IPMS and New Orleans

Those of you familiar with New Orleans will appreciate the destruction and humanity shown in these pictures and for those who don't know New Orleans, the pictures speak for themselves. Photos and a survivors' blog can also be accessed through the IPMS website which has devoted a page to New Orleans including the known whereabouts of its members and families. Thanks to Dick Montgomery IPMS Region 6 Coordinator for the lead.

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Some of you have criticized IPMS and its members (mostly unfairly) as being a divisive group, but truly times like these show that IPMS and its members are doing good things. There is a basic human need for unity and mutual support in our daily endeavors, even if that common thread is only building plastic models.

Reply to
Kaliste Saloom
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OMG u wankers are worried about wether IPMS is a prob in model making.......hey stupid ....there are people dying due to ur own govts inactivity..........and bad management....lol and greorge W ....like he has a brain .........

Reply to
Arcusinoz

hey kaliste salloom ...are u for real ......omg ........

Reply to
Arcusinoz

Dick Montgomery, besides being a gentleman with charisma, and who can tell the most ribald, Politically IN-correct jokes (the only kind *worth* telling...lol) as well as anyone, has also always demonstrated a humanitarian streak within him.

IPMS *may* at times, be an organization that seems closed-minded to the concept of "artistry", and the concept of making model contests "fun"... but should *never* be criticized for being "divisive". Show me a gathering of people who are *not*, at heart, "divisive"; and I will point out that they are nothing more than mindless, uneducated, unmotivated, untalented, unthinking automatons...lol. Some may fear, and shun, "divisiveness"; but it is those qualities which make up the "do-ers" in society. Look at the people who are giving up their own everyday lives, to help clean up and repair the devastation from Katrina. I bet you will find very few of the "Can't we all just get along?"-types amongst them.

:o)

Reply to
Greg Heilers

No....people are dying due to their *own* *individual* inactivity. No amount of "assistance" would help people who, living in an area *known* to be under such a risk, had a week's advance notice, and *still* did not leave. It is *not* the Federal Government's job to "babysit" everyone. Look at the reports of the *thousands* of National Guard troops, from other states, who were waiting to go to Louisiana, at a moment's notice....but never got to....all due to the ineptitude of the Louisiana state and local governments. The mayor of New Orleans is constantly crying that looting and violence will not be tolerated. Okay Mayor...so *when* are you going to take the *first* real step in stopping such? New Orlean's has a fairly large mass-transit system. Days before the storm hit, Hon. Mayor, why did you not use these busses to begin evacuating your own people? It seems funny (in a sad way), that immediately after your city was hit...There were as many Texas National Guard soldiers there, helping out...as there were your *own* soldiers. Why did you not begin activating your *own* resources one week before the storm hit?

A friend in northern Louisiana has told me (and I also saw this on a news broadcast) how his city's state university campus is now being used as a refugee/evacuee housing center. Within *one* *day* of taking in people, the walls of the buildings were covered in graffitti! With this mindset, and lack of maturity and respect, on the part of the "victims"....would

*any* amount of "government aid" have helped? I doubt it...

Meanwhile, as thousands are evacuated, to spread misery to *other* communities, thousands *more* are being bussed *in* (being removed form their *own* communities and economies), to begin the rescue, clean-up, and repair. How about assigning those jobs to the actual people who *lived* there?....thereby giving them their now-needed source of income; keeping the current volunteers in their own communities, sustaining their *own* local communities; and allowing the "victims" to take an active, and productive role, in rebuilding and improving their *own* communities. Or does that make too much sense?

Reply to
Greg Heilers

Yes it is. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s sole reason for existence is to react to national emergencies of this scope. Here's its mission stated on its website FEMA.org:

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency - a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March

2003 - is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters. "

Nice argument except that you omitted the fact that the majority of Louisiana's National Guard has been in Iraq for over one year and not slated to return until later this year. We had no choice but to ask for help from neighboring state NG's. The decision to mobilize these other state NG assets, or even US military assets, is not within the authority of the governor of Louisiana and when the decision was made, the logistics of their mobilization was severely hampered by the lack of infrastructure available in the afflicted areas. The state of Louisiana (and I suspect most other states and countries) does not have the resources to deal with a disaster of this magnitude which has completely devastated a city of 1.5 million people - one third of the state's population and half of its economic resources. As a recent example NYC, arguably the world's wealthiest city, needed resources from around the world - and it "only" lost 3,000 people and 3 buildings - including Louisiana which sent money, personnel and equipment to help NYC recover. Louisiana residents personally raised money to build, equip and deliver fire engines to replace those lost in the collapse of the WTC. Americans - as I suppose most other peoples - always band together in times of need to help their neighbors. The rest are apparently like you and just stand around and lay blame.

that looting and violence will not be tolerated. Okay Mayor...so *when*

Following the hurricane and flood, the New Orleans mayor no longer had an infrastructure to work with. His entire city resources were destroyed, his overwhelmed city's fire and police force who weren't also evacuated - also homeless - did what they could. Again, using the 9/11 analogy, Mayor Giuliani still had the remainder of his city's resources available to assist. His transportation infrastructure, utilities and response assets remained relatively intact to allow for quick response. The surviving citizens still had their food, transportation, shelter and medical resources available to them. Surely, you are not insinuating that fault lies with the city's mayor because he is a black man, are you? Surely, you are not insinuating the fault lies with the state's governor because she if female, are you? Surely, you are not insinuating that fault lies with either of them because they are democrats are you?

