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We're all 'concerned'
The images showing Hurricane Gustav barreling north across the Gulf of Mexico are frightening, especially when we remember the devastation that a major hurricane can wreak in low-lying areas. Think not only of Katrina's swath of ruin in Louisiana and Mississippi, but more recent images from Burma, especially the delta regions. Anyone who identifies with those in Gustav's path -- as fellow citizens, or just as humans, is surely concerned for them.
So are John McCain and Sarah Palin, it seems. The standard formulation in the media (so standard that it must reflect the campaign's statements), is that "GOP presidential candidate John McCain, along with his wife, Cindy, and running mate Sarah Palin intended to travel to Jackson, Miss., on Sunday at the invitation of Gov. Haley Barbour because of concerns about people threatened by the storm." (quoting the NYTimes, but it's about the same everywhere else).
Well, I'm glad that the Senator and Governor are concerned. I am too.
But what's the point of their trip to Mississippi, where I understand they will tour an emergency response management center?
Normally, when you're 'concerned', you try to act in ways that might help -- say, making your home(s) available for refugees, or donating to the Red Cross, or volunteering in advance for post-storm cleanup.
But why go tour the area and visit emergency centers -- whose staffs might just have other things to do than stop all activity for half a day while the Secret Service establishes a security cordon and sweeps the site and checks on those there, then wait while the accumulated bigwigs swing through? Why tour the area where preparations should be moving at fever pitch, at the invitation of the former Chairman of the Republican National Committee? Why get in the way at the worst possible time?
Senator McCain and Governor Palin tell us they want to show their 'concern'. Do they really have such tin ears that they don't realize how obviously their needless interruption of the emergency preparation screams "POLITICS"?
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