Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: Katrina and World Support?

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1. It seems unwise to me to build a city below sea level on a hurricane prone coastline.

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Great post Jack! My dad lived in NO a few years back and somehow to me it was rather unerving to be driving along Canal St and see the top portion of a passing barge on the other side of the dike a few feet above the level of the street.

News folks, it baffles me how a reporter can get their equipment loaded trucks and vans into areas that nobody else seems to be able to navigate but yet instead of loading these vehicles up with much needed supplies and water the story line seems to be more important. Interviewing dying and folks in terrible need while they're drinking a bottle of AquaFina, only to resort back to their hotel rooms in another city....incredible.

Yes, common folks in all parts of the world can be extremely resourceful whenever disasters such as this strike.

if it were not for the stories and video of the people that need help we wouldnt realize how bad it really is down there and the donations would probably be a lot lower than they are,so i see it as the reporters are doing a good job for themselves and it is also making people see how bad all of us need to help

I agree, but somehow these folks always seem to have a way of getting their particular political agenda into the mix. How many times do we need to see overhead shots of the affected area, couldn't the precious fuel they're burning in the choppers be put to a better use.

I'm quite sure there are reporters doing an excellent job and I commend them for their efforts.

First I’d like to offer my sympathy as well as my charity, to a proud, and truly great nation to my south.

It took awhile but I did read most of this thread. To see such fevered debate amongst seemingly smart men (and women) proves how great a democracy the U.S.A. can be.

It’s debate like this that will help the U.S. persevere and hopefully correct any mistakes or blunders that may have occurred in the aftermath of such a devastating disaster.

I donated to the tsunami (unicef) and to the red cross (hurricane relief). I donated the same for both. I had to think for awhile, if I should donate the same amount to by far the wealthiest country in the world (now I’m not saying that the U.S. is not in trouble financially, I realize it has it’s share of problems) but with nearly 300 billionaires and a defense budget of 400 billion per year I DID have to consider the difference between the two situations. I decided on the same amount, (which is substantial for me), because I left politics OUT of it and gave with my heart.

In the coming weeks I’m sure we’ll here horrific stories, as well as tales of heroism and strength. Hopefully it brings your nation together, and doesn’t tear it apart.

Healthy debate is a great tool of democracy.
Just my two cents…..



if you're looking for anti-bush news

altnewssource

As always, Jack... an excellent post.

What I don't understand is why someone didn't make a decision to prepare for this a couple of days in advance? After 9/11, much review and reorganization was done to improve our Emergency Management capabilities...falling under the shiny new "Homeland Security" badge. September 11 was, for all practical purposes, a complete surprise.

Yet here it was forecasted a couple of days in advance that a category 5, or maybe a 4 or a 3 would be hitting near NO... a city that's been waiting for the "inevitable" for many years. Why didn't someone make a decision to get water and MREs onto a few military bases or other storage facilities within a couple of hundred miles a day or two before?

I used to work for a small, local spring water company in RI for several years back when I was trying to get my business off the ground. When there was an "emergency need", that little company was able to load and deliver 5-6 truckloads of water in a couple of hours.... and it was a very small company....one percent the size of a larger company like Poland Spring. Why weren't supplies brought "nearby" with the 2-3 days warning they had?

Better, after the recent hurricane seasons we've had, why not have nearby military bases in the southeast simply build some storage areas and, before each hurricane season, load up just in case? It's not like it will all go bad in the few months of the season. Stock can be rotated and then re-distributed to base personnel via the PX or re-sold back to the distributor for wider distribution to consumers at the end of the season. I'm sure that much of the same could be done with certain medications and bandages and gasoline and fuel. Many of these items can be arranged on palettes and prepared for drop the day or two before a hurricane hits based on the forecast.

If these supplies were available on bases from Texas through Florida and up through the Carolinas, they could be available to rescue workers for helicopter airdrops on a much quicker basis.

Mark, It is really easy to criticize the efforts being done, and to also assail the preparedness of the area after the fact.

Within 72 hours of the realization of the level of disaster on hand, federal agencies had delivered 9.3 million meals and millions of gallons of water.

They did this into an unreachable area. Will we look back on this and make improvements to the system ? Yes.

Were there mistakes made ? Yes.

Is an incredible amount of relief being delivered ? Yes.

