In light of my previous posts, this will probably sound callous, but my primary thought was of Old Yellow Stain George, streaking to Omaha in the throws of his great concern for the fate of the nation. Equally so for the scum in Congress, crawling out of their bunkers some six hours later to sing God Bless America on the Capital steps. And, no I don't buy the spin that Precious was in any danger---some thousand miles away, thousands of feet in the air.
So why wasn't Old Yeller in NYC last night meeting with Giulliani, spearheading the full weight of federal relief and national concern? Yeah, well...
Meantime, instead of words of sympathy or hand wringing over it all, how about some free medical coverage for the NYC victims? I realize the city civil service personnel in the police and fire departments are probably covered, but how about the rest? Nobody in public office has mentioned that, since all their concern is for revenge, security, and the re-establishment of the flows of Capital and steel facades of Empire. And of course bucks to cover the suffering of ordinary people is a long way down the list.
>From the earthquake scenes here twelve years ago, the biggest
crunch comes in a few months when the 20-200k+ medical bills come
in. So, since Empire and Capital are completely culpable for bringing
this down on the people, how about some medical relief? Lawsuit mania
will rear its head sooner or later in any case.
The other big thing to come is the impact on the construction relief workers after a few more days of this. Once they start pulling personal items and bodies out, they are going to have the horribles. Somebody in city government better have places for these guys to go talk and deal with that. A lot of the people, many volunteers working on the collapsed freeways here, got nothing and were hurting psychologically for a long time afterward. They were dismantling concrete and steel that was dripping with rotten body juices from the trapped cars. It was pretty ugly work and this is many times larger in scale.
So, screw all these calls for patriotism, national unity, declarations of war, Nato resolutions, targeting revenge, security bullshit and other saber rattling. It's all very hollow.
Chuck Grimes