prioritise this

TV at the moment sucks. So, i ventured over to SBS - which i have been doing a bit lately. They had a great report on the response to Hurricane Katrina. Its funny how priorities effect things.

Basically they talked about FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and how the director and most of the high up staff there were totally inexperienced when it came to disaster management. The guys that they appointed were just put there as political thankyous. It was a cushy, high paying job for friends of the whitehouse basically. And well... FEMA had been like this, from its conception (1979) till 1993 when something amazing happened.

Clinton decided to put staff in at FEMA that had experience with disaster management. So, he took James Witt from Arkansas, and he did a good job. Lets flash forward about 7 1/2 years, to George W Bush running for president. He says - that Witt had done a good job. And well, he had, so maybe that was the one smart thing George W has ever said...

So, the good dude (Witt) left when President Stupid got control of America. And then, what did Bush do. Appoint the mate of the Chief of Staff... Some guy who had no idea (Joe Albaugh)... Then what happened... Over the next 4 years, the Bush administration cut the funds the FEMA had for prevention programs, and basically turned them back into a toothless tiger, a face to blame when things go bad. ... left, then Mike Brown whod been the number 2 for a couple of years (another politician basically) gets appointed

Katrina hits. This poor director of FEMA (Mike Brown), the Governor of Lousiana and the Mayor of New Orleans all get grilled. Well... the FEMA guy lied like crazy, tried to make the Govenor and Mayor look stupid. And well, the FEMA dude did a poor job, sure... but...
WHY WAS HE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!

I guess what i wanna draw out of this is that in the US government, and ours... we need to seriously give prioritisation to things that matter. Dont just feather our own nests, but make things right, do things properly... now! (unlike Bush, who has finally now appointed someone who has experience in Disaster stuff after having 2 shockers - David Paulison - a fire department guy)

You know whats funny. Maybe at times... the church could learn from this too. Just maybe...

Well, when 93% of American Nazarenes vote Republican, its not hard to see what we have to learn, how and why we have to change.