Mayday Mayday

We died and never knew,
But, well or ill,
Freedom, we died for you
Went the day well?
--John Maxwell Edmonds

But let judgment run down as waters,
and righteousness as a mighty stream
--The Bible, Amos 5-24

Take me to the water, drop me in the river
Push me in the water, drop me in the river
--Take Me to the River, Talking Heads
__________________

May Day ushered in two highwater marks for America: The Great Flood of 2011 and the killing of Osama bin Laden. They are both symbolic as well as literal events.

Osama bin Laden's death is being heralded as the crown of a meaningless War on Terror. Contrast that one death that came at such an astronomical price with the rampantly overflowing mighty Mississippi River, breaching levees and flood controls as easily as a terrorist might elude the U.S. defensive plan.

We are told the waters are being diverted to Louisiana lowlands in order to prevent New Orleans from another Katrina-magnitude flood. Both the Phony War on Terror (PWOT©), the inundation of the '05 hurricane and now the flooding of the Mississippi show the weakness and reactive nature of our government planners, all the while feigning that we are shaping events.

Why haven't the levees of New Orleans been fortified to repel any potential floods? We are told Billions of dollars are needed for such a project, money we don't have, yet the U.S. spends $100's of Billions on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya. Meanwhile, our people suffer grave losses because the Billions we need are not being allotted to shore up our infrastructure. Our efforts are akin to sticking our finger in a dike.

The U.S. is vulnerable and monies are not available to repair our eroding infrastructure, much less keep necessary government functions running on a daily basis. Why not pull in the perimeter and handle our domestic issues, prioritizing the welfare of U.S. citizens?

Six years after Katrina the waters are still flooding, and the best we get is half a gunfight, half a world away. The efforts to staunch the Mississippi are metaphor for our reactions to terrorism: Great efforts are undertaken to prevent terrorists from following a natural course, but regardless of our action (or inaction), they will follow a natural flow and flood the lowlands.

The U.S. spends $100's of Billions -- perhaps Trillions --on containing terrorism and find it impossible to do, while ignoring the very real destructive flows on our own soil. The floods are neither Acts of God nor unpredictable, just like five foreigners training in a Florida flight school to fly planes but not lands them.

Instead of building new dikes along the Mississippi, why not just get a few SEALS to shoot it in the headwaters? Cheaper, and could all feel warm and patriotic.