[Mb-civic] The 'Stuff Happens' Presidency - Harold Meyerson - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

The 'Stuff Happens' Presidency

By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, September 7, 2005; Page A25

We're not number one. We're not even close.

By which measures, precisely, do we lead the world? Caring for our 
countrymen? You jest. A first-class physical infrastructure? Tell that 
to New Orleans. Throwing so much money at the rich that we've got 
nothing left over to promote the general welfare? Now you're talking.

The problem goes beyond the fact that we can't count on our government 
to be there for us in catastrophes. It's that a can't-do spirit, a 
shouldn't-do spirit, guides the men who run the nation. Consider the 
congressional testimony of Joe Allbaugh, George W. Bush's 2000 campaign 
manager, who assumed the top position at FEMA in 2001. He characterized 
the organization as "an oversized entitlement program," and counseled 
states and cities to rely instead on "faith-based organizations . . . 
like the Salvation Army and the Mennonite Disaster Service."

Is it any surprise, then, that the administration's response to the 
devastation in New Orleans is of a piece with its response to the 
sacking of Baghdad once our troops arrived? "Stuff happens" was the way 
Don Rumsfeld described the destruction of Baghdad's hospitals, 
universities and museums while American soldiers stood around. Now stuff 
has happened in New Orleans, too, even as FEMA was turning away offers 
of assistance. This is the stuff-happens administration. And it's 
willing, apparently, to sacrifice any claim America may have to national 
greatness rather than inconvenience the rich by taxing them to build a 
more secure nation.

As a matter of social policy, the catastrophic lack of response in New 
Orleans is exceptional only in its scale and immediacy. When it comes to 
caring for our fellow countrymen, we all know that America has never 
ranked very high. We are, of course, the only democracy in the developed 
world that doesn't offer health care to its citizens as a matter of 
right. We rank 34th among nations in infant mortality rates, behind such 
rival superpowers as Cyprus, Andorra and Brunei.

But these are chronic conditions, and even many of us who argue for 
universal health coverage have grown inured to that distinctly American 
indifference to the common good, to our radical lack of solidarity with 
our fellow citizens. Besides, the poor generally have the decency to die 
discreetly, and discretely -- not conspicuously, not in droves. Come 
rain or come shine, we leave millions of beleaguered Americans to fend 
for themselves on a daily basis. It's just a lot more noticeable in a 
horrific rain, and when the ordinary lack of access to medical care is 
augmented by an extraordinary lack of access to emergency services.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601363.html
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