H+3: Warriors Want to Fight

I’m still off shift, and I’m about to take a nap before I go back into the EOC this evening. Tonight I’ll be motivated and caffeinated for landfall. I’ll blog when I can.

Here are a few points that I want to make before I rack out. This post borders on a slight rant.

• Warriors Want to Fight: Throughout the last few days, I’ve been on the phones with all my buddies in the emergency business or in the guard. The conversation is always the same. “Are you going?” “Any word on whether or not they’ll need help?” “You sending anyone? Can I sign up?” Why? Because warriors want to fight. I’m having a serious “always a bridesmaid moment” right now. Got stuck at CENTCOM during the war. Didn’t get to go to Katrina. And now I’m safe and sound away from the coast. I’d rather be in the fray, and I’ll jump on the first chance I get to go down to the coast. I think that there are too many “America haters” out there, on the right and the left, that think our country is creeping towards a catastrophic decline. I’m not so sure. I think they’re still enough members of the warrior tribe to sustain this country’s greatness. It's a matter of will.
  
  
• County Judges: Most people don’t realize how much power a county judge has in Texas. They make things happen in the state, and, in some rural jurisdictions, they are the alpha and omega of local government. By law, county judges are responsible for emergency management in their jurisdictions. In Texas there are plenty of warrior judges, and it does my heart good to hear them in the state conference calls making things happen, often forcefully. Texan have a “git her done” attitude, and we’ve got some “git her done” judges. Kudos to Judge Robert Eckels in Harris County.

• Ditto on mayors. Mayor Bill White of Houston and Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas of Galveston are doing great work.

• Local vs. National and State Politicians: There are always congressional staffers on the various conference calls, and sometimes they can be irritating. Local politicians make it happen in disasters. State and National ones sometimes try to insert themselves where they don’t belong. But there is one staffer in Kay Bailey Hutchinson's Abilene office who’s okay in my book. She got on the conference call last night to let us know that there were fifty hospital beds available in her area and she was looking for more. Hospital beds are gold right now. She wasn’t covering her boss’s ass. She was making things happen. Kay why aren’t you running for governor, again? This democrat might just vote for you.

• Kinky Friedman: I’m no big fan of Rick Perry, but do we really think that “Governor Kinky” is remotely a good idea? Government counts and governing well is hard. How about we start asking Kinky some tough questions to see if he’s really the guy who we want running things the next time a CAT5 is rumbling towards us? Anyone on Kinky’s “staff” reading?

I'll be back on tonight.