The state of Louisiana is one of
a group of ultra-Conservative southern states where the Federal government is
not just despised, not just hated, it is loathed with the intensity of a thousand suns. Of course this feeling does not prevail when
it comes to lining up for a massive federal project
to keep its premier city, New Orleans from
washing away into the Gulf of Mexico .
Does This Look Nice - It Should - The Finest Flood Protection For Someone Else Your Tax Dollars Can Buy |
Nearly five years
after Katrina and the devastating failures of the levee system, New
Orleans is well on its way to getting the protection system Congress ordered: a
ring of 350 miles of linked levees, flood walls, gates and pumps that surrounds
the city and should defend it against the kind of flooding that in any given
year has a 1 percent chance of occurring.
Wow, that sounds kind
of expensive. Wonder how much taxpayer
money from the other 49 states went into this project?
The
scale of the nearly $15 billion project, which is not due to be completed until
the beginning of next year’s hurricane season, brings to mind an earlier age
when the nation built huge works like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Hoover Dam and
the Interstate highway system.
But at least the people
of New Orleans
ought to be pretty happy about the help they are getting from the rest of the
nation. Maybe they will revise their
attitude and not be quite so hostile to federal spending. But probably not.
As for the rest of
us, we all hope that New Orleans
is now protected and that something like Katrina will never ever happen
again. We only ask for one thing, a nice
“thank you” from the citizens of the Bayou state. Really folks, you have been given a massive
federal welfare payment, couldn’t you just make a small gesture of
appreciation.
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