This must not be a partisan disaster

A catastrophe such as Hurricane Katrina brings out the worst and the best in us, and thank God the goodness, the caring and the desire to help are the attributes that prevail. But there are always those who need to spread blame in thick layers of spite and innuendo, instead of focusing on what actually caused the tragedy.

Such is the case of Lowell Greenbaum, blaming the devastation of nature's wrath on President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ("Response to Katrina was far too sluggish," Sept. 8). According to Greenbaum, these three leaders conspired to vacation while ignoring a barrage of pleas for help being hurled at them.

Placing immediate blame on someone else is easier than looking at the several real and unfortunate oversights that actually caused the aftermath of the hurricane to be worse than it should have been. Had the proper measures been taken to begin with by New Orleans' mayor and Louisiana's governor (both of whom are Democrats), things might have turned out differently.

It was actually Bush who finally ordered the mayor to call for a mandatory evacuation of the city and surrounding areas. The mayor neglected to use the city transit and school buses, which could have carried thousands to safety hourly, and left them unused to be inundated in the muck and mire.

FEMA didn't do all it could have, either. There were numerous mistakes that made this horrendous tragedy seem like a vision of hell, but the blame cannot be placed on the shoulders of the president, and whether he was in Texas or Washington! ...

Don't turn this into a Republican vs. Democrat story. It has nothing to do with party affiliation, as Greenbaum intimated. I find Greenbaum "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!"

Peter L. Gray, Aiken, S.C.