If it Were Up to Me
By Norma Sherry
No, it's not about a game of blame as our representatives and newscasters are working so hard to sell. No, it's about
accountability. I yearn for the good ole' days of politicians who actually took responsibility. Remember the plaque on
Harry S. Truman's desk: The Buck Stops Here? Well, I want a president who will admit when he's wrong, will fire inept
appointees, and a president whose actions we could actually look up to and wish our children would grow up to emulate. I
want a commander and chief who stands heads above the rest. I want a leader of the free world who speaks truthfully -
always. I want a president that exudes honor and believes in justice for all. It's heartbreaking that we are so far
removed from any semblance of what a true leader should be and a republic that performs as it was intended: to protect
its citizens.
By now it's clear to anyone who reads that our president new of the risk to the New Orleans levee system years before
Katrina. Yet, he stands before us and says, "Who knew the levees wouldn't hold". Instead, now he professes to
investigate what went wrong. So, now we have a president investigating himself and a congress investigating themselves.
Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?
And if that weren't enough, now we sent Vice President Cheney to oversee and make certain things get done in New
Orleans, Mississippi, and Alabama. Anyone without blinders on would know he's not there to look out for the citizens.
He's there for one reason and one reason only. Money. When we decimated Iraq it was Haliburton - Cheney's old firm -
that received the lion's share of multi-billions of dollars in re-building contracts. Hmm, I wonder could he have his
eye on a new mother load?
The balanced FOX News wants to tell us about the unrest and about the ugly happenings in New Orleans. But they don't
tell us about the nursing home nurses and CNA's that walked out the door leaving thirty helpless elderly residents to
drown in their beds. They don't tell us about the three-hundred or more policeman who threw down their badges and walked
out of town. Instead were told about looters and gun-toting citizens gone awry. I wonder if left with nothing, with no
one seemingly to care, if I wouldn't do whatever I needed to protect and feed and clothe my family.
But in the aftermath of Katrina the generosity and graciousness of others has come to the forefront.
Rumor has it that billions and billions of dollars are streaming in to help the beleaguered and displaced citizens.
George Clooney gave a million dollars. So did Sean Penn and Julia Roberts. John Grisham gave five-million. Kuwait
one-hundred million dollars. The United Arab Emirates a half-billion dollars - and the list goes on and on. Yet, with
all this money flowing, not to mention the vast sums from us more ordinary citizens, the displaced citizens are still
housed in arenas with cafeteria-style food and a two-thousand dollar debit card.
One young man said now he could begin his life anew. He was thrilled that he now had two-thousand dollars. Perhaps it
was more than he'd ever had at one time in his lifetime, but it seems to me that we should be able to do better. These
are the poorest of poor. Folks who didn't own a car or couldn't afford a bus ticket or the fuel, if they owned a car, to
get out of town. Needless to say, chances are they also couldn't afford insurance. Why not actually give these people a
nest egg. A real chance to pick themselves up and start over again. Perhaps even better then they've ever been before.
If instead of throwing billions of dollars towards temporary housing, filling prescriptions, buying clothes and bedding,
and feeding three squares a day, we actually give them money to restart their lives. Would it not be cheaper and more
effective if each family without insurance received $100,000 allowing them the dignity to reside in their own new homes,
to feed themselves, and care for themselves as they see fit? Would it not be an act of humanity? Considering all that
they've lost, all that they've suffered, and all that we didn't do fast enough or effectively enough, don't we owe them
more than a cot in a roomful of other cots?
Instead of heaping more money to organizations why not give it directly to individuals and their families. If it were I,
and I had a million dollars I could contribute, I'd pick ten families and give each of them $100,000. If I were Bill
Gates or Tommy Hilfiger or Oprah or Diddy or Anheuser Busch or Michael Dell or Phillip Anschutz or Steven Ballmer or
Paul Allen or Warren Buffet or any of the Walton's or any other millionaire or billionaire, that's what I'd do. I'd do
my best to lift these poor souls who have suffered so needlessly and give them and their families a shot at life.
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© Norma Sherry 2005
Norma Sherry is co-founder of TogetherForeverChanging.org, an organization devoted to educating, stimulating, and igniting personal responsibility particularly with regards to
our diminishing civil liberties. She is also an award-winning writer/producer and host of the television program, The
Norma Sherry Show on WQXT TV.
Email Norma: norma@togetherforeverchanging.org