[lbo-talk] Evacuating half a million people

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>John Lacny wrote:
>
>>The spectacle of government officials appealing for volunteers and 
>>donations to the Red Cross and so on is sickening beyond words for any 
>>decent person, when clearly it was the government's responsibility to get 
>>on this immediately.
>
>Even now, they're crowing about the $400m pledge to various charities. 
>That's lovely, but in a few hours, even our dumbass Congress appropriated 
>$10.5b, or 26 times as much. There's really no substitute for the public 
>sector in something like this.

O ye of little faith!  Who could forget the eloquence of Bush the Elder 
1/20/89 invoking the Power of Volunteerism:  "I have spoken of a thousand 
points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like 
stars throughout the nation, doing good."

To me "a thousand points of light" has always conjured up the image of a 
battalion of Tinker Bells in action.  Clearly that's the kind of 
fantasy-based solution we need now.

Carl