The facts on the ground after Hurricane Katrina

I am glad to see that Rosa Brooks is publicizing the most egregious of the Katrina scandals: the large number of poor people who live in our midst (Opinion, Sept. 7).

Brooks uses the disaster to assail the right, but I have a different take. Once the champion of the less fortunate, the Democratic Party, to which I have belonged for 35 years, has abandoned the poor in preference to abortion rights, gay marriage, political correctness and the placation of major contributors. Brooks should have pointed the finger at all levels of government, both political parties, special interests, black leadership and every one of us for not doing enough about this problem.

Hopefully Brooks’ follow-up articles will be less partisan and address the root causes and potential solutions to this national disgrace.

JAMES L. HARDEMAN

Fullerton

*

It is now quite clear that this administration is so intent on damage control that it first said no photos of returned bodies from Iraq and now no photos of bodies in New Orleans. It is so clear that this is just another administration ploy. Americans should be able to witness the horror of this disaster of incompetence. I am left with a sense of Orwellian fiction.

JAMES STARKWEATHER

Sherman Oaks

*

Each and every body of an American who died abandoned and alone in the Katrina travesty should be draped with an American flag to express our shame that our government failed to protect its citizens in their hour of greatest need.

RACELLE ROSETT SCHAEFER

Studio City

*

I see the blame game is in full swing, from the liberals in Congress on down to the mayor of New Orleans. Why the hysterical offense tactics against the administration? First, to deflect the exposure of the incompetence of the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana, who apparently never read their own disaster plans. And second, to obscure the utter failure of dependence on big government to solve all our problems.

ROBERT A. DREYLING

Cypress

*

The plan by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to relocate evacuees from the Astrodome to cruise ships has not worked as planned because there are no takers (Sept. 7). Why not use these ships to house cleanup crews, police and firefighters and the volunteer builders from Habitat for Humanity? The ships have already been leased. Why not put them to good use?

NORMAN RENOOS

Yucaipa

*

We take exception to Robert Hilburn’s commentary on NBC’s “A Concert for Hurricane Relief” (Sept. 4). As of Tuesday, the American Red Cross estimated that close to $40 million has been raised for hurricane victims as a result of the concert. To term such an effort a failure because a critic disagrees with some of the program’s production choices suggests the very kind of self-serving cynicism Hilburn attempts to assign to the telecast. We urge Hilburn and The Times to keep their focus on the victims of this catastrophe. These people don’t need posturing and squabbling; they need results.

REBECCA MARKS

NBC Universal Television Group

Burbank