Greed
Corporate
Crime
Money
Exploitation
All are failings of men. People, left to their own devices are unable to care for their neighbor. At least without profit or reward. And so it is that government must come to the rescue. It is government, and only government, that can take away the risks of life and grant peace and serenity.
But this isn’t true. No one REALLY thinks this is true.
After all, the nature of a man that would cause him to commit fraud on his fellow man is the same nature that would cause him to run for political office for ill reasons. There is not, and can not be, a compelling argument that the failings of a man in private business is somehow absent in the public business of government.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – As residents of states affected by severe weather and tornadoes this spring continue the difficult task of recovery, at least a few whose homes were nearly destroyed have been deemed ineligible for federal grants due to “insufficient damage,” The Birmingham News reported Sunday.
The newspaper talked to one family who received the startling assessment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after their Pleasant Grove, Ala., home was reduced to “nothing but bricks and debris scattered over a concrete slab” during a deadly April tornado, the paper said.
“Based on your FEMA inspection, we have determined that the disaster has not caused your home to be unsafe to live in,” the letter from FEMA rejecting Jonathan Stewart’s grant application said.
Lashunta Tabb received the same letter, the newspaper reported, although her house in North Smithfield Manor, Ala., lost more than half of its roof and sustained other damage in the tornado.
According to The Birmingham News, FEMA said “insufficient damage” is the top reason in Alabama that people are initially classified as ineligible for grants.
This isn’t surprising. Or even unexpected.
In our heart of hearts, we KNOW that this is who we expect government to work.
And by work, we mean not work.
Before there was government, there was a people. And they toiled in the midst of trouble. And when trouble struck, the people overcame. On their own. And survived.
We have lost that.