Is the abandonment of full government relief conspiracy?\u00a0\u00a0When insurance companies renege on their promises to policy holders, is it deliberate neglect? Is it racism?\u00a0\u00a0Prejudice against the lower class?<\/p>\n
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I won\u2019t pretend that there aren\u2019t individuals who have deliberately exploited the disaster for their own profits.\u00a0\u00a0Beyond the looters following the storm, certainly some key decision-makers at local and national levels levered some policies into place to seize properties, to provide funds first to areas of high commerce, to ignore the poorly-defended homeless.<\/p>\n
But despite the conspiracy theories and the\u00a0UK Mirror\u2019s description of America\u2019s \u201cvile underbelly,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0I don\u2019t think that is where it went wrong.\u00a0\u00a0Somehow worse than any conspiracy is its opposite.\u00a0\u00a0Wickedness requires some intent, some premeditation and enough energy and assertiveness to institute it; my suspicion is that much of the post-Katrina recovery failures have more to do with the absence of will and thought.<\/p>\n Mike Schmoker, in his book on school reform\u00a0Results Now<\/em>, describes the problem as a \u201cbuffer,\u201d a force which prevents anyone from knowing just how bad the status quo is. Thus, there is no impetus for change.\u00a0\u00a0He writes, \u201cThe status quo gets enormous help from the machinery that creates the illusion of scrutiny and inspection,\u201d creating a \u201crosy view\u201d while effectively eliminating any feeling of urgency or need (15, 16).<\/p>\n The buffer is standard operating procedure.\u00a0\u00a0It is the bureaucracy of getting the job done, the routine of filling forms and working through committee, of \u201cfollowing procedure\u201d as a goal instead of accomplishing justice.\u00a0\u00a0Worst of all, it creates in people the idea that mindless duties fulfilled are themselves accomplishment.<\/p>\n Take, for instance, one of the stories of fire chief Ron Silva of Chalmette.\u00a0\u00a0In the 100+ degree heat following the storm and lack of power, ice became a vital resource.\u00a0\u00a0FEMA truck drivers delivered ice in trucks to the area, but because they were required by policy to return their trailers, they proposed to dump the ice on the street (where it would certainly melt within hours).\u00a0\u00a0Silva told them to leave the refrigerated trailers to preserve the ice for several days and then bring a new trailer when they had emptied the first.\u00a0\u00a0The drivers refused: to them, thinking\u2014doing what was right\u2014was irrelevant to the more important goal of gathering signatures in triplicate and following orders to protect their status quo jobs.\u00a0\u00a0Silva said that it took the threat of a gun to convince them to change their minds.<\/p>\n It creates a kind of linear vision, this buffer, an almost deliberately ignorant perception.\u00a0\u00a0If only I do my job, I am blameless, no matter how horrific the consequences of that job.<\/p>\n
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evidence of his written insurance policy, he would not be covered.\u00a0\u00a0Of course, the company was counting on the fact that the elderly victim of a flood-damaged home two years later would never be able to find such a policy.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, someone in that company made a wicked decision.\u00a0\u00a0More importantly, all the other employees of the company obediently followed it.\u00a0\u00a0The paperwork buffer went into operation; the insurance agent need only shrug and say, \u201cI\u2019m just doing my job.\u201d (Our students found the man\u2019s policy in his water-damaged files.)<\/p>\n