The Responsibility of the Government: There are few things that I disagree with our government about, at least the current administration. I think that we are making some great strides towards getting the right judges on the bench, and removing some of the idiots that try to make law instead of interpreting it. I think that our position on the war is correct. I don't necessarily agree with the current environmental policy, but I am not out campaigning against it either. I think that Dick Cheney is on the right track in shooting lawyers.

But, one area that I can't help but express my disappointment is in our handling of the whole Hurricane Katrina disaster. It seems to me that after defending our country against enemies, the response to disasters should be right up there on the top of the list. I am not saying that they should be handing money to everyone who was affected, but they certainly should have well thought out plans on how to manage such a crisis. This is what made things go so smoothly in New York after 9/11. Mayor Rudy Giuliani had a plan in place, and teams that were well practiced for a variety of scenarios. When the planes started falling he simply went through the motions of plans that had been decided a long time before. I am not saying that he didn't have to scramble and make a lot of difficult decisions, but be had plans in place so that the decision making process was easier. One of those decisions was to have the heads of each department with him at almost every minute for the days that followed. When decisions had to be made they were made immediately by just walking over and asking the department head to execute the plan. From my reading in Leadership by Rudy Giuliani they practically lived together for days until things started to settle down.

It just begs the question, why wouldn't Mayor Naygan of New Orleans do the same? I would think that if I were the mayor of a city that was below sea level, was a feature of National Geographic for the problems that were inevitable, I would develop a plan. I would have had the heads of departments running mass evacuation drills. If I were the governor of Louisiana I would have plans in place to help the displaced residents. That might mean putting them in other areas of Louisiana or making arrangements ahead of time to put the whole population if necessary in other states. But the blame doesn't stop there. President Bush really disappointed me in this whole mess. It would have been a particularly terrific time for his leadership to shine, but it didn't. The White House says that it couldn't act until it was asked. It says that it was really there to act at the will of the Governor of Louisiana. In the absence of any obvious plans, it should have developed plans on its own and just taken charge. That is what true leadership does in a time of crisis.

I would love to ask the President what are his specific plans if California gets hit by a 10.o earth quake - The Big One that we have been hearing for years is inevitable for the land of fruits and nuts. Now that we have "learned out lessons" on Katrina, what are we doing for the next disaster. What do you do when a bigger storm surges into New Orleans, as most meteorological folks tend to seem to think will happen. What would you do if a nuclear device is detonated in Chicago?

Let me give you my two cents worth, a plan that makes as much sense as anything else that I have read. The United States government owns a lot of land. Much of it is unused for one reason or another. A base that is closed, a large swath of land that is kept for future use, etc. Lets hire some contractors to lay out roads and plots of land for future use. Let's set up the water and sewer systems, lay the electrical lines and get it ready. Then let's let some of our people maintain the land until it is needed. Then when we have to quickly evacuate a few million people they can relocated to these places. When Fleetwood and Champion begin to deliver the trailers by the dozens every hour, they will have a place to go. As these people get their insurance checks they can decide to relocate or put a permanent home on these sites. This would not cost much in the way of preparation (about the cost of a couple of Blackhawk’s) and would be something proactive. In fact, if I were the mayor of a city (like Anaheim) I would have a remote location already in place. When disaster hits the new location would go active. The zip code and area code would shift to the new location. Sounds rather radical, but that is what leadership is.