September 8, 2005--Make Room Below

In the spirit of I’m-not-making-this-up, did you see the piece in the NY Times, “Navy Pilots Who Rescued Victims Are Reprimanded” (September 7, 2005)? In case you didn’t, on August 30th, just two days after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and before FEMA discovered, by watching TV, that there were more than 20,000 refugees in the Super Dome and Convention Center, two Navy helicopter pilots whose mission was to deliver food and water to military installations along the coast (to service men and women, not to hurricane victims), after delivering those supplies, on their own, used their choppers to rescue 110 marooned people. When they returned to their base in Pensacola, instead of being commended, they were reprimanded by their commander who said, “We have other missions we have to do right now and that [rescuing people] is not the priority.”

A few days earlier, there was a report in the Times that New Orleans city officials had begun offering all expense paid trips to Los Vegas to police, firefighters, and emergency workers and their families. (“City to Offer Free Trips to Las Vegas for Officers,” September 5, 2005). The Mayor and Police Chief said their forces were exhausted and traumatized and that the arrival of the National Guard had made it possible for their officers to be relieved.

I am not here intending to beat up further on New Orleans police and other municipal forces who also were victims of Katrina (though as a chauvinistic New Yorker I cannot help but think about the behavior of my city’s emergency workers on 9/11). I mean to beat up on their leaders and those two good pilots’ commander. And all the other failed leaders who have betrayed the public trust.

And to remind them that in Dante’s Inferno, the Ninth and deepest circle in Hell is reserved for those who betray the public trust.

Make room for more down there.