Mississippi Commentary: Profit motive and National Policy

After thinking the trip over for a bit, I began to see the situation in Mississippi fall into a pattern of behavior (US Gov policy) that I first started to notice when I was in college.

I sent the following to Ella and co. a few days after I got back from the Gulf Coast:

One thing that I forgot to share with Ed and Irene was a story I had, very relevant (I think) to the source of the problems of fixing coastal Mississippi: I was overseas for a year in college and had a fascinating conversation with an Australian who was a medic in Viet Nam. He helped me understand the way that war played out by asking a mind-blowing question: “Why win a war, when you make more money by losing?” That one question snapped 50 years of modern US Policy into instant focus for me. In this context, one can start to see a pattern of behavior in the decision making of our current administration; just ask yourself that question about Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2007 Mississippi, you can ask yourself: If there is no profit motive in dealing with these towns on the Gulf Coast, will our government bother?

FROM ELLA: This is the political side of the trailer situation here. Although my documentary focuses one positive side of the recovery efforts, I have met too many people who are suffering ill health to ignore the trouble with trailers. A volunteer who is an engineering professor from the University of Washington can no longer stand idly by waiting for the government to do something.

http://www.comingalongside.org/Home.html

She has been writing and calling FEMA, CDC and NIOSH to offer her professional help. They have not committed to a plan (as evidenced by the articles below) so Denise is coming to the Gulf Coast at the end of November to test trailers for formaldehyde. I am going to work with her to connect her to residents who are in trailers. We are doing this because the window of opportunity for data collection is closing. Health of the residents who are already under stress is deteriorating.

Chet sent me an eloquent email the other day about how Policy is managed in our country. It resonated for me with an entry in my journal shortly after my first trip here:

WHO DOES INACTION SERVE?

At first, I thought that it was ignorance that was causing the delays in distributing grant money that is essential in getting people home again. Then I thought it was ineptitude in managing such a huge program administratively. Turns out it may be fiscal in nature - in this case concerns about legal liability when the test results for the trailers are in. Sierra Club was talking about this story for 18 months before our government held Congressional hearings in July. There was a lot of talk at that time about Doing Something...and now another delay.

Just one more reason for more volunteer trips - getting people out of the trailers faster!

Back to editing...
Best, Ella