A Letter

I found this letter to the editor on WorldNetDaily. I think it perfectly characterizes the situation in Louisiana:

I am a retired New Orleans police captain. I now live in another state,
and I hurt for the citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes.
However, the situation that now exists in New Orleans was predictable. We are
now reaping the benefits of a welfare state.

For more years than most can remember, we have been told by those
holding office that they will take care of us. We have provided food, clothing
and shelter to the extent that the recipients became entirely dependent on
government resources to live. They have reached the point that no longer do they
have the knowledge to take care of themselves. They will sit there and drown or
go hungry, and curse the fact that the government has not gotten them out of
this mess.

When it is all said and done, there is but one person who is
responsible for me, and that is me. The responsibility falls to me to take care
of my family, not the government. Society, not government, has an obligation to
provide care and sustenance to those who, because of age or physical impairment
cannot take care of themselves, but able-bodied people who stand around and
complain that no one is doing anything for them deserve whatever the fates cast
in their direction. Life is hard, and you either get tougher or you get washed
away – it is as simple as that.

Politicians will never, ever take care of you – they only want one
thing from you, and that is to stay in power as long as they can. In a situation
like Katrina, they will stand in front of the cameras and microphones and
denigrate everyone above them in government to take the eye off of their
pathetic efforts.

This is a situation that they have created, and now the good citizens
of the area will have to step in and clean up the mess that has been created by
the politicians. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen – there are too
many good people who live in that area for it not to happen. I love the people
of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes, but I despise the politicians –
there are a few good ones there, but most of them are not worth the powder it
would take to send them to the moon.

I just hope that when the area is rebuilt, they stay away from the
massive welfare system they had before – absolutely no good comes from welfare.
It depletes available resources, making it ever more difficult for what passes
as government to respond to the true needs of the community: roads, bridges,
levees, and police and fire protection, sanitation and drinking water.


Robert E. Johnson