>>Within 72 hours of the realization of the level of disaster on hand

This seems to be the key issue. There was a very odd interview on TV last night with (sorry I didn't recognize him) the head of either FEMA or Homeland Security; the gist of it was that "they were too busy to sit around watching TV and therefore didn't realize how serious the problem was until Thursday". The guy being interviewed did manage to say this with a straight face. Sure they knew about it earlier but they didn't know "factually" until late Thursday which is why the help arrived on Friday.

The head of Homeland Security was quoted as saying (and I'm paraphrasing here): "You shouldn't believe all the rumors you hear about there being people in the stadium". He, evidently, did not realize that there WERE people sheltered in the stadium until two days afterwards. That, to me, is inept.

Craig, I'm not really as critical as I sound. I know the answers are not simple, and I'm sure much has been done heroically and correctly. My dad was head of cival defense for about 15 years in a coastal, island town in RI. I DO know it's never simple to deal with even marginal emergencies, not to mention widespread destruction such as this. I sympathize with the huge tasks that needed to be done, and it's true that it's easy to "Monday morning quarterback" from here.... but it seems some MAJOR blunders have been made, and it has cost people their lives.

In my view, from my safe location in NH and based only upon news reports, it seems to me that the first real test of the post-9/11, revamped system showed it to largely be broken.

Here is the entire transcript of the news conference on Thursday, the 1st with Mr. Chertoff.

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Secretary Chertoff: Good afternoon. At this time, we'd like to update you on the current situation in the Gulf Coast states that have been afflicted by Hurricane Katrina and talk specifically about what is being done to assist those people who are in distress.

Let me begin by saying, of course, all of our prayers and our hearts are with those people who are suffering, those who have been evacuated and are now facing the prospect of some time in the Astrodome or other shelters, those who are waiting to be evacuated.

And let me tell you, we totally understand what it's like to be sitting on top of a roof or to be sitting in a shelter where it's hot, where you're worried about when you're going to be picked up, where you're thirsty, where you're hungry, where you're afraid for yourself or you're afraid for members of your family. There is no way a catastrophe can be minimized. I mean, this is a personal tragedy for everybody that's involved, those on the scene and the family members who are elsewhere as well.

We also understand it's not easy to look at the pictures of what's going on. You see, I think, 90,000 square miles of devastation, destruction, flooding, wind damage, whole communities that have been eradicated. We have to nevertheless proceed with our priorities in terms of how we deal with this unprecedented disaster.

And as President Bush made clear yesterday, our priorities are these: first, save lives; second, sustain lives by ensuring the necessary supplies of food, water, shelter, and medical supplies; and third, execute a comprehensive recovery effort to bring this area and these people back to the prosperity and the enjoyment of life that they're entitled to.

Now, let me emphasize, from the very beginning and as we speak, rescue operations have continued and are continuing in full force. The Coast Guard estimates that it has rescued approximately 3,000 people stranded in various flood areas, in particular in New Orleans and surrounding parishes. At the same time, we are continuing with our evacuation program; that is ongoing. And we're going to continue to increase the tempo of that program until we've cleared people out of the Superdome and we've cleared people out of New Orleans. And then we can begin the process again of cleaning the city and building up again.

What I'm going to do is talk a little bit about what we have underway by way of the total federal relief effort. I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about security issues as they appear to be in the city of New Orleans, and also talking about the situation at the Superdome where we have a massive evacuation effort underway.

First of all, we remain in very close contact with state and local authorities to make sure they're getting every assistance they require. I've spoken on a regular basis with Governor Blanco and Governor Barbour and Governor Riley. Just today, President Bush responded to the requests of these governors to waive the cost share requirement for emergency response activities. That means that the federal share of the costs will increase from the current 75 percent to a full 100 percent.

Before Hurricane Katrina had even fallen -- had made landfall, the President declared emergencies in these areas, and that allowed us to preposition and start to distribute resources in the affected areas. We prepositioned 18 disaster medical teams, medical supplies and equipment, urban search and rescue teams. All of these were prestaged, along with millions of meals ready to eat, liters of water, tarpaulins, and truckloads of ice. By prepositioning these resources, we were able to speed our ability to deliver these necessary supplies.

