“We Are One Nation” — Harvey Causes ‘Soul Searching’ for Texans and for All Americans
With a political party and a president intent on eviscerating federal government; Mother Nature has perhaps changed the conversation.
In Texas, the nation’s second most populous state, and in Houston, our 4th-largest city; pictures, video, and personal stories are emerging hourly, documenting the sheer breadth of the massive devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey.
A natural disaster that came ashore last weekend, first as a Category 4 Hurricane, then lingering for days over Southern Texas (and neighboring states) as a massive tropical storm, dumping upwards of fifty inches of rain and causing widespread flooding. Flooding that — thankfully — caused few deaths, but has left tens-of-thousands homeless, amid dramatic rescues and inspirational acts of bravery. A natural disaster that has topped levees and dams, paralyzing a proud, growing American metropolis.
Flotillas of private boats, Coast Guard and National Guard helicopters rescued hundreds trapped in swirling, murky floodwaters and plucked many off of their rooftops — huddled with little more than the clothes on their backs, or clutching children, a few precious personal belongings, or family pets.
All of this in a state which proudly flies a “Lone Star” flag, and sports famously defiant mottoes like; “Everything is Bigger in Texas,” or “Don’t Mess With Texas,” and where just exactly a year ago, 3 out of 5 Texans said they wanted to secede from the Union,…if Hillary Clinton were elected president.
It should not go without notice, that the low sea level city and port of Houston (and surrounding area) has been profiled before, in the aftermath of earlier storm disasters. George Santayana famously observed; “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
“It’s already been eight years since Ike and Houston gets hit by a major storm every 15 years on average.
“We’re sitting ducks. We’ve done nothing.” said Phil Bedient, an engineering professor at Rice University and co-director of the Storm Surge Prediction, Education, and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center. “We’ve done nothing to shore up the coastline, to add resiliency … to do anything.”
To this day, some public officials seem content to play the odds and hope for the best.
Houston’s new mayor, former longtime state lawmaker Sylvester Turner, declined an interview request for this story. Turner’s office released a statement from Dennis Storemski, the city’s public safety and homeland security director.
“Only a small portion of the city of Houston is at risk for major storm surge,” it said.” (excerpt from: “Hell and High Water” — ProPublica, March 3, 2016)
There is now a bit of introspection beginning to take shape, even as the rains are expected to continue over the next few days, with a presidential visit to the state, a marshaling of more resources by the Federal Government (under FEMA), and more personal stories of suffering and sacrifice sure to emerge.
But, with Congress still in recess but expected to return next week, faced with a rancorous partisan political divide and a president who has threatened a government shutdown — if they do not fund his silly and costly border wall all along the U.S.-Mexican border — there will be an expected clash of societal ideologies and economic priorities like we haven’t witnessed since the last major storm event, Hurricane Sandy, which battered our North Atlantic states in 2012.
The recovery costs will be upwards of $150-billion by some initial estimates, but where will that money come from and whose political priorities will be served in the end — remains to be seen. One thing is for sure and truly inspirational. That is the immediate response of the citizens of Houston and those who have rushed to their aid; thankfully with only a few examples of churlish selfishness (are you listening, Joel Osteen?)
“…once the immediate danger has passed, the response to the storm will raise larger political questions on at least two major fronts: the cost of recovery and the role of climate change in intensifying the risk of such devastating storms. Each of those issues will challenge America’s ability to surmount its differences enough to set a shared national direction. Like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy before it, Harvey may demonstrate just how much the man-made gales of political polarization has diminished the nation’s capacity to forge common cause against even the fiercest natural disasters.” (CNN)
Fundamental questions often brushed aside — either in a rush to enact massive tax cuts for corporations and the mega-rich; pursue a conservative dream of shrinking government down to a size “where we can drown it in the bathtub” ~ Grover Norquist; or spend billions we don’t have on walls we don’t need — will have to be answered, legislatively. And soon.
The soul searching must reach some sane conclusions relative to our political realities of partisanship, amid dire economic priorities and imperatives. Where do we go as a civil society and as a prosperous nation of 320-million souls, living in fifty individual but intertwined states? Do we want to witness more images of seniors languishing in waist-deep flood waters, awaiting rescue, while our legislators stubbornly deny the science of Global Warming,…all for the sake of lucrative, but lax building codes and unregulated corporate greed that treats our human environment as an afterthought…?
Or,…do we stand united, as one nation, committed to sharing our wealth, our compassion, and our moral integrity — putting aside personal greed, religious hypocrisy, and racial animosities for the greater good of a civil society and shared prosperity? Mother Nature has sent us yet another “wake up call.” But will we listen? Like it or not Americans,…we are all in the same boat.
