Institutional Racism

It seems clear, to me at least, that the best argument for the existence of institutional racism in this country, is now on display in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi.

The racial epithets and Jim Crow segregation of the distant past are now shown, I believe, to pale in significance when compared with the centuries of economic neglect that have eroded the very foundations of our so-called civilization.

Hurricane Katrina, and a FEMA decimated by a government of ideologues who considered that organization a wasteful outgrowth of discredited New Deal democracy, produced twin storm surges that no levee could ever withstand.

Is there a stronger argument for the role of a truly compassionate government in the lives of its citizens? And can there be a clearer warning of the danger of a goverment -and a judiciary, content with Constitutional abstractions?

Now is not the time for political expediency: an appointee to the agency responsible for protecting Americans against the ravages of huricanes or earthquakes or tornadoes must be an expert in the field, not an old friend from Houston. And similarly, the nominee to lead the highest court in the land, no matter how well educated and telegenic, cannot be considered qualified without any actual Supreme Court experience.

The Bush administration has been remarkably well focused on the goal of removing the vestiges of FDR's 'New Deal', especially those policies and programs which directly support the individual in times of need. Their main weapon in this attack has been the placement of what can only be called 'Fifth Columnists': appointees who are either so inept that they simply stand-by in silence while their departments are taken apart, or so opposed to the work of the departments that they are selected to lead, that they obstruct the work themselves.

I am very concerned that 'Mr. Roberts' is yet another political appointee, such as the last two heads of FEMA and a hundred other Bush appointees, who has been chosen not for what he may accomplish, but for what he will impede; not for what he believes, but for what he opposes; not for what he is willing to say, but for what he is willing to hide.

In the wake of the twin storms of Katrina and FEMA, can we afford to believe anything else?