Lesson never learned

Star Parker wrote in Townhall The optimist in me would like to believe that we learn from our tragedies. However, it is a struggle to keep this optimism from being trumped by a healthy pessimism that comes from watching day-to-day events in Washington. What, after all, should we be walking away from the Katrina tragedy with other than a deep skepticism about government? Yet we're just hearing more about getting government more involved.... Government and politicians failed at every possible juncture to act in a prudent and responsible fashion. Now that we have the mess to clean up, for some reason we think that turning back to government is the answer.

More government involvement is exactly the wrong thing. Government likes to spend money to buy votes, and it does not care how well the money is spent. Private individuals and businesses spend money only if it makes sense. And they know now that building anything on land that is 7 to 15 feet below sea level, with a mighty river on one side, a large lake on another side, and a huge gulf nearby, is totally stupid.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are now being spent daily on Katrina-related contracts and grants and reports of fraud and abuse are already flowing. The Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task force is now being set up in Baton Rouge, already staffed with 350 federal investigators and another 170 investigators expected to join them in coming weeks. The message is clear. The only way to solve problems and minimize funding abuses is to minimize government involvement.

Amen!!!

When the news of Katrina first broke, I wrote about my cousins from New Orleans who lost everything. Since then, they have moved to North Carolina and are building new lives for themselves. They are working for the same telemarketing firm that they worked for in New Orleans. A local church provided them temporary housing while they got resettled and is providing day care for their youngest child. The two oldest children are back in school, the parents are back at work and a new chapter in their life has begun. They had the foresight to have purchased renters insurance; now they have funds to make their first home purchase. The only government involvement in the whole process was the $2,000 check from FEMA.

And they probably would have survived just fine without that $2,000 check.

Americans, white and black, rich and poor, can take care of themselves. We don't need politicians using our personal tragedies as an excuse to spend money that isn't theirs in the first place to try and buy votes and popularity.