Are 107 dead Americans just collateral damage?

[Stinky The Clown]

Per the Houston Chronicle, 107 died from Hurricane Rita - most in the evacuation.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3374468

Is this just collateral damage? Not much word about this. Instead, its all about how much better FEMA and the Republicans (Governor Goodhair in the drum major role) did with Rita, based on supposed lessons learned in Katrina.

This country is wildly under prepared for any major disaster.

Period.

WE THE PEOPLE are the collateral damage of the current administration's ineptitude.

[Mika]

1. Not just underprepared.. under Bush this country IS a disaster.

[opihimoimoi]

2. I could go with that....cheers

[indepat]

3. Keeping us safe is keeping us safe from more than terraists

[jobycom]

4. Not only unprepared, but we (especially our leaders) seem unable

to imagine the possibility. Bush keeps saying "No one could have imagined X." We know someone could have, because each time he's said that it's been shown that the federal government already had plans to deal with the scenario but Bush did nothing.

But the bigger picture is that Americans really don't seem able to imagine a nightmare scenario. I remember watching 9-11 unfold. I wasn't surprised. I was awed, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking "This is the one we've been waiting for. It could have been worse." But all I heard was how completely surreal (Seems to be society's new favorite word) the event was, how it was everyone's worst fears.

I've got a lot of worse fears, and I've had them since before 9-11. I can't watch a sporting event without half expecting to see the stadium blow up or be struck by a plane (Not a post 9-11 fear, it was made into a movie in the 70s, only with a blimp). When I go to DisneyWorld or Six Flags, I imagine armed gunmen opening fire. I imagine elementary schools being blown up. I imagine a nuclear bomb or a natural disaster wiping out a major city. It's not a fear, it's just a constant awareness of how easy it is to kill a lot of people.

Our leaders and too many of our people seem unable to imagine such things. That's why tragedies like Katrina or 9-11 happen; people can't grasp them enough to prepare for them.

That's why I'd prefer Gore to any other candidate in 2008. He has the vision and imagination needed. There are candidates whose views I like as much as Gore's, but I don't see that vision in them. It is certainly not in any Republican right now.