[Leica] RE: PAW Week 3 Jeffrey---Nagin

[bruce at ralgo.nl (bruce)]

A mighty powerful response, Norm, girded with truth. Sadly, most of  
what mankind does is for own vindication, not to the benefit of  
fellow man.

B.

On 27-jan-2006, at 8:30, Norm Aubin wrote:

>  Greetings,
>
> I'll echo Nicks apology to all in advance.  I too have learned that  
> there is
> no place on this list for political discourse, or at least a  
> contrarian view
> like mine.  BUT . . .
>
> I'm sad that New Orleans sank.  It is a loss of some historical and  
> social
> import.  However the truth is the city was as doomed as Pompeii was  
> and L.A.
> is, and no amount of human intervention will forestall nature  
> indefinitely.
> It is prideful and egotistical to believe that any man made  
> structure is
> more powerful than the worlds fury itself.  It is also shallow and
> mean-spirited to gratuitously cast aspersions and blame to no  
> helpful end.
> Everyone involved at all levels of government and civil positions for
> decades pooched it, as did many citizens on the street.  We are sadly
> limited in our imaginations and memory when it comes to what the  
> earth can
> do to our man made structures, and incurably optimistic in our  
> faith for a
> good ending to events.
>
> The only reason I can imagine for rebuilding a city that is doomed  
> to be
> submerged again, no matter what you do, is pride and vanity.  When  
> this
> experiment fails again, and it will someday, who will take blame  
> for the
> innocents and weak that are caught in it this time?
>
> The question that has to be addressed in factual and not romantic  
> terms is
> that this disaster has re-asserted the fundamental fallacy of the  
> concept.
> Building a city, no matter how lovely and full of romantic history,  
> in a
> geographically unsound place, is an invitation for calamity.   
> People who
> build their homes on cliff-sides have to buy insurance to do so,  
> because
> when the rains come, and they do, the homes wash away.  The first  
> time this
> happens I feel sorry for the folks, and hope they had enough  
> insurance.  The
> second time I look at them in pity.  What about San Andreas?  It's  
> still
> ticking away - just waiting.  What perceived obligation do we have  
> in that
> event and its aftermath, and by way of prevention, preparation and
> reparation?
>
> We can learn from this lesson - we can build elsewhere and to better
> purpose.  We can help those who have lost the stuff of life; their  
> jobs,
> homes and property.  Our moral obligation is to the people, not to the
> edifices.  We should take the money that we would use to rebuild  
> and instead
> help educate and train those who have never had anything, or have lost
> everything, to enable them to build for themselves.  Invest the  
> rebuilding
> money in people, not things.  If you can rebuild the social fabric,  
> the
> civil fabric will follow.
>
> Take pictures - record the lessons, capture and evoke the poignancy  
> of the
> death of an old city, create the visual record for posterity, but  
> don't
> believe that the city can ever be rebuilt; it can't be.  The place is
> permanently changed, altered, destroyed in part, and it can never  
> be the
> same.  A record of what happened and perhaps an opportunity to see  
> it in
> perspective will be a valuable obituary. Let go of what is past and  
> make
> room for what is to come.  Hopefully something new and better can  
> arise, and
> for those who choose to go there and build in that place - I wish  
> you the
> best - let me know how it turns out.  Take lots of good pictures,  
> that will
> also have great value.
>
> End of soap box, looking for the cartridge box,
>
> Best of light,
> Norm
>
>
> On 1/26/06 11:25 AM, "Lee England" <Engl6914@cableone.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Normally a comment on how New Orleans would be chocolate
>> again would blow me
>>> through the roof.  But in Nagin's case I pardon him because
>> I think he's
>>> been the most effectual character in this whole
>> drama--similar to Guliani in
>
>                     <SNIP>
>
>>  It blows me
>>> away that people are living in tents down here when last
>> week a $700 million
>>> space probe launched last week toward Pluto (or one of
>> those planets).
>>>
>>> Lee England
>>> Natchez, Mississippi
>>> USA
>
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