In addition, we continue to pour in additional supplies every hour in this area -- massive quantities of water, ice, and food, 5.6 million MREs, over 13 million liters of water, thousands of generators, blankets and cots. We've deployed more than 50 disaster medical teams, and 28 urban search and rescue teams with nearly 1,800 personnel who have rescued, as I said, hundreds of victims and continue to provide medical care to survivors.

I want to take a moment to explain one of the unusual challenges of this disaster. Unlike other hurricanes we've seen where the destruction occurs, the hurricane leaves, and then we can come back into a stable area, this was really two disasters. There was the initial hurricane, and then there followed the flood. The act of flooding and the continued challenge of dealing with water levels that can be anywhere from three to four to eight feet have dramatically impeded our ability to actually get these supplies into New Orleans. This has really created a double challenge. We're not only confronting the original disaster of the hurricane, we're confronting the ongoing disaster of the flooding.

For those who wonder why it is that it is difficult to get these supplies and these medical teams into place, the answer is they are battling an ongoing dynamic problem with the water. We're hoping as we turn that around, that is going to ease the problem, and of course, the key to resolving the problem is to finally move the people out of New Orleans.

Other federal agencies, of course, beside DHS, have been very actively involved in providing aid. The Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health emergency for the affected areas and is establishing a network of 40 medical shelters that will have a 10,000 bed capacity and a staff of 4,000 to care for victims. And as you know, yesterday, EPA and the Department of Energy took steps to alleviate the pressures that this disaster has placed on our nation's food supply.

Now of course, a critical element of what we're doing is the process of evacuation and securing New Orleans and other areas that are afflicted. And here, the Department of Defense has performed magnificently, as has the National Guard in bringing enormous resources and capabilities to bear in the areas that are suffering.

With that in mind, let me talk in particular about two things that I think are going to be of interest to everybody. First of all, what is the situation at the Superdome? We began evacuating yesterday evening from the Superdome. At this point in time, 1,500 special needs people and approximately 2,000 general population have, in fact, been evacuated from the Superdome. The special needs people go to medical facilities; the general population people are going to Houston.

We have had 200 buses that have already left carrying people like the special needs or general population to their destination. We have an additional 200 buses that have arrived that we are in the process of loading, and the Governor has ordered 500 school buses from around the state that are on the way. Each regular bus has a capacity of approximately 35 to 40 people. The school buses, I think, carry 75 people. This gives us a capacity to move large numbers of people, and as we get more buses, the tempo of that movement will continue to increase.

The fact of the matter is, the Superdome is secure. Understandably, there are crowd control issues. People are anxious, they're impatient, they're hot, they're tired, they want to get some place else. That is more than understandable. The National Guard has several hundred people present. The city police are present. They are managing the crowds. There was a shooting incident yesterday. The incident was resolved with a leg wound to a National Guardsman and the subsequent arrest of the person who was involved in the shooting.

In the city at large, we're obviously very concerned to make sure that good order is maintained. There have been isolated incidents of criminality. We've all seen pictures of looting. But let me tell you that we have a tremendous array of forces that are currently deployed in New Orleans.

As we speak, in addition to local law enforcement, we have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today; 1,400 additional National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving every day -- 1,400 today, 1,400 tomorrow and 1,400 the next day.

In effect, what that does is it adds the entire membership number of the New Orleans Police Force every day to the pool of security personnel who are in New Orleans. We will have more than quadrupled -- using National Guard -- more than quadrupled the number of security personnel who are available to maintain order in the city. I have spoken to the Governor, spoken to the -- General Honore, who is the general in command of the joint task force. Everybody is confident of the ability to maintain order, and is committed to continuing to do so as we finish up the evacuation operations.

We are also, by the way, mindful of the situation in Mississippi. There, of course, we don't have the extensive flooding, but we have destruction of a number of coastal communities. We've been talking to Governor Barbour. There are substantial National Guard personnel on the ground in Mississippi assisting and maintaining order there.

As of last night, there were 2,700 National Guard in Mississippi. By the end of today, there will be 6,000. And ultimately, we envision 9,500 National Guard deployed in various places in Mississippi. So with these National Guard forces, hundreds of law enforcement people who are coming into New Orleans from other parts of Louisiana and other parts of the country, we are going to have a security force present in New Orleans and in Mississippi that is many, many times the usual police force that you see on a normal day.

