Accountability, Personal Responsibility...

It’s always easy to look back after a game and be the “Monday Morning Quarterback” knowing what you should have done.   Seeing all the inconvenience created by our recent ice/snow storm (interstates shut down for 2 days, low water pressure closing school, businesses) makes me angry for several reasons.  1)  In both Orleans & Jefferson, water leaks are common & have been known for days, weeks sometimes even months.  The excuse has been “we have a backlog of leaks, we don’t have enough manpower to keep up, we get to the major leaks first – translation, minor leaks don’t get repaired.  There is no accountability for this lack of urgency on government by us, the folks who pay the taxes.  We just shrug our shoulders and complain “that’s government”.  Shame on us!   We need to get more involved in the whys of government…why doesn’t the grass get mowed, why aren’t potholes fixed,  why are leaks allowed to exist until a crisis strikes?  Why is crime so bad?   Yada, yada, yada.  “We had to close the interstates since we have so many elevated roadways & bridges”   Hey, I lived in my youth in Hammond, Indiana that was connected to the Dan Ryan (southside expressway to the Loop) by an elevated toll road called the Chicago Skyway.  I can never, ever remember that road closed for anything except the great blizzard of 1967 (25-30”).   Sure they are better equipped with salt truck and snow plows, however, I believe the biggest difference is DRIVER EXPERIENCE in ice & snow.   What I saw here was folks  driving like the roadways are only wet.  This ice & snow came as no surprise.  Drivers should have known to slow down, but they didn’t.   That’s where personal responsibility comes in.   Most of us care.  Most of us protect our property BEFORE  the freeze.  But what I saw in videos were uncovered faucets frozen by ice, faucets covered with a small rag held on by string, pipes exposed with no insulation.   No wonder we end up with leaks.  Was it Forrest Gump who said, “Stupid is what Stupid does?” or something like that?   So what do we end up with?   Businesses closed, workers facing smaller paychecks, major conventions downtown cancelling, thousands of tourist’s tax dollars gone.  In a way, we are all to blame.  The real question is…what are we going to do about it so it doesn’t happen again?   I can assure you, I will get more involved in being a watchdog for Jefferson Parish.    There are no excuses for what happened in the past 2 days.  Don’t blame it all on the weather.  Get involved!

 

And our weather is finally changing for the better.  After tonight’s freeze (don’t run the water until late, check with David at 10 PM) which looks to be minor, no more freezes are in sight for the rest of this month.   It doesn’t mean we’re going back to shorts and tank tops, but rather closer to our “normal” which are in the 60s for highs and 40s for lows.  Our next front early Monday will be from the Pacific so the cool down won’t be drastic.  I will get all my potted plants back out of the shed in the morning and uncover my other pots so the flowers can get some sunshine again. Clouds will be on the increase this weekend and we may have to deal with sea fog Saturday & Sunday nights?    The Lake water is down into the low to mid 40s and once the south winds return with Gulf moisture, walla, sea fog will become a real issue.  Stay tuned!