Heroes took initiative when FEMA failed

I'm glad some people took matters into their own hands rather than waiting on the bureaucratic-laden government organization that seemed to do more to obstruct relief efforts in New Orleans than to coordinate them:

In the parking lot outside the hangar sits George Lainart, a police officer from Georgia, who has led a flotilla of nine airboats over land to try to pitch in with the rescue. But his crew has been on the bench for two days, waiting for FEMA to assign them a mission. After making serial inquiries, Lainart is climbing out of his skin, and I later find out that his team circumvented FEMA altogether, got down to New Orleans, and stayed busy for five days straight. Though he shredded his hull by running over asphalt, cars, fire hydrants, and other debris, his crew saved nearly 800 people.

"FEMA was holding up everything, they didn't have a clue," complains Lainart. "They were an absolute roadblock, nobody was getting anywhere with those idiots. Everybody just started doing their own missions." While opinions on the ground differ wildly as to who deserves the most generous serving of blame pie among George W. Bush, Louisiana's governor, and New Orleans' mayor, everyone I speak with agrees that FEMA officials should spend their afterlives in the hottest part of Hell without any water breaks.

Danger High Voltage

I went to a piano recital last night

Sometimes the school of art has some free events for the community and last night there was a piano recital with Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung. I don't think I've ever been to a performance with two pianos being used. They played some music by Lutoslawski, Stravinsky, Piazzolla, and Rachmaninov, as well as two encores. Anyway, I'm glad I went, it was enjoyable and free entertainment.

Qualified firefighters were used by FEMA to distribute flyers instead of help people

I've been pretty quiet about the hurricane, I've donated money, but I haven't been very critical. I'm not going to say much about these firefighters handing out flyers instead of helping victims, not because I'm not critical, but because I just don't know what to say. Here are some exerpts:

ATLANTA - Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"

As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.

Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.

...

The firefighters, several of whom are from Utah, were told to bring backpacks, sleeping bags, first-aid kits and Meals Ready to Eat. They were told to prepare for "austere conditions." Many of them came with awkward fire gear and expected to wade in floodwaters, sift through rubble and save lives.

"They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet."

The firefighter, who has encouraged his superiors back home not to send any more volunteers for now, declined to give his name because FEMA has warned them not to talk to reporters.

"There are all of these guys with all of this training and we're sending them out to hand out a phone number," an Oregon firefighter said. "They [the hurricane victims] are screaming for help and this day [of FEMA training] was a waste."

...

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

Incredible. I'd like to point out, for those of you who missed it, that FEMA has warned them not to talk to reporters. Why not? To try to contain FEMA's continued incompetence?

Cowboys season prediction

I'm excited about the upcoming NFL season. I think that the Cowboys will be much improved over last year and I am optimistic about their chances to make the playoffs this year. Here is their schedule. I'm predicting an optimistic 10-6 record. They were 10-6 two years ago and worse than they are now at almost every position (except safety).

Cowboys Blog has a roundup of pre-season predictions for the Cowboys, including:

Sports Illustrated gives Dallas some love, with Peter King and Paul Zimmerman both picking the Cowboys to reach the playoffs.

Anyway, here is the Cowboys' schedule with my predictions:

Sun 9/11	@ San Diego (FOX)	3:15 p.m.	L
Mon 9/19	Washington (ABC)	8:00 p.m.	W
Sun 9/25	@ San Francisco (FOX)	3:05 p.m.	W
Sun 10/2	@ Oakland (FOX)	3:15 p.m.	L
Sun 10/9	Philadelphia (FOX)	3:15 p.m.	W
Sun 10/16	N.Y. Giants (FOX)	Noon	W
Sun 10/23	@ Seattle (FOX)	3:05 p.m.	L
Sun 10/30	Arizona (FOX)	Noon	W
Sun 11/6	BYE		W
Mon 11/14	@ Philadelphia (ABC)	8:00 p.m.	L
Sun 11/20	Detroit (FOX)	Noon	W
Thur 11/24	Denver (CBS)	3:15 p.m.	L
Sun 12/4	@ N.Y. Giants (FOX)	Noon	W
Sun 12/11	Kansas City (CBS)	3:15 p.m.	W
Sun 12/18	@ Washington (FOX)	Noon	W
Sat 12/24	@ Carolina (FOX)	Noon	L
Sun 1/1	St. Louis (ESPN)	7:30 p.m.	W

If you have a non-winless prediction, please submit it in the comments.