With these security forces in place, with the National Guard and the police in place, we will expeditiously finish the task of evacuating the remainder of the population of New Orleans that has to be removed. We will get them to shelter, and then we will begin the somewhat longer-term process of getting them into a permanent place of residence, or a semi-permanent place of residence, and draining the water, starting to clean New Orleans, and then moving on with reconstruction.

We're going to have reports from a number of other people here. I'm going to first call on Attorney General Gonzales. And then Assistant Secretary McHale from the Defense Department; General Blum, who is the head of the National Guard Bureau; Admiral Whitehead from the Coast Guard; and Patrick Rhode, who is the Deputy Director of FEMA, will all be speaking to you.


Let me remind everybody that this is without a doubt still a very, very dangerous situation on the ground in these areas. We encourage people not to engage in self-help, not to try to go back and see what the circumstances are with respect to their houses or possessions.

We also know that many, many people want to contribute. For guidance as to how to contribute to this effort to clean up and rebuild in New Orleans, and to address the urgent needs of the people who have been suffering, please go to the FEMA website, www.FEMA.gov, or the American Red Cross website, www.RedCross.org.

The recovery from this hurricane will take many months and it will take the spirit and the willpower not only of the citizens of the communities that were afflicted, but of every single American. We have met this challenge when there have been disasters overseas. We will meet this challenge in a disaster of this magnitude in our own country. All of wish, I know, Godspeed and good luck to those who are suffering. We will work as quickly as possible to remove you from the scene and finish the process of recovery and restoration. Thank you.

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Then the Q&A

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Question: I guess my first question, can you give the public a sense of how many people may yet be out there, still need to be rescued?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, let me distinguish between those who have to be rescued and those who have to evacuated. I can't give you a figure on the rescues. As I told you, Coast Guard has rescued 3,000 approximately to now; local law enforcement has rescued several thousand. We're not going to know until the water recedes a little bit whether we have identified all the people who may be in attics and may need a little bit of space to come out and get on the roof, or whether people are waiting until the water goes down lower and they can step outside and get to waist or chest-level water.

So we are continuing to search 24-7. We search at day, we search at night, and we're going to continue to do it until we're satisfied that we've identified everybody that needs to be rescued.

Now, the second issue is evacuation. What we do is, when we rescue people, or when we encounter people, we direct them to various evacuation sites around the city. Those sites have water and food and other necessities, and the idea is to have people stage there until we get vehicles to take them out.

A large number of people, frankly, have, on their own, decided they want to make their way to the Superdome. One of the challenges we face is that, as we pull people out of the Dome and evacuate them, additional people come. We certainly would encourage people, if they have a choice, to find another evacuation site to head themselves towards, because I think that will spread out the operation a little bit more.

But whatever it takes, whether they're at the Superdome or whether they're at other staging areas or whether they're on roofs waving flags, we are going to find them, we're going to rescue them and we're going to get them to safety.

Question: But I guess my question is, is it your sense that there are hundreds that still need to be rescued, or thousands?

Secretary Chertoff: I'd be guessing. I mean, a thousand seems like a very large number, but we have already rescued several thousand. Hopefully, most people have gotten themselves onto roofs and have been picked up. But, as I said, rather than give you a guesstimate, I can tell you that as long as there is someone on a roof waving a flag, we're going to be sending a helicopter out there to get them.

Question: There have been reports of shootings at helicopters or in other areas that have caused FEMA personnel to stand down, at least temporarily. Can you give us a sense of how widespread that level of violence is and exactly what's being done to deter that?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, I spoke to General Honore, I spoke to Mike Brown, who is on the ground, and to our particular -- our specific federal coordinating officer. We know there's been some isolated criminal misbehavior. I haven't actually received a confirmed report of someone firing on a helicopter. Where we have indications that there is danger in a particular area, we're careful to make sure we go in only when we have adequate security and protection. But I want to emphasize this: We have been operating rescue missions every minute, from the time we first got in there after the hurricane passed up to and including the present moment.

Question: Mr. Secretary, two questions. One is, are you satisfied that you have enough Guard forces there? And secondly, how long do you think it will take to evacuate --

Secretary Chertoff: I'm satisfied that we have not only more than enough forces there and on the way. And frankly, what we're doing is we are putting probably more than we need in order to send an unambiguous message that we will not tolerate lawlessness or violence or interference with the evacuation.