Most of those remaining in the New Orleans area after the storm did so because the city was believed relatively safe. In deed, it actually survived the storm relatively intact. This disaster came only after key breaches to the city's canal levee system occurred. Over eighty percent of the city's MSA of 1.5 million was able to evacuate orderly and safely with less than 72 hour notice and with fair efficiency. . . A fairly decent feat to do in an emergency situation. Do the math as to how many are left, regardless of reasons why. Even if 95% had left, those remaining would still be in the tens of thousands.

Much of the "looting" was by stranded people seeking food (which was going to perish anyway), clothing, shelter and other necessities. The national news simply chose to play and replay those obviously looting for greed - a small minority of the survivors (Remember the media motto: "if it bleeds it leads.")

If you have a political or social agenda, please don't place it on the backs of the good people of New Orleans. They are suffering enough.

Reply to
Kaliste Saloom

LOL Yes I am. I'm wondering the same of you. I've never heard of an Aussie valley girl: "OMG u wankers" - gag me with a vegemite sandwich... ;)

Reply to
Kaliste Saloom

But that does not remove the responsibility from each local community's and each state's resources. FEMA exists to *assist* the already-established, and presumed-to-be-efficiently utilized state and local resources. Sure, they soon appoint themselves to be "in charge" once they arrive; but it is expected that the locals have already done what is their own responsibility.

Majority? Hardly. Only about one third are deployed there. And they are on their way home, as planned before Katrina:

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This is not to say that the National Guard is not strained. But there were more than enough forces available...if only someone had set the ball in motion *before* it was too late.

I was not even aware of the race and/or ethnicity of the Mayor. I only know that, to me, he comes across as totally incompetent; and more than willing to shun *any* self-responsibilty for his own inactions. Are *you* the one who looks at the Mayor, or the Governor, and immediately exercises "classism" by seeing "black" or "woman", and ignoring the actual competency (or lack of) of these politicians?

Yes....and the majority *did* get out okay. But to blame the Federal Government for the tragedy that then occurred, is the epitome of "passing the buck".

Of course....but the "looting" referred to by the Mayor, was *not* of the "necessities" type.

Hey....I am the one who came to your *defense*, regarding your original section dealing with the criticism of IPMS-ers...as well as adding further kudos to Dick Montgomery. Note that all of my opining was in response to Mr. "Arcusinoz'" poorly-expressed, grammatically-poor reply.

Reply to
Greg Heilers

To Greg, Grey Ghost, Kalliste, Arcusinoz and RW Smith,

Aren't all of these arguments best left to other newsgroups rather than being posted to rec.models.scale? It was and is a human tragedy in the Gulf states; assessing blame is not what the people there need.

Reply to
Bill Zuk

See my comments below each paragraph where applicable.

Reply to
Bill Woodier

100 (that were in view, there were probably more than that) school buses just sitting there parked in neat rows in about a foot of water and none looked damaged even after the storm. If the local government ordered an evacuation while the city was still waiting for the storm (which it did) and knew there were people who had no other means of getting out, why didn't the Mayor and other city officials mobilize all those unused busses to haul people out of danger >>>

Weird...my news reader wouldn't quote that text?

Anyway, what are the odds that those same 100+ busses were sitting in a location that was isolated by water and were rendered ineffective in getting to any other place where they were needed?

I'm not saying they were or weren't and you didn't indicate either way

- only having seen a news picture.

Thats just an example of non-productive finger-pointing with no other intention than to make the 'authorities' look bad. Jeezus, there's plenty of examples of that without supporting an argument based on iffy evidence.

-BM

Reply to
-ex-

It is more than just "a news picture". Googling has brought up the story reported in papers all over the nation. Not only were the city's hundreds of school busses unused....the fleet of city mass transit busses were not utilized; except in bringing people to in-city places such as the Superdome. Several of these stories have stated that the city's busses (transit and school) could have evacuated 22,000 citizens *per* *trip*.

Last night, Drudge replayed the audio from a TV interview, a few days before Katrina hit shore, where the Mayor was questioned about the city's preparedness. His relaxed demeanor, and total lack of any "sense of urgency" was shocking.

Reply to
Greg Heilers

Here's a clue, rms is a snakepit and always has been.....

Reply to
rwsmithjr

The point is very simple, had the LOCAL authorities gotten off their collective asses during the run up to the storm, those busses could have been used to at a minimum evacuate the elderly and infirm from the nursing homes, hospices, etc. There was ample warning the storm was coming and it was a bad one, there was also ample time to use those same busses to evacuate at least the most helpless.

Reply to
rwsmithjr

I just e-mailed you a copy of the photo and caption - can't post photos to RMS. I got it via e-mail from a Marine buddy who lives (should say lived, I guess) in Slidell. Luckily, he had the good sense to evacuate he and his family to the house of another Marine buddy in TX BEFORE the storm hit and they are safe.

Reply to
Bill Woodier

The guy makes Marion Barry look honest and competent.

Reply to
rwsmithjr

" snipped-for-privacy@rcn.com" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@rcn.net:

a few days

about the

of any

Ouch.

Reply to
Gray Ghost

" snipped-for-privacy@rcn.com" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@rcn.net:

newsgroups rather

human tragedy

there need.

Rattle...Rattle...Rattle...Hisssssssss...

Reply to
Gray Ghost

I wonder what his favorite strip club is? Marion (and I) liked The Good Guys Club, in upper Georgetown, on Wisconsin, I think. A small club, but it allowed you to get closer to the dancers.

KL

Reply to
Kurt Laughlin

Ahhh, my favorite Marion Barry one-liner......"Damn, the bitch set me up!"

Reply to
Bill Woodier

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