PressEthic

Newsweek ran an article by Mark Hosenball and Richard Wolffe on October 24th titled “The GOP’s ‘Disturbing Comments,’" citing numerous anonymous sources, but the “disturbing comments” that are causing the controversy seem like common sense to me.

The article begins:

As if the physical misery caused by Hurricane Katrina weren’t enough, Democrats and Republicans are accusing each other of trying to exploit the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents for partisan political gain. Democratic operatives in Louisiana, who asked for anonymity because they did not want to be accused of stoking political tension, say state and local officials fear that the Democratic Party’s eroding base in the state will be further damaged because residents of the New Orleans neighborhoods most affected by Katrina – particularly poor African-American areas like the Lower Ninth Ward – are being told they can’t move back any time soon.

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In fact, the article then quotes Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson as saying, “that he wasn’t sure that New Orleans’s Ninth Ward should ever be rebuilt.” This statement is followed by volleys of comments between Republicans and Democrats concerning the issue.

If I remember one thing from my undergraduate geology class, it's that walling off the ocean is never a good idea. The ocean will always win, the earth will always win, mother nature will always win, and as an American taxpayer, I’d rather not pay for the reconstruction of the Ninth Ward, or any other obviously vulnerable area, every couple years. New Orleans is a city, that through some accident involving the mouth of the river, ended up perilously below sea-level. Six years ago my geology professor told our class that Now Orleans would undoubtedly flood sometime soon and eventually be washed away completely. Of course, for a geology professor “soon” means within the next 1000 years, but I can’t help thinking that he was probably right.

So, my question is: Why is Newsweek reporting on this as though it is strictly a political issue? The evil Republicans are pushing poor black democrats out of New Orleans, while Democratic leaders are saying these people have a right to return “home.” I say, a little common sense and a geography lesson could quickly take the ambiguity out of this situation. Maybe if Democratic leaders realized they were pushing poor people back into a floodplain, they wouldn’t be so quick with their accusations of “racism” towards Republicans.

At the heart of this story is not Democrats or Republicans or poor people or racism, but rather the idea that maybe rebuilding New Orleans is not such a good idea.