Now, the vast majority of people in New Orleans only want to save themselves and their families; they're not interested in making trouble. It appears that always in any large group you get a few people who do want to make trouble. We're not going to tolerate trouble. And there's going to be a sufficient show of force through the police and through the properly trained National Guard to make it clear to anybody who's thinking of stirring something up that they are not going to be able to get away with it.

The evacuation itself, I think, is a function of, again, the total number of people, how quickly we are able to get to them, given the existing state of flooding. We are seeking to get the Superdome cleared as quickly as possible. We're hoping to get it done within the next 24 hours. Again, that will depend partly on conditions. The more people that go to the Superdome, the more people we're going to have to take out. So that's obviously also part of the process. But we're also going to be attentive to other areas.

Let me say, by the way, that I know there are hospitals that have patients who need care. We have been very focused on evacuating them. We do prioritize, meaning that we go to hospitals and take the most critically needy out first, and then work our way down as -- we get the people who are sick, but perhaps not in a life-threatening situation.

And, in fact, yesterday, I happened to see on TV someone was calling from a hospital and complaining they weren't being picked up. And I called the operation center and I said, are you guys on top of this, and they said they were, and they made it clear that they, again, have a process in place which sets priorities and they're following that process.

Question: You hope to have the Superdome evacuated within a day?

Secretary Chertoff: Within 24 hours. Again, when I say "we hope," obviously there are a lot of conditions. And one of the conditions is, of course, the more people who go, the more buses we're going to need and the longer it's going to take. But that's what we're shooting for.

Question: What about the public health situation? If the people who are out in search and rescue are forced to pass up all the dead bodies and not take care of them, isn't that increasing the problem of health problems? And do you have an estimate of the fatalities?

Secretary Chertoff: I don't have an estimate of the fatalities. In an ideal world, we would pick up and dispose of any cadavers. We're not in an ideal world. Again, you have to -- in this kind of situation, you have to set priorities. Save the living is the first priority. Get them to shelter, get them food and water, is the second priority.

We do have to clean the city up. We do have to be mindful about public health. That's why we are flowing large numbers of medical assets and public health assets into the area. But again, as long as we have large bodies of standing water, it's going to be a challenge to address the cleanup, and we want to get the people out first.

Question: Mr. Chertoff, one question, please. Your priorities, to many people, seem consecutive rather than concurrent. And to people who are waiting for aid, they think that you're just out saving lives instead of bringing them relief. How can you resolve that --

Secretary Chertoff: Actually, it's a good question, because that would be a misimpression. In fact, we do do a lot of things at once. Our first priority, as I say, is rescue. But of course, not everybody is involved in rescue. So as we have helicopters doing rescue and boats doing rescue, we are simultaneously bringing thousands and thousands of liters of water, thousands and thousands of MREs, doctors, medical supplies into areas where people are waiting.

So, for example, when the helicopters go over the city and they see people who are in distress, they make sure they pick those people up. They may see the other people who are stranded but are basically at a place where they are safe. Those people will be given food and water and they may be told to stay for a while; we may not pick them up right away. But we'll make sure that they have the necessities they need in order to remain safe and secure in that place.

At the same time that we're doing this we're also, obviously, taking people to shelter in the Astrodome, we're taking people to shelter in other places. We are doing all these things at the same time. But again, when we have to face a choice, we want to have a clear sense of priorities in mind about life and limb being the most important thing.

Question: Do you think that FEMA should have had buses available for the evacuation at the time the evacuation order was first declared? And secondly, obviously here and now in retrospect, but did DHS and FEMA under estimate this and not have sufficient resources on the ground?

Secretary Chertoff: Actually, I think there was an extraordinary effort to put resources on the ground and pre-position them. As I said, the President declared states of emergency before the hurricane made landfall. So that enabled us not only to put large quantities of water and food and tarpaulins and generators in place, but it also allowed us to actually start flowing that out in advance. But then there comes a point where you're in the storm. And this has been a unique disaster in that we really had two disasters one after the other. We had the storm, but then before we could come in and begin the rescue effort and the evacuation effort and the effort to address people's needs, we had a second catastrophe. That was the levee breaking and the flood coming in.

That has been the principal problem getting the issue of evacuation addressed. We've had to contend with the fact that it's very difficult to move around. The flooding has also had an impact on the availability of buses. It's had an impact on the availability of gas and drivers. We've had to go out and augment what we already had to deal with this additional situation.

