Still Playing the Race Card

It looks like a lot of people are still playing the race card when it comes to Hurricane Katrina. Let's look at some more likely causes for the issues:

• People Not Leaving - Plain and simple, not as many people when have been hurt by this had people actually left when told to. There are many reasons people did not leave (stupidity, poverty, poor planning, etc), but that does not change the fact that the biggest problem was all of the people who stayed when they should not.
• Poverty - The fact is, a large portion of the people who did not evacuate simply did not have the means to do it on their own.
  
• Corrupt Local and State Government - The corruption of government in that city and that state are legendary. That corruption lead to poor planning and wasted resources, which ultimately resulted in people who could not evacuate on their own having no decent way out of the city.
  
• Over Reliance on Government - This is the key. The poverty stricken people in New Orleans relied on their government for everything. In the end, the extremely corrupt local and state governments let them down.

While FEMA's response what less than stellar, the fact of the matter is that the real pain was caused by the lack of response at the local and state level, and by a system of helping those in poverty that results in the poor relying on government for everything, rather than relying on friends, family, neighbors, and charity.

Of five black evacuees who testified, only one said he believed the sluggish response was the product of bad government planning for poor residents — not racism.

Well, at least one of the evacuees had it right...