Our Special Report on the Hurricane Katrina disaster drew mail from readers expressing sympathy for the suffering of the survivors and outrage over the agonizing slowness of the U.S. government’s response. Many blamed President Bush for the delays; others called such finger-pointing unfair
The sluggish response to the crisis of Hurricane Katrina was shameful [Sept. 12]. There seemed to be a lack of organization and little coordination among federal, state and local authorities. The Gulf Coast contains vital ports for oil and natural gas and should have been given a high priority in U.S. defense planning against terrorism. The government’s unpreparedness makes me extremely skeptical of the effectiveness of the Department of Homeland Security. It certainly didn’t seem to have made plans for evacuation and disaster management in this major urban area. The scale of the disaster may have been unprecedented, but I thought the Bush Administration had spent the years since 9/11 planning for the unprecedented.
Beth Conlin
Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
How dare anyone blame President George W. Bush for this disaster. The left-wingers have criticized the Bush Administration constantly. How can anyone — politician or member of the news media — not support our government? The critics have gone too far. We must work together, and those who can’t must stay out of the way. I am tired of the divide in this country.
Suzann Soliday
Fresno, California, U.S.
Bush’s slow response to Katrina was a national disgrace. Officials knew that the storm was coming and that there was going to be massive devastation. The President should have been mobilizing troops and supplies long before the hurricane ever hit. After it struck, poor people died because they had no food and water and no way out. Hospital patients, including infants, died because hospitals had no supplies or power. Looting was rampant because troops were slow to be mobilized and there were too few of them. I bet that if Bush felt he needed the military in the Middle East to protect an oil facility that he said was vital to U.S. interests, he would have had more than enough troops there immediately!
James Sloane
Las Vegas
I was alarmed by the televised scenes of people looting stores in New Orleans. Panicked and helpless citizens had to evacuate their homes and businesses in the flooded city, yet some people took to stealing from unguarded shops. Aren’t they ashamed? I thought Americans were more considerate of those in trouble.
Makoto Takahashi
Yokohama, Japan
It’s one world, and we here in Europe are with you in the U.S. The suffering in the wake of Katrina will not have been in vain if it helps bring Americans and the Bush Administration to their senses about climate change. The U.S. should either ratify the Kyoto Protocol or propose an equally effective alternative. Promoting technological innovation to reduce climate change without reducing greenhouse-gas emissions will not eliminate the risk of more Katrinas. When bankruptcy threatens, one does not simply study how to cut expenses; one actually cuts expenses. Besides, there is no better incentive for technological innovation than an increased demand for it.
Jan Bernheim
Brussels
Haven’t there been enough warnings about global warming in the past few years, with more droughts, more floods and more disasters predicted if we don’t start taking care of the environment? And what about the meeting in Kyoto at which all nations were urged to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases? Didn’t President Bush say the U.S. would not sign the Kyoto Protocol because it would hurt the U.S. economy too much? How many Hurricane Katrinas will it take to make the U.S., the world’s biggest emitter of pollutant gases, figure out what it can or cannot afford?
Anne Fraser
Ladybrand, South Africa
Enough is enough! I saw the scenes of utter devastation in the newspaper and on television, and my blood is boiling! Shame on Bush. Why did it take so long for him to aid the victims? How many people died waiting for help? The buck supposedly stops with the President, but he was not in Washington and left the task to others, who failed miserably. Maybe his response would have been faster in different circumstances, but it seems Bush lacked the motivation in this case, in which the majority of people concerned were poor and black and the prestige attached to such a rescue mission would not be seen as particularly great.
Susan Cooper
Perth, Australia
As ghastly as the hurricane catastrophe has been, perhaps it is the very wake-up call that the U.S. and President Bush need to make them address the real possibility of devastation caused by global warming and what should be done about it — now.
Hally Hardie
St. Ives, England
Healthy Hearts
I want to thank you for your story on the new, noninvasive heart-scanning technology that makes blockages easier to detect [Sept. 5]. But I must also damn you in the same breath. Although I’m a 59-year-old smoker, I’ve been fit most of my life. These days I scull three times a week and work out at the gym four times a week. Having read your article, however, I expect I might drop dead at any moment. You were absolutely right to publish this report, but you painted a dark picture by suggesting that this new technology is hard to find and brutally expensive. My search starts today — for a counselor.
Alan Orpin
Hamburg, Germany
The Sudan Situation
Your article “Who Speaks For Her?” [on the violence against women committed by the Janjaweed militiamen in Sudan’s Darfur region] was badly out of date and portrayed the situation in a sensationalist and inaccurate manner [Sept. 5]. In recent months the government of Sudan, in cooperation with others in the international community, has taken significant steps that have stabilized and improved the situation in Darfur. The government agreed to take concrete measures to protect women against rape and violence. We are implementing those actions in cooperation with the U.S. and others. Sudan will address the problems of Darfur and permit our country to enter a new era of peace, national unity and reconstruction after more than two decades of war.
Khidir Haroun Ahmed, Ambassador
Embassy of the Republic of Sudan
Washington
Rap Superstar Kanye West
Your article on hip-hop musician Kanye West [Sept. 5] was a brave and smart choice. You gave insights into who West is and, more important, why we should care. West does everything a true musical artist should do: write, produce and perform. He not only employs the traditional hip-hop technique of sampling but uses samples of influential artists like Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, Marvin Gaye and Luther Vandross. West’s songs pay homage to the origins of hip-hop while simultaneously giving today’s generation a chance to experience legendary musicians.
Justin Li
Ottawa
Who cares about Kanye West except other hip-hoppers? I’ll bet that 90% of your subscribers have never heard of him.
Homer C. Lamborn
Redding, California, U.S.
Levels of Barbarism
“The New Bin Laden?,” your notebook item on Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq [Sept. 5], said that al-Zarqawi’s organization “is believed to have been behind barbaric attacks in Iraq.” It seems only fair to ask where, on the spectrum of barbarism, we would locate the killing of Iraqi civilians, the razing of Fallujah, the depravity at Abu Ghraib prison and the self-righteous obscenity at Guantánamo Bay? And how about the abandonment of the desperate hurricane victims in Louisiana and Mississippi? In Iraq, limitless U.S. resources are deployed, while at home poor Americans, thirsty and starving, founder in toxic effluent. All around the globe, people are watching, incredulous, as the Bush Administration displays its unique ability to turn a natural disaster into an issue of law and order. It can be only a matter of time before criticism of the federal response to Katrina is declared unpatriotic. If you see barbarism in Baghdad, perhaps you will recognize it, too, on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Nigel M. Chambers
East Holm, Scotland
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