Normally, I hate clichés. Yet today, I find myself unable to shake the adage of "What goes around comes around" as I watch the tragedy unfold in South Carolina. The unprecedented flooding, a 500- or 1,000-year event, depending on which politician states it, is truly stunning. It seems as though the entire state has been underwater at one time or another in the past week. As is the routine, state officials there have reached out to the federal government for help in cleaning up the mess as well as to assist in financing the recovery efforts. Agencies like FEMA and the Army Corp of Engineers will be rolling up their sleeves over the long term to help put people and infrastructure back together over time.
However, look back a couple years. Hurricane Sandy blew into states like New Jersey and New York, causing horrific damage to the delicate coastline and major commercial centers. The devastation was immense and state officials scrambled to request help from the federal government for aid, such as low-cost loans for their citizenry. Heck, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey took a political hit for (gasp!) embracing President Barak Obama when the leader of our nation came to see the damage first-hand, and to offer emotional support.
When the aid legislation started