Ready for Action

My room is about ready for the first day of school on Tuesday. The school district is very strange, though. They want everything to be ready in time for the first day but there aren't enough textbooks, curriculum guides, materials, or desks. Yet, instruction must begin on Tuesday. It will happen but why isn't there any plan?

Speaking of no plan, Bush finally admitted he screwed up. We're into the second term and this is his first apology. He must be sweating it. 9/11, terrorism, and Iraq haven't cut into his mountain biking, vacationing, or fundraising with millionaire friends. Katrina has finally lit a fire under his ass. Too bad it took an unprecedented catastrophe to do it. He must hate Katrina more than anyone. Now he actually has to do something. He's actually going to have to become a leader. Can he do it? It's the second term. He needs to finally become a leader.

In terms of leadership, I have three ideas. (1) I hope that Bush can think big and get a CCC type plan together and have people work on rebuilding the devastated areas. This would provide jobs and hope to people who have lost all hope. (2) Hopefully, this disaster will lead to an examination of what we've been doing to our poor people. We've written them off and left them to their own devices in the inner cities for far too long. Any American city would have the same problem if it were destroyed. We have a small pocket of rich folks surrounded by poor as far as the eye can see in Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, New York, etc. Allowing this situation to continue unabated is to no one's benefit. It is hurting us not helping us as a society. Finally, (3) the Republicans and Democrats should stop building mountains of money for reelection campaigns. Instead, they should put that money to use for something positive. They should give it to the victims of Katrina. Everyone knows about the candidates. We don't need to know any more than editorials in the newspaper and on Meet the Press on Sunday. Let that be enough. Give the money away and shut up. No one cares anymore anyway. Not when an entire swath of the USA has been destroyed and dead bodies are literally piling up in the streets. We need to come together as a nation and heal those wounds. Heal all the wounds.