Mike Gallagher
Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005

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  I was in the Empire State Building the morning the planes hit the World Trade Center. Some of my neighbors died that awful day. Like many, my family and I experienced 9/11 in an up close and personal way. And yet, we never heard the kind of whiny, belly-aching, finger-pointing blame game we're hearing in the hours and days after Hurricane Katrina's fury was felt in the Gulf Coast.

No one is satisfied over the images of people dying of thirst in the streets of New Orleans, least of all President Bush. But there is no magic wand to wave, no easy solution to providing relief and rescue to the thousands of victims.

The enormity of the devastation is hard to comprehend. Consider the square mileage of the disaster area for a minute: It's 90,000 square miles. That's roughly the equivalent of the United Kingdom. Helping these people is enormously difficult. But do the critics really think we're not doing everything we can to help as many as possible?

And get ready for the ugliness of the race card, which is already being played by the opportunists of the Congressional Black Caucus and race-baiters like Jesse Jackson. Since so many of the victims are poor black people, America just doesn't care, they say. We're intentionally stranding them, leaving them to die.

That's all a load of rubbish. Americans are good, and the outpouring of money, support and resources continues. People are opening up their homes and communities to the refugees.

Dallas, where I live, is welcoming tens of thousands. My radio network has already raised over $1 million from wonderful listeners that goes to Feed the Children, an international relief organization that has many trucks filled with supplies in the Gulf Coast. We will see yet another example of the greatness from the greatest country in the world when it comes to the general public's response to this disaster.

And to suggest that FEMA, or the Bush administration, or the state of Louisiana, or every other governmental agency isn't doing everything it can to save as many people as possible is pure insanity.

If Katie Couric doesn't think our country is doing enough, perhaps she could have her limo driver take her from her multimillion-dollar home in New York to the streets of New Orleans, where she could do a better job. Better still, perhaps she could invite a few homeless families from the Gulf Coast to live with her for a while. I'm sure she's got the room.

Her shameful attack of FEMA director Mike Brown is another reminder of just how out-of-touch with reality some of these rich, pampered TV stars are when it comes to some of the enormous challenges our country must face.

I reject the politicization and blame game that many are exhibiting. America isn't the enemy. We're not the bad guys. George W. Bush didn't conjure up Hurricane Katrina, like a wizard, in order to distract us from Iraq. Katie Couric would have done just as well to wonder aloud why there are any poor people in New Orleans to begin with.

No, we're in the midst of an outpouring of support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Don't let yourself be manipulated by the media and believe the story line that we're not doing everything that can be done.

Mike Gallagher's radio show is syndicated nationally by the Salem Radio Network. Besides his duties as a Fox News Channel guest host and contributor, he recently published his first book, "Surrounded by Idiots: Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America" (William Morrow).

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