You know, in some ways every crisis, whether it be a natural catastrophe or a man-made catastrophe, illustrates the point that preparation is of the utmost importance, and yet even after perfect preparation, the beginning of the catastrophe immediately starts to change the facts on the ground and you have to adapt.

I think the genius of the people who are working here, the genius of the people of FEMA, the people in the National Guard, the people in the Coast Guard is, they have been marvelously adaptable. They have brought, for example, airlift capabilities and air rescue capabilities to bear in a way that I don't think we've ever seen in this country before. And so I think it is a source of tremendous pride to me to work with people who have pulled off this really exceptional response.

Question: Mr. Secretary, can we get a couple more questions, please, sir? We were held outside for an hour and we were just allowed in. A number of us have just come from Scott McClellan's briefing, which is why we were held outside. He said you would give us specific figures on the ballpark costs, how many people were displaced, and specifically what offers of international aid had been made and what had been accepted.

Secretary Chertoff: Okay, sure. I can only be as specific as the data allows me. You asked about money. This is going to be very expensive. I think we have probably obligated or spent over a couple of a billion with a "b" dollars. When I say obligated, that means we've entered into contracts we're going to have to pay for. That is clearly extraordinary, and although I can't predict what future expenditures are going to be, it gives you a measure of the kind of resources that are involved.

In terms of people displaced, they fall into two categories. You have people who heeded the mandatory evacuation order or who voluntarily evacuated who have left and gone to hotels or motels or to relatives. First of all, we will be assisting people. We have rental assistance, they have other forms of aid that will help them go through the next weeks and months. I can't estimate what that is, but I would have to -- with precision, but I would have to say we've got to be talking about hundreds of thousands of people, if you consider all the communities involved.

Then you have those people who are in the process of being evacuated. We started out at the Superdome with probably around 10,000 people. We've been pulling people out and yet more people have come. I would say it's probably in the neighborhood of 20,000 to 30,000 now. Again, I would guess that there -- based upon the population figures in New Orleans, that there are comparable numbers or more in New Orleans, and then you have the surrounding parishes.

So I think ultimately we're talking about dislocations of hundreds of thousands of people, and that will be a challenge for this country on a par with some of the great tragedies we've seen overseas.

Speaking of overseas, we have gotten, I believe, offers of assistance from other countries. I spoke to the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada the day of the hurricane; she offered her assistance. Germany has offered assistance, England has offered assistance. Dozens and dozens of countries have offered assistance.

We're coordinating those offers through the Department of State. Obviously we want to make sure that what we get is what we can use, that we proceed in an orderly way. But much as we have come to the aid of the rest of the world when others have been in jeopardy, so the world has responded to us.

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Well, the question of which level of gov't is most responsible for the apparent lack of disaster preparedness is an issue that will be resolved with time. Maybe we'll learn something.
In my area the disingenuous are simply basking in the opportunity to blame Bush and make irrelevant linkages to the war in Iraq. Whatever.

What really saddens me is the complete lack of civility in what appears to be a huge number of New Orleans residents. The disorder extends far beyond "mere" looting to include rape, murder, etc...

This is precisely why I have been appalled for a long time by ongoing efforts from certain segments of American society (and int'l folks, too) to break down the American people's love, respect and reverence for their own history and political tradition. Belief in the goodness of our social structure, the principles our gov't is founded upon and the willingness to obey the law should not be contingent on whether law enforcement can hold you accountable or whether the gov't is providing you with enough freebies. IOW, the legitimacy of any gov't (and the laws enacted by it) should not depend on the threat of violence or massive welfare benefits.

Americans need to instill in their children - and I'm privileged to teach US History & American Gov't to a handful of young citizens each year - the sense that America is good and decent. That we are part of something bigger than ourselves; something that has brought much good to its citizens and others. Do that and you won't need Nat'l Guard troops to come in every time there is a power outage.

If we continue to allow the disingenuous and their stooges to cultivate an atmosphere of victimization and helplessness, then the stage will surely be set for what the class warfare folks want - very distinct classes of haves and have-nots (probably broken along racial lines), a breakdown of the social order and subsequent radical change.

We need to teach kids that opportunity abounds, but it is the individual who is responsible for his own success and welfare. And his own actions; even when the man isn't around to punish him.