Well, now the liberal mayor in New Orleans has my blood boiling! It seems that last night he decided to forcibly remove anyone who refuses to leave their homes. There have been a number of people that have refused to leave, even as waters rose to twenty feet high. Many of these people refuse to leave their dogs behind. Now though, at least some of the pumps are working and the water is going down, and Mayor C. Ray Nagin has ordered their forced removal.
From the Miami Herald:
The mayor of New Orleans ordered everyone out of the city ruined by Hurricane Katrina. It is not safe to stay, partly because the water is so contaminated. An estimated 10,000 residents are believed to remain; only those designated as helping with the relief effort may stay.
Isn't this America? Is the Constitution thrown out the window, just because their home and city was wiped off the map? Shouldn't we just, say "ok, you don't want to go, fine we won't be back around, if you get sick and or die thats up to you." Of course it would be nice to realistically save the dogs also, but its just not practical, but I believe these people are adults and if they want to risk their own life in those contaminated waters, let them. Forced removal sounds too communistic.
And that's the way I see it! And now for your thoughts...
Kevin Surbaugh is 37 and lives in Topeka, KS; he is the editor of KevinsView.com. Feel free to read his other opinions posted almost daily on that site.
Ed/Pub:LM
Article comments
1 - Lisa McKay
I saw the mayor on the news this morning. He said that a good many of the people who have remained are elderly. Many of them are sick now, and likely to just get sicker. The water that many of them wade through every day is contaminated beyond your wildest imagination. Many are delirious, having been without fresh water for several days now. If you'd like to leave them there to die under some misguided sense of allowing them their 'rights', then you have a much different take on it than many other people do. Nice of you to be concerned about the dogs, though.
2 - Michael J. West
Frankly, I think the shame here is that there wasn't a forced evacuation of New Orleans before this whole thing started.
3 - Dave Nalle
>>Well, now the liberal mayor in New Orleans has my blood boiling! It seems that last night he decided to forcibly remove anyone who refuses to leave their homes.<<
A week late and it's not going to erase the fact that his failure to evacuate the city in the first place was the critical error from which all the other fuck-ups derived.
Dave
4 - JELIEL
So you wouldn't support actions that seems socialist? I say remove them.
And if I remember (and I could be wrong) 2 days before the storm hit, he told his citizens to evacuate. Most who did not evacuate are due to the fact that most of those families can't afford a car and had no way of leaving.
5 - Dave Nalle
At which point Mayor Nagin ought to have taken steps to enable them to leave the city. He had city buses and school buses he could have used to remove everyone from the city and he did nothing.
Dave
6 - LegendaryMonkey
These people NEED to be taken out of there. The water in the city is full of sewage, people are dying of CHOLERA, E. coli is breeding... anyone who remains is at a serious risk of disease and/or death, and could be a risk to others.
That's not a matter of freedom. It's a matter of a major health risk.
Priorities, anyone?
7 - Rob
Those people should have been moved out when the first evacuation order was given. They didn't; some couldn't, others wouldn't. Now they must. Their continued presence is a danger to themselves and the people who must attempt to salvage as much as can be from New Orleans.
The hazards are many in this area now, from toxins to unsanitary conditions to fires. There is no way the supply lines cannot be kept open for these people. It would simply add to the burden of the recovery team unnecessarily.
As someone who worked for many years in emergency services, including several disasters, I have no question that the area needs to be totally evacuated. I feel sorry for them, but they have to move out.
8 - Bennett
Rob and LegendaryMonkey are dead on. It's a festering soup right now with raw sewage and dead bodies.
You want plague? You'll get plague if people try to "stck it out".
Good call to forcibly evacuate.
9 - Randy
Dose any even care about the dogs? When I see them on TV I can see the fear and pain. I can see them crying out for help. I'm not sleeping well at nigkt. I wonder if the people with even care and are they sleeping at night? Same times man hast to do GOD'S well. For sometimes GOD works thou man.
10 - Liberal
"Isn't this America? Is the Constitution thrown out the window, just because their home and city was wiped off the map?"
Could you guys make up your minds please (if you can find them, that is)? Either liberal mayor Nagin is incompetent for not evacuating the city or Unamerican for evacuating the city. Pick one.
11 - Liberal
"He had city buses and school buses he could have used to remove everyone from the city and he did nothing."
Hey Dave, how many buses were available? How many people needed transportation? Can you define "nothing"? Did he slip into a catatonic state and require a ventilator?
12 - Cathleen
Thank you Kevin! I was beginning to feel all alone in my thought of the Constitutional Right to be secure in our own home. Furthermore, there are MANY dry areas unaffected by the poop-soup. However, if the area is "Condemned" ( which it probably should be) then the homeowners are entitled to fair financial compensation from the government. Given that this may take a few years to clean up the hazardous conditions now existing that may be a very good economical solution. I have discovered that in the event of a national emergency declared by the president, FEMA would be vested with the power to suspend the constitution!!
13 - Bennett
Cathleen wrote "I have discovered that in the event of a national emergency declared by the president, FEMA would be vested with the power to suspend the constitution!!"
Uh. Yeah, that's right. Have you ever read anything about Lincoln and what went on during the Civil War?
It would probably rock your world to learn what can happen during times of civil unrest...
14 - Dan
A self identified "black lady who long ago left the liberal plantation" caller on the Rush Limbaugh show today said: "If it were election day those buses would've rolled" (quote approximate)
15 - Jan
Forcing people to leave their homes doesn't make my blood boil, the suffering of the hurricane victims does. We have a Christian President who doesn't understand the Golden Rule. Where is the leadership, people? Where is the plan to put these people's lives back together, and rebuild the communities? Where is the plan to deal with the environmental disaster? Where is the plan to make sure our response to disaster doesn't further victimize the survivors? And I'm not talking about appropriating our tax dollars. We all have been taught a lesson in N'Orleans, don't depend on the Federal government to help you. God help us all if California gets hit by the big one.
16 - Martin
"don't depend on the Federal government to help you"
That's the point Jan, the Federal government is not here to help you, or me, or anyone for that matter. You, assuming you're an adult, are the only person responsible for your well-being.
17 - Nick
Who is better to decide whether you stay or go, you or not you?
18 - Baton Rouge Citizen
Remove Major Nagin now.....
No excuse....for his action.