On Wednesday, August 24th a hurricane warning is issued for the southeastern Florida coast. On Thursday, August 25th Hurricane Katrina strikes. On Monday, August 29th President Bush makes an emergency disaster declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi, free federal funds. On Tuesday, August 30th, five days after Katrina hit, Bush cuts his vacation short to focus on the storm damage (Fox News).
On Monday, October 29th Hurricane Sandy hits the East Coast. On that Monday morning Obama cancelled his planned Florida rally to fly back the White House to focus on hurricane relief. Eight days before the 2012 presidential election, Obama went from campaigner to hands on commander of the federal response to Hurricane Sandy (New York Times).
Did it take Bush five days to cancel his vacation to focus on hurricane relief because the majority of those hit by Katrina were lower class? Did Obama cancel his campaign plans the same day Sandy hit because the hurricane affected mostly upper class people? Or is Obama just a better president than Bush. Many could argue for both sides.
“Environmental racism describes the disproportionate effects of pollution, toxicity, and other environmental harms on racial minorities.”
As horrible as this is to say, it may have taken five days for Bush to cancel his vacation to focus on Katrina solely because those affected by the hurricane were mostly lower class citizens. Obama may have canceled his rally and rushed to the White House the same day Sandy hit because he wanted to gain more support with the presidential election just around the corner. The people living in Manhattan and other parts of the east coast affected by Sandy are mostly middle-upper class citizens; therefore, they have more of an impact on political decisions. They have a louder voice, and their voice is more likely to be heard. With their support, Obama may have thought that he will have better chance at winning; thus he changed his plans to show his support for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. People living the east coast have political opinions that could sway the 2012 election. Katrina did not hit during a political election and Sandy did.
Unfortunately, minorities are over looked in many environmental situations such as Hurricane Katrina. Minorities are not the focus in these situations because the government would rather make the upper-middle class citizens happy. Those who are actively working towards environmental justice are trying to put an end to this environmental racism.
Politics have always seemed silly to me. It’s as if two children are fighting over a toy. But I could understand how both these arguments about Bush and Obama could be concerning. Each disaster has caused an enormous amount of damage not only physically, but mentally to those who lost everything. I’ve seen the news feeds and photos of houses blown off their foundations, and I get this sick feeling in my stomach. When I think about former president Bush or President Obama, I like to think they get these same feelings too. Politics aside, their both human, and ultimately care for the well being of others.
I’m not saying these two presidents don’t have their flaws. Bush did take his time to help, and Obama could have used Sandy as a campaign boost, but I’d like to think humanity has more heart then that.
I agree that you could argue the merits of both presidents, but I also think that Katrina has the unfortunate distinction of becoming the poster child of how not to handle disaster relief. When I hear the name “Katrina,” it instantly brings to mind images of fetid water, chaos and collapse of government, and the suffering people who could not get out. That’s a very powerful legacy to leave. Obama had the benefit of Bush’s hindsight and his campaign team was very careful to implement a fairly quick response to the stricken region.
On the other hand, politics will forever warp and distort how Americans perceive current events. It is the barometer by which we measure how effective a leader is; we see how they react in times of crisis. This applies even if there is a lack of action. Yet as always, the American electorate is fickle in its tastes: we might be swayed by a decisive course of action, or we could just as easily be turned off by overt politicizing of a tragedy.