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Jewish World Review Sept. 20, 2005 / 16 Elul, 5765 Obsequiously ineffectual proposals and the need for big fat families By Marianne M. Jennings
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Watching John Roberts' confirmation hearing and President Bush's groveling in New Orleans was like watching Cruella De Vil's (Glenn Close's) subordinates in 101 Dalmatians. Cruella blustered, barked, and remained seriously displeased, especially with one less-then-deferential subordinate who dared disagree with her, "What kind of a sycophant are you?" He responded, "What kind would you like me to be?"
Mr. Bush's nominee's obsequious testimony was too much to bear in a week that only served to cement the labels of "weak" and "ineffectual" (and those are the charitable ones from conservative pundits) for the president's performance of the past few weeks. The man who addressed the nation from New Orleans was the antithesis of the leader who stood with bullhorn and firefighters on the rubble of New York's World Trade Centers and calmed a nation. Mr. Bush now embraces and touts the myths of the left, from racism causes poverty to confessing that the federal government messed up in New Orleans but can now fix the Crescent City. Son of a gun, if he believes that, then big fun awaits us on the bayou.
Hell bent to please, Mr. Bush glossed over the ignoble results when Democrats are in charge. No matter how well Mr. Bush, FEMA, Brownie, and a host of other nicknames do their jobs, they cannot overcome liberal tentacles and their chokehold on local governments. Democrats may be misguided at the federal level, but they are misguided, incompetent, and/or corrupt at the city and state levels. New Orleans is what happens when liberals run local governments: disasters, with or without levee problems.
Which school district spends $2000 more per pupil than any other state (except Alaska) while offering the very lowest of test scores to show for it? Why, Democrat-run DC, where every child is left behind! In 2003, 90% of their eighth graders failed a reading test.
What do Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, and St. Louis have in common? You don't walk outside after dark there, they are dang depressing cities, and they all have Democrats for mayors.
Even when Dems don't reduce cities to war-zones, they introduce irritating socialism. They cannot resist grandiose schemes grounded in egalitarianism. Seattle, Cleveland, Albuquerque, and Baltimore (among others) have one shuttle bus from their airports to a joint rental car facility. Saves time? More efficient? Nope! Buses are crowded. No one cares about you, your luggage, or service. Lines aplenty! Miserable drivers. Give me an Avis red bus and service, but Democrats don't do free enterprise. If they do, they have to get their mitts on it somehow, and I am certain global warming and the Kyoto Treaty are at the root of this harebrained socialist scheme.
There is yet one more flaw in Mr. Bush's hasty root-cause groveling. The events post-levee break in New Orleans offer a glimpse of our future, and not just through the looting. Looting is but a symptom of many lost virtues, including a cohesive society. The social fabric no longer resembles the rich tapestry of intertwined family and community that provided deterrence, cohesiveness, and, we might say, shelter from the storm. Children, nursing home residents, and patients were left behind. Their plight, and in too many cases, their demise, tears at the heart. It should rack our brains.
The "me" society has produced a shallow level of interconnection. A mobile society, facilitated through glib divorce policies and feminist dogma, has seen generations raised with little family interaction and even fewer connections to community. Neighbors barely grunt at each other. Roots are unknown in a country of nomads who leave extended family behind, if they ever knew them. Government bureaucracies failed in New Orleans because they are incapable of possessing the detailed knowledge necessary to rescue those with peculiar needs. If bureaucracies did have that kind of information the ACLU, as G-d is their witness, would squawk about privacy.
Families and longstanding neighbors meddle, but it's meddling born of pride, care, concern, and love. Big, fat families offer a depth that dismisses the need for helicopter rescues and can carry on in the face of monumental mayoral ineptness. Big, fat families pitch in financially. Key causes of poverty include lack of education, not getting married, and not staying married! Race causes none of these. Families help with all.
The federal government with all the free enterprise zones Mr. Bush can muster cannot oust local fiefdoms of ineffectual Democrats nor take the place of a big, fat family. Human interaction, human contact, and human concern prevent a New Orleans. When our big, fat families are there, the mayor could jump ship and we would get the job done. Families and neighborhoods follow up, follow through, and follow our children to nag. When Aunt Nelda's family visits her regularly in the nursing home, they take Aunt Nelda with her when they evacuate (and probably a few of Aunt Nelda's friends as well). There was a time when turning over the responsibility for 34 lives to a couple running a nursing home would have been a disgrace to the families of the 34. With our tapestry worn and torn, the 34 perished and we indict the owner/operators. The indictment belongs with us. Until we recognize our failures, no federal cure exists.
Before Mr. Bush trots us down this road of big government appeasement of alleged racial equality, we need some introspection and a reminder of a past and its web of big, fat families that saw to it that someone, besides the military and bureaucrats, not only cared for the lives and well-being of others, but found their own ways to do so.
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JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State
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© 2005, Marianne M. Jennings |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
