Rick Perry, the governor of Texas has been mouthing off the past several days about the time it's taking the Obama Administration to process his request for Texas to be designated a "disaster area" because of the severe storms and tornadoes that swept across the South, including parts of Texas, over the past two weeks. Now mind you, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was on the ground in Texas the day after the first tornado swept through, but Perry is more interested in the "disaster area" designation because that opens the door for businesses in the affected area to get low interest government loans, even if the businesses haven't been damaged by the storm and even if all the money isn't being used to rebuild damaged areas.
In principle, I support Governor Perry's request, because I believe it is America's collective responsibility to help out citizens hit by these kinds of natural disasters. I know that sounds a bit socialistic and Christian of me, but I'm a staunch believer in helping neighbors in need, and if that makes me a believer in socialism or Christianity, so be it.
I don't particularly subscribe to the notion that businesses that weren't damaged by the storms should be able to get government subsidized loans too, but if that's the price I have to pay for seeing that the truly needy get help, so be that too.
What I find offensive about Governor Perry's current beef is that it's coming from the same man who heretofore regularly criticized others for asking for the exact same thing he's now asking for the state of Texas. This the same Rick Perry who said that the people of New Orleans should get off their butts and stop looking to the federal government to solve their problems, and this the same Rick Perry who said that Texans would be better off seceding (*) from the Union because they could get along better without the rest of the country. Now, all of the sudden, there stands Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, with his hands outstretched, moaning and groaning that Texans aren't getting their share of the Federal Government's largess. That's hypocrisy in my book.
Where's all the bravado we're use to seeing in Rick Perry? Where's all that loud-mouth talk about rugged individualism and people solving their own problems? Where's that boisterous cheer for secession (*), now that the people in Texas find themselves in need of assistance? Perhaps those twisters took Perry's bag of wind with them, because suddenly, Rick Perry's not the larger-than-life figure he likes to think he is.
(*) Here's a shout-out to Dan Sindlinger for correcting my spelling.
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