Mike Klein

Responding to the Perfect Storm

We cannot change the past. We have an obligation to deal with the physical and emotional damage of Hurricane Katrina -- and so we should not focus on whom to blame any longer, but on finding those now capable of responding to the devastation. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast need someone or some group that can eliminate red tape, provide needed services and solve problems to rebuild an essential part of our country.

A strategy to move forward must begin with the highest authority in the land: the President of the United States. The President must step forward -- far more than he did during the flooding -- and utilize the power, resources and reach of the White House and entire Federal government to take responsibility for reconstruction. He must establish a headquarters in New Orleans and assign a senior, capable Cabinet Secretary to work from there with the task of rebuilding the region. That headquarters must become a "war room" where city and state officials of all levels of government, private sector experts, volunteer forces and relief organizations collaborate in a fulltime, comprehensive and public manner.

Using all the skill, technology, resources and focus that we harness when we wage war, these men and women of the war room will live and work in the region they have the honor of serving. This rebuilding effort should be grand, free of fiscal constraints and in the spirit of the great eras of years gone by: a WPA effort, a Marshall Plan for our home soil, a New Deal to prove to our own citizenry that we -- all of us -- deserve national support when true disaster strikes.

The Congress of the United States must do its part too, first by visiting the area. It is shameful that more members of the House and Senate visited the areas impacted by the Tsunami than our own Gulf Coast. Second, they must be creative and generous in incentive programs and financial and legal support of a region that has lost it own records, revenue-generating capacity and equity sufficient event to borrow money. Third, forth and fifth generation residents must be secure in their right and ability to move home. Forgive federal taxes, provide no interest loans, create incentives that will bring new business, industry and builders of housing to the region.

Imagine, an effort that the President leads, the Congress supports and the federal government commits billions of dollars to fund. No, I am not referring to the War in Iraq; rather, a war to correct our mistakes at home -- mistakes that have rocked the foundation of our nation, leaving citizens wondering if our government works at all for the people and if it is run at all by the people.

History will judge us here not only by the failures of our response to Katrina, but by our response to the failures. We cannot afford to fail again.

Mike Klein
New York City

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Posted at 5:01 AM, Mar 02, 2006 in Hurricane Katrina
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