“A John Wayne Dude”

An amazing interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin conducted by Garland Robinette of WWL AM in New Orleans (audio courtesy of Binary Bonsai, via Boing Boing):

You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. … You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they’re standing in there in water up to their frickin’ necks.

A horrifying picture, and one I didn’t get from the very little television coverage I’ve been able to view at my neighbor’s house. Her station was tuned to Fox, which kept showing the same several-second loop of looting over and over again.

Mayor Nagin kept repeating that it wasn’t the majority of people, it was a minority, and there are a lot of drug addicts out there without their usual narcotics, and they’re going insane with the forced withdrawal. Which explains a lot of crazy stuff, like nuts who shoot at aid trucks and helicopters.

Nagin is in charge of what’s left of New Orleans and he ought to know what his town needs, as well as what’s working and what isn’t working. I listen to him because he knows what is going on in New Orleans.

Then there are the people not in New Orleans, people working in air-conditioned radio stations with close access to vending machines and clean water and working toilets. They also seem to know what’s going on in New Orleans.

Like Roger Hedgecock on KOGO 600. Now, I could be wrong, it could’ve been somebody other than Roger Hedgecock, but I’m pretty sure it was his dulcet tones. He was wondering about the wisdom of what he’d just seen on TV: trucks and trucks of supplies entering New Orleans, and buses and buses of displaced Americans leaving New Orleans.

His rant: “Why are we sending food in when people are coming out? Who are all these supplies for?”

Maybe I heard that wrong—if it wasn’t Hedgecock I apologize. But my first thought was, “Come on! There are still people trapped in attics! In hospitals! On rooftops!” Empty the Superdome and there’ll still be people needing evacuation, as well as the emergency workers left behind.

I just read how staff in one hospital have been giving each other IVs because they’ve been worked to the limit without food or water. Boy, I bet they’d like some of those supplies!

Angry, I jabbed the button for KLSD 1360 (and yes, we do have some awfully creative radio station call letters here), home of Air America. That’s where I found Randi Rhodes, going on about how this was all Bush’s fault, because he practically planned the destruction of New Orleans by cutting funding.

Good grief. Neither side is doing us any good if all they want to do is blame, criticize and moan. ALL energies should be directed to assisting the Gulf states. Quit using this awful situation to further your political goals!

Excuse me while I grind my teeth a minute.

Okay.

Now, Mayor Nagin mentioned a “John Wayne dude” in his interview, a General Honore, so I had to look him up.

Now, I will tell you this — and I give the president some credit on this — he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is General Honore.

And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he’s getting some stuff done.

They ought to give that guy — if they don’t want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done, and we can save some people.

There he is, barking orders, a man of action who isn’t making empty promises or accusing Bush of genocide. I don’t care what his political background is and I doubt Mayor Nagin cares, either, because the general isn’t just flapping his lips, he is making things BETTER.

“Help make things better” should be the ONLY phrase coming out of the mouths of talk show hosts right now. Save the second-guessing and finger-pointing for the day AFTER they pull all the little old ladies out of their attics.

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