Nobody’s Perfect
My stepsister and her family were among the fortunate and storm-wizened who left New Orleans before Katrina hit. Trey and Stacey had the gumption and the means to leave. They’re safe, although their jobs at Tulane University were washed away, along with everything on the first floor of their house. You only have to listen to the news for a couple of minutes a day to know how fortunate they are.
The hard part for most of us – comfortable and dry in our homes with clean running water, electricity, trash removal and DSL – has been watching the aftermath. Only weeks later, Katrina is already emerging as an historic example of bureaucratic incompetence. With ample warning, all the planning, forecasting and models showing how bad things could get sat on shelves and hard drives. Against this canvas of humiliating and inexcusable paralysis, politicians faced a communications test beyond anything the white collar set could imagine. And it’s hard to imagine anyone failing more badly.
Initially, we heard remarks from President Bush to the effect that no one had anticipated the breach of the levees protecting New Orleans, prompting a secondary flood – of ridicule. In fact, many people had anticipated the breach of the levees, and even those of us not in the Army Corps of Engineers had an inkling that a city below sea level might be vulnerable to a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. Credibility lost.
Even worse were the remarks from Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu who, on September 1, was using a CNN interview to thank federal officials for their assistance, thank President Bush for his “strong statement of support and comfort,” and thank Congress for going to “an unprecedented session to pass a $10 billion supplemental bill… to keep FEMA and the Red Cross up and operating.”
CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper spoke for many of us when, exasperated, he challenged Landrieu’s comments by pointing out that there had been a body in the street, being eaten by rats, for two days and that hearing politicians commending one another might seem a bit disingenuous when the entire world was watching live coverage of the gruesome failure of any government agency to act in a timely way.
It’s hard to grasp the devastation and misery facing the Gulf Coast right now. Having had a close call with the wildfires that swept through southern California in 2003 – when local and state governments had a hard time coordinating in an emergency situation – I have a sense of the frustration, but on a smaller scale. We needed strong leadership, and sincere communication. What we heard were clichés and perfunctory thank you’s.
Business people should be watching this and taking to heart the brusque treatment politicians have received from emboldened journalists like Cooper. Far too often, executives and managers take this kind of empty banter over substance. The distance between reality and speechifying is never as stark in business as after a natural disaster, but there’s no denying the anger caused by these empty comments from Bush, Landrieu and others. People can see the bodies in the streets. A little more sincerity and a lot fewer speech writers might be a good start.
In the meantime, I can't do any better than to quote Senator Landrieu’s closing comment:
“Nobody’s perfect.”
The hard part for most of us – comfortable and dry in our homes with clean running water, electricity, trash removal and DSL – has been watching the aftermath. Only weeks later, Katrina is already emerging as an historic example of bureaucratic incompetence. With ample warning, all the planning, forecasting and models showing how bad things could get sat on shelves and hard drives. Against this canvas of humiliating and inexcusable paralysis, politicians faced a communications test beyond anything the white collar set could imagine. And it’s hard to imagine anyone failing more badly.
Initially, we heard remarks from President Bush to the effect that no one had anticipated the breach of the levees protecting New Orleans, prompting a secondary flood – of ridicule. In fact, many people had anticipated the breach of the levees, and even those of us not in the Army Corps of Engineers had an inkling that a city below sea level might be vulnerable to a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. Credibility lost.
Even worse were the remarks from Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu who, on September 1, was using a CNN interview to thank federal officials for their assistance, thank President Bush for his “strong statement of support and comfort,” and thank Congress for going to “an unprecedented session to pass a $10 billion supplemental bill… to keep FEMA and the Red Cross up and operating.”
CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper spoke for many of us when, exasperated, he challenged Landrieu’s comments by pointing out that there had been a body in the street, being eaten by rats, for two days and that hearing politicians commending one another might seem a bit disingenuous when the entire world was watching live coverage of the gruesome failure of any government agency to act in a timely way.
It’s hard to grasp the devastation and misery facing the Gulf Coast right now. Having had a close call with the wildfires that swept through southern California in 2003 – when local and state governments had a hard time coordinating in an emergency situation – I have a sense of the frustration, but on a smaller scale. We needed strong leadership, and sincere communication. What we heard were clichés and perfunctory thank you’s.
Business people should be watching this and taking to heart the brusque treatment politicians have received from emboldened journalists like Cooper. Far too often, executives and managers take this kind of empty banter over substance. The distance between reality and speechifying is never as stark in business as after a natural disaster, but there’s no denying the anger caused by these empty comments from Bush, Landrieu and others. People can see the bodies in the streets. A little more sincerity and a lot fewer speech writers might be a good start.
In the meantime, I can't do any better than to quote Senator Landrieu’s closing comment:
“Nobody’s perfect.”
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