Maureen Westrick [09/16/2005]

To the editor:Disasters bring out the best characteristics in humankind. And the worst. We have seen Americans open up their homes, communities, schools and wallets as never before. We want to think of only the good in people. But a crisis also brings out the worst, and weve been witness to the collapse of law and order.More insidious, and much less obvious though, is the dark side of government. Was there a deliberate tripping of services to Katrinas victim? Of course there will be miscommunications, a screw-up here and there, but when the list is compiled it seems more like an adversarial effort. For instance: FEMA turns away Wal-Mart trucks with waterN.Y. Times FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuelN.Y. Times Two U.S. Navy pilots punished for rescuing peopleReuters UK FEMA wont let Red Cross deliver foodPost Gazette FEMA pulls 1,000 first responders to take community relations trainingSalt Lake Tribune FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on boardChicago Tribune FEMA: First Responders urged not to respondfema.gov (no joke)In the wake of this tragedy, there will be the inevitable calls for more money, more czars, a cabinet-level administrator, et cetera. We must be vigilant against and wary of the expansion of government in "emergency" situations, especially the expansion of the military with police powers. Please dont confuse this with governors deployment of the local National Guard, whose use has always meant to be at discretion of a governor for states protection. (Nor do I mean to detract from the heroic actions of the Coast Guard out of Massachusetts who took their mission to save lives seriously and have done a fabulous job, and have come under FEMA criticism.)The Patriot Act was an emergency measure which is in jeopardy of becoming permanent. Most "emergency" acts appear site-specific (temporary) to the average person, but tend to morph into permanence in a very Washington manner.Day by day we slip silently toward fascism, mainly because Americans think "itll never happen here." Increasingly, we are wrong.