The day Arizona was

in the eye of

Hurricane George

Aug. 30, 2005 12:00 AM
Link Here

I'm guessing that Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, will not be remembered as the day President George W. Bush stopped by a retirement community in El Mirage to discuss prescription drug benefits for seniors.

As nice as it was to have the president visit the state we live in, I believe it would have been OK with us if Mr. Bush had canceled or at least postponed his plans in order to monitor the progress of Hurricane Katrina and to review federal relief plans.

As it is, however, the president decided to visit El Mirage. Life goes on. He spoke briefly about the hurricane, promising disaster relief. Then, after urging Americans to pray for those most affected by the storm, Bush said, "I also want to talk about immigration." I've got a feeling that historians looking back on this day will not describe that transition as a particularly shining presidential moment.

As important as the topic of immigration is to people living in Arizona, and as self-centered as we all can be, I figure that most of us would not have minded if the president hadn't discussed our troublesome border at the same time that huge storm was pounding cities on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi.

It may have been nice for us to hear the president tell Arizona residents, "It's important for the people of this state to understand that your voices are being heard in Washington, D.C." But I think that it would have been acceptable if, just for a day, the president focused all of his domestic attention on the meteorological event affecting Greater New Orleans.

We all have jobs to do, often at the same time that we are dealing with personal disasters, both natural and otherwise.

But on a day when the devastation of the hurricane was far from known, even those most concerned with, for instance, the war in Iraq, probably didn't need the president to reassuringly tell the El Mirage audience, "I'm very optimistic about Iraq."

And if Aug. 29, 2005, is remembered at all, I have a sneaking suspicion that it won't have anything to do with the president having told a friendly audience in Arizona how happy he is that "we finally got ourselves an energy bill."

Or because the president took a moment to reassure seniors about Social Security.

And I'd give you odds that it won't be because he said nice things about Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl or Rep. Trent Franks.

In a way, the president of the United States is the eye of a constantly circulating political hurricane. Ordinarily, the fact that he made landfall in Arizona would be big news. The fact that there were war protesters outside the president's appearance might have meant something, too, were it not for the fact that an actual hurricane struck on the same day.

Bush could have pointed this out. He could have skipped Arizona for Washington, D.C. He could have said that war, immigration, Social Security, Medicare and the rest are important, but for this day let's put them aside, along with the rest of our personal and political special interests, and concentrate on the folks in the path of the storm.

Disaster experts said Monday that it could take days or weeks before we understand the full extent of the damage caused by Katrina. Yet by afternoon the hurricane story seemed to have been downgraded more than the hurricane.

Monday will not be remembered for the trip that President Bush made to a retirement community in El Mirage. But a clever historian might mark Aug. 29, 2005, as the day when Americans proved that even in the face of a hurricane we couldn't get over ourselves.



Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8978.