For the second time in a month, the Gulf Coast of the US has been struck by a powerful hurricane. Despite the pleading of state and local officials, scores of people stayed behind - thinking they could withstand the wrath of the storm. Now, federal and state resources are having to be diverted in order to pluck these people from rooftops, trees and flood waters. Part of me is extremely pissed off that people could be so ignorant -- or perhaps so arrogant -- as to thumb their noses at the mandatory evacuation orders.
It angers me that my tax dollars are now having to be spent to send in special search and rescue teams to remove people from harm's way who should never have been there in the first place. The admonition that "those who stay behind do so at their own peril" is really rendered meaningless when time and again folks such as these are rescued from their own stupidity. Transportation is no excuse in this instance -- the parishes in question made transportation available to those who had none. Like children who disobey, perhaps these folks should be left to suffer the consequences of their own decisions... no, wait, that's right... the government's responsible for fixing EVERYONE's poor decisions -- from bankruptcy protection to rehabilitation of prisoners to unending support of those who continue to procreate without the means to support the resulting innocent lives -- the US Government must fix it all.
You know what I think of that notion? In the immortal words of Col. Sherman T. Potter, "Mule Fritters!"
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