[StBernard] Editorial: Polite invitation to huge disaster

[Westley Annis]

Polite invitation to huge disaster

By OPINION PAGE STAFF
The (Baton Rouge) Advocate

Published: Feb 7, 2006 

It's hard to say "no" to an Uptown woman on a mission. Just ask anybody
who's tried to turn down polite but persistent requests to donate to a good
cause in the Crescent City. There's steel in those magnolias, and now their
attention is turned to the Congress.
That institution won't be the same.

The redoubtable Anne Milling, wife of one of Louisiana's leading bankers, is
part of a women's group that is offering all-expenses-paid trips for members
of Congress who will come to see how little progress has been made since
hurricanes Katrina and Rita.


"It was a storm that was felt around the world," Milling said. "Yet, who
would dream that 87 percent of the House of Representatives and 70 percent
of the Senate haven't found time to visit the site of the largest
catastrophe in the history of America?"

It's a great question. We hope that many members of Congress, who have
managed to take other and more congenial trips in the past five months will
now be shamed into a blue-jeans tour of the wrecked homes of hundreds of
thousands of Americans.

These tours will give any takers a different impression from the
announcements of the White House. The Bush administration says $85 billion
in federal assistance has been approved so far to help the region recover.
That includes direct spending, tax breaks and flood insurance.

Not that much money, though, has been seen by many homeowners yet. 

Seeing is believing. And we need Congress to believe in Louisiana's future. 



www.lra.louisiana.gov <http://www.lra.louisiana.gov>