, they are one of the leaders in the movement to make every nation but a minute cog in the global community. What are a few thousand American lives in the grand global scheme of things when economic opportunism is the order of the day? I will wait with baited breath to see how much aid Germany sends to the United States in light of this humanitarian crisis. I will bet that it isn't nearly as much as the American people gave to them in the form of the Marshall Plan.
It is absolutely incomprehensible that living, breathing, allegedly caring human beings would focus their energies on finger-pointing and "The Blame Game" while so many whose lives have been destroyed desperately need help and humanity. By kowtowing to the most narcissistic and base political motives, those who are doing anything but trying to help during this time of crisis have displayed their truly selfish, ignorant nature.
Those of us who realize the urgency of the current tragedy need to focus our resources on helping Katrina's victims. Let's leave the ignominious politicizing of tragedies to the not so compassionate liberal left. They seem to be very good at it.
Frank Salvato is the managing editor for TheRant.us. He serves at the Executive Director of the Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan, socio-political education project. His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor and numerous radio shows. His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are periodically featured in The Washington Times as well as other national and international publications. He can be contacted at
oped@therant.us Copyright © 2005 Frank Salvato
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