"I read your article"

I've had several people tell me that they read my article in the newspaper, but I never know how to respond to them. I could say, "I wrote my article," but that doesn't add much to the conversation. So far I've basically just said, "Oh, yeah, good, okay..." Any suggestions?

Visited former bosses

I visited two of my former supervisors today. They seem to like me a lot, which makes me like them more. Anyway, that was nice.

Met with fire safety inspector

I had an article published in the newspaper recommending that the fire drill policy change on campus and I forwarded that article to the fire safety inspector and he offered to meet with me. By meeting with him, I was hoping to get the fire drills changed to not happen at all or to at least not happen at 6:00 in the morning every semester. I first summed up my argument, and then he started talking...and continued talking... I wanted to respond to some of the things he said, but he never gave me the chance to respond, and then when there was silence, he was often pausing to try to think of something, and I didn't really want to interrupt. He explained that he did fire drills at 6 in the morning because that's when most people were in the building. He cited numerous times he tried to do a fire drill when not enough people were present, though I still don't understand why it's important for everyone to practice exiting a building. Then he talked about a student who wrote a very negative article about him in the newspaper last year and that he was receiving phone calls at home until he got the police involved. I eventually got to say basically everything I wanted to, but I don't know how closely he listened, as his standard response to what I said didn't indicate understanding but rather he just talked about the subject for a while and then talked about some good things he was doing. It's very hard to persuade people who are much more interested in talking than listening. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes and I spoke for probably no more than 5 of those minutes. If I were him, I'd want to change the fire drill policy so that I wouldn't receive calls at home and so that everyone didn't hate me. One positive thing that came out of the meeting was that he's going to present one of my ideas to Residence Life and Student Housing, but he still thinks that there will be fire drills every semester.

Respond to emails in full, please

Sometimes I have questions that I'd like answered. Rather than call the person who can answer the question or try to track them down, I just send an email. I try to keep the email concise. I may have multiple issues I'd like to mention, but I try to put every single issue in a separate paragraph. If I have a question, I end it with a question mark. I realize people are busy or lazy and will only skim my email, so I avoid verbiage. If I start to write too much, or include information that isn't important or ask questions that don't need to be answered, I remove the excess. I get right to the point (unlike in this post) and try to make my facts clear and my questions clearer. I know everyone's mind operates a little differently; few people's thoughts are as organized as mine. Still, I try to organize my emails so they are easy to read. Once, in an email I wrote to someone whose email responses were rare and never thorough, I had three questions to ask. I tried to facilitate a complete response by numbering my questions, hoping that the recipient would then respond to the questions by number. But no, that person responded to the first question and that was all.

It seems that there are just some people who do not communicate well in responding to emails, regardless of how I write to them in the first place. I have problems with people who do not respond to my entire email (if at all). If my email contains three short paragraphs, please don't stop at the first one. I know people are busy and they get distracted, but what is so difficult about responding to an email, especially when the questions are understandable and easy to read? I don't know what else I can do to make my emails more effective.

Then I don't know what to do when the initial recipient responds incompletely. I still have questions that need to be answered. Do I send another email with the same questions that I just asked? Or, do I have to find the person and ask them in person? It's even worse when the person doesn't respond. Are they just too busy to respond? Did they forget? Will they respond tomorrow? I don't really want to have to talk to them in person and ask the same questions. Email is meant to prevent these kinds of problems. Email should allow us to communicate more efficiently without having to physically locate and talk to the person we're looking for. The 21st century allows us these conveniences; we should use them, especially if the person with whom we are communicating wants to use them.

I attended a lecture with Colin Powell

SMU has a series of lectures called the Tate Lecture Series that feature famous and/or significant individuals. Attendees to the Tate Lecture Series pay hundreds of dollars, often after waiting on a list for several years, to be able to attend a season's worth of lectures - unless they're a student, in which case they have to wait in line for about an hour and the lecture is free. Tonight, after waiting more than an hour in the packed auditorium basement, I was given a seat from which to see Colin Powell speak, alongside David Gergen who played the role of interviewer.

The first issue discussed was the disasters (natural and political) in Louisiana. Powell stressed the importance of reflecting on what happened and asking questions to determine what part of the disaster anticipation and response worked well, as well as to determine what could work better.

