Random Fate really gets to the heart of the matter on the bumbling response of all levels of government to Hurricane Katrina, and on the responsibility of we citizens who fail to demand better of our leaders and system of government.
Jack is right, it is all about accountability.
Here are just a few snippets from his answers to the question of “who is accountable?”:
Those who voted for candidates who said what the voters wanted to hear instead of what they needed to hear.
Those who voted for their own regional concerns first and only incidentally thought about the nation as a whole.
Those who voted based on a single issue.
And he concludes with:
The people of Lebanon and Ukraine peacefully forced change through against all odds. We have a stable system that they did not have, we have advantages they did not have, we can make changes through the ballot box.
Yet we refuse to change.
Yes, and that is appalling. But many of the problems Jack refers to are systemic in nature, and not just problems of bad leaders or the people who voted for them (or didn’t vote at all). Problems of accountability and system capacity require institutional change. Yet there we are even more complacent. That will be an ongoing theme of F&V, and as such, is an argument for another day.
Jack’s is simply a great, hard-hitting, must-read post.
