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The Center for Progressive Reform was founded in 2002 as, in their words, "a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to protecting health, safety, and the environment through analysis and commentary." They "reject the view that the economic efficiency of private markets should be the only value used to guide government action."
The CPR put out a report last month in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Called "An Unnatural Disaster: The Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," the 56-page report received
zero coverage in the U.S. press.
The philosophy of government upon which this new report is based was spelled out earlier this year by the CPR in a book called "A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment." The book "sets out a series of fundamental principles that animate a vision of the positive and vital role of government." Here are some of those principles, with a few selected quotes from the text that indicate how the principles apply to Hurricane Katrina:
ADDRESS THE SOURCE NOT THE VICTIM: We all benefit if government takes seriously its duty to protect the public from harm instead of shifting the burden to the individuals most affected...
REDUCE IGNORANCE / DEMOCRACY DEMANDS DISCLOSURE: The hurricane highlights the vital importance of collection and disclosure of information about potentially hazardous substances produced, used, and stored by a wide array of industries.
BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY: A precautionary approach to planning and preparation for such emergencies may be both necessary to satisfy the American public's basic moral impulses, and [it may also be] a sound investment.
BE FAIR: A commitment to improving the well-being of all Americans requires that there be a fair distribution of environmental and other burdens. The widespread outrage over the failures of the evacuation and emergency response suggests that Americans are committed to a legal status quo that takes greater account of fundamental fairness.
PUBLIC RESOURCES BELONG TO EVERYONE
MAKE GOVERNMENT WORK: Government has a vital role to play in protecting life and property from natural and man-made disasters and in helping the recovery from such disasters. But government requires adequate funding and appropriately structured institutions to perform these critical roles.
* Notable Words from the Report *
In addition to the above principles, there are many specific places where the CPR articulates, in clear and simple language, some of the various issues raised by Hurricane Katrina. Here is a selection of my favorite words from the rest of the report:
"Conservatives ...interpret the failure of the government to respond effectively to Katrina as proof of their belief that government is always inept because governmental bureaucracies are by their very nature ineffective."
"Some have begun to argue that the failures of government counsel a course of reducing the responsibilities of government by waiving environmental and worker protections, shielding wrongdoers from liability, and relying even more on the private sector. But using the Katrina disaster as an excuse to enact simplistic prescriptions for reducing governmental protections, limiting governmental accountability, and enriching favored business constituencies would be a serious mistake."
"The governmental failures revealed by Katrina are not the failures of a progressive government. While we do not yet understand exactly what went wrong, the evidence assembled here makes this much clear: some of the needless death and destruction in New Orleans is attributable to a rejection of progressive principles and to a hollowing out of the government that left it without the resources and experienced personnel needed to fulfill its vital role of protecting people and the environment."
"From a progressive perspective, the lesson that Katrina teaches is that we must redouble efforts for better government. The kind of planning and execution demanded by a disaster like Katrina simply cannot be carried out without competent government that is adequately funded, has its eyes on the proper priorities. and is genuinely concerned with the public good and the empowerment of all citizens."
"It is clear even at this early stage that the Hurricane Katrina tragedy is not a wakeup call, as some have described it; rather, it is a consequence of past wake-up calls unheeded."
"When a society fails to protect its most vulnerable citizens--its children, its struggling single mothers, its sick and its elderly--from the forces of nature and a winner-take-all system of economic rewards, consequences inevitably ensue."
"To the extent that the inquiries [into the failure of our emergency management systems and institutions] focus solely on examples of individual incompetence, there is ample reason to worry that they will not focus on the right questions. Focusing on incompetence as the root cause of the problems risks ignoring the underlying conditions that made it easier, perhaps even inevitable, for those public servants to fail."
"A host of government decisions were made [before Katrina]--each of which had the potential to mitigate or exacerbate the effects of a hurricane for the people of New Orleans--against a social, economic, and political backdrop that made the disproportionate impacts of certain government choices virtually inevitable. Where the choice was to forego the basic services and protections typically provided by a government, it should have been clear to decision makers precisely who would be left to fend for themselves. In fact, it is not only the case that government decision makers should have known just who would be left to suffer the harms of protections foregone, but that they did know."
"In New Orleans race is in fact an important variable in understanding the spatial layout in terms of proximity to polluting facilities, access to public amenities, and, ... protection (whether natural or built) from floods."
"The fact that the deaths, losses, and indignities of Katrina disproportionately affected people of color and the poor is not at all extraordinary. Hurricane Katrina may be a catastrophic, once in a lifetime, event. But the same disregard by government health, safety, and environmental agencies for the lives and circumstances of the most vulnerable marks the everyday experience of these people."
"Blacks remain underrepresented in the relevant decision making bodies, including government regulatory agencies... Those affected have often been denied the opportunity meaningfully to participate in decisions affecting their health, safety and environment."
"It is already clear that the plans for the city's future will be contested. If decisions about that future are to be just, they cannot be made--as so many decisions have been in the past--through processes that exclude New Orleans people of color and poor."
If you'd like to read the report yourself, go to: http://www.progressivereform.org/Unnatural_Disaster_512.pdf . I particularly recommend the section "The Two Americas: Race, Class, and Injustice," found on pages 34-40. It explains really simply how institutional racism works. Look at the "Critical Questions" on page 39. |