He then chronicled the Iraq war, from initial intelligence gathering when he took office, to the events that led up to invading Iraq. Powell also detailed what caused him to accuse Iraq of having weapons of mass destrution in front of the United Nations based on faulty information. He said that the intelligence information was checked multiple times by some of the highest-ranked intelligence officials in the government. However, he found out later that some individuals doubted the sources from which this information came and that they made it known, but that the top-ranking officials were not made aware of the doubt in these sources. Powell said that the nation missed an opportunity to stabilize Iraq by not having sufficient troops to reband the Iraqi army to deter the insurgency immediately after toppling the regime. He said that despite missing our opportunity earlier, Iraq can still be stabilized, but that it will be difficult, and that we shouldn't immediately remove troops, nor should we wait too long to remove our troops, due to the danger of this continuous strain on our military forces.

Powell also talked briefly about Iran, saying that we should continue to work with Iran diplomatically and not give up.

I am glad that I was able to hear what Colin Powell had to say about these matters of international importance and look forward to the next lecture.

Creative writing exercise: uncomfortable situation

It's fun to write short stories sometimes. A few months ago my readers and myself wrote some short stories (one about an animal, and one about a fictional major political change) for fun. So, I'd like to ask you to write a story (fiction or not) about an uncomfortable situation using preferrably less than 100 words.

Arches on Colored Backgrounds

Fire drill article

Last week we had our semesterly residence hall fire drill. These fire drills are very disruptive because they happen at 5-6 AM, when most of us are sleeping very well. I usually complain about the fire drills, and this time is no exception, however I also wrote an article for the school newspaper about it. Will these fire drills stop? I dunno, but it'd be nice.

I'd like to take more pictures

I was browsing some of the photographs I've taken and I was pretty happy with some of the pictures I saw. I've taken many pictures of downtown and buildings therein; sometimes I would go downtown for the sole purpose of taking pictures. However, I realized that lately I haven't gone on many photographic expeditions. I really like taking pictures, but I think right now I'm in a slump because I've taken pictures of most of the obvious subjects around me. I like taking pictures of buildings and scenery, and I've already taken pictures in downtown Dallas and Fort Worth, as well as at SMU. The next two obvious steps I could take are: to re-take some pictures I've already taken - that is, try to take better pictures of the same subjects (and there is room for improvement) - or to look for new subjects of which to take pictures. I'm sure there are more good subjects, I'll just need to try to find some. I guess I'll see how it goes, but I really would like to take some more pictures of things. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas of photographs I should take.

Fort Worth smokestacks toppled

Two old smokestacks, which had been a part of downtown Fort Worth's skyline for 55 years (for the shorter smokestack) and 84 years (for the taller smokestack), were toppled early Sunday morning. I failed to go watch the demolition, but here is an article with more information (as well as a video of the demolition). The smokestacks were destroyed to make room for a downtown college campus. Below is a picture of downtown Fort Worth with the smokestacks in tact:

Time to Celebrate Man's Mind

I read a thoughtful commentary about Labor Day:

It is fitting that the most productive nation on earth should have a holiday to honor its work. The high standard of living that Americans enjoy is hard-earned and well-deserved. But the term "Labor Day" is a misnomer. What we should celebrate is not sweat and toil, but the power of man's mind to reason, invent and create.

,,,

Contrary to the Marxist premise that wealth is created by laborers and "exploited" by those at the top of the pyramid of ability, it is those at the top, the best and the brightest, who increase the value of the labor of those at the bottom. Under capitalism, even a man who has nothing to trade but physical labor gains a huge advantage by leveraging the fruits of minds more creative than his. The labor of a construction worker, for example, is made more productive and valuable by the inventors of the jackhammer and the steam shovel, and by the farsighted entrepreneurs who market and sell such tools to his employer. The work of an office clerk, as another example, is made more efficient by the men who invented copiers and fax machines. By applying human ingenuity to serve men's needs, the result is that physical labor is made less laborious and more productive.

,,,

What Americans should celebrate is the spark of genius in the scientist who first identifies a law of physics, in the inventor who uses that knowledge to create a new engine or telephonic device, and in the businessmen who daily translate their ideas into tangible wealth.

On Labor Day, let us honor the true root of production and wealth: the human mind.