I have sent some money to friends and done a couple of other things.
Oddly enough, I have very little to say about what is going on out there, except concern for friends and comrades.
One rule of war is that you keep your eye on the job in front of you. If you are in the Pacific Threater or the Eastern Front, what happens in Europe or on the Western Front is vital to you. But no matter what happens there, no matter how dramatic, you cannot let it divert your attention from the job in front of you.
In early July of 1863, the news of defeat at Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg, which occured on July 3 and July 4 of that year, arrived in many other areas of conflict simultraneously. Preoccupation with those disasters demoralized, distracted, and killed many Confederate soldiers who were on other fronts.
I have been through a lot of disasters, and the last thing anybody needs on the scene is people frantically trying to “show their concern” by frantically trying to get information or making some other kind of push.
Let the families get the information they are desperate for.
When Hugo hit South Carolina, I was in drug and alcohol rehab, and was sponsoring addicts and alcoholics. I made some trips I had been ASKED to make.
It wasn’t wasy. The whole lowstate was under strict curfew with National Guard troops standing with automatic weapons in hand.
For some odd reason, I felt right at home.
But even civilians like me, if they were “in the program” dealing with alcohol and drugs, get the most amazing breaks from the authorities, almost in the same way a doctor does.
Also, when I was with the Reagan Administration, one of my areas of responsibility in certain areas was the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and that gave me some contacts and some
special trust.
Hugo was after Reagan, but I still had the contacts.
I could even have said, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” If I HAD said that, one of the soldiers would probably have shot me.
Back to the present crisis. In the case of New Orleans, the question is not how desperate you are at this moment. The question is will you remember people down there NEXT week, when something else is in the headlines?
I’ll call people if and when the ways are clear and people with something real to do won’t stumble over me.
And I’ll remember them next week.
Recent Comments