PEGGY NOONAN - RIGHT ON THE MONEY

Americans used to be a self reliant people, able to take care of themselves. Over the past generation a good number of Americans have become nothing more than wards of the state. Children who are content to do as they are told as long as the public trough stays full of welfare, food stamps, Medicare, and housing subsidies. That might work sometimes, but only if government lives up to its end of the bargain. If Nanny Sam ever shirks her responsibility - all hell will break loose.

Peggy Noonan nailed the message of Katrina on the head in her column The Scofflaw Swimmer. No one took responsibility. The Governor and Mayor shirked their duties, paralyzed by fear and/or politics. The victims took no responsibility for their own welfare, waiting hopelessly for Nanny Sam to bus them to safety. As always when there is a lack of leadership or responsibility, chaos reigns. Those who have never known how to fend for or care for themselves were bewildered and confused by a reality they were not prepared for. They begged and pleaded helplessly for the government that had always fed, clothed and housed them to come save them. But that government was mired in bureaucracy and politics - immobilized by the thought of making unpopular decisions. And so, the helpless children of the great society floundered and drowned, or went hungry and thirsty. Money quote:

Government has real duties in disaster. Maintaining the peace is a primary one. But if we demand that our government protect us from all the weather all the time, if we demand that it protect us from rain and hail, if we make government and politicians pay a terrible price for not getting us out of every flood zone and rescuing us from every wave, we're going to lose a lot more than we gain. If we give government all authority then we are giving them all power.

There will never, ever be a greater poster child for the failure of big government entitlements than the victims of Hurricane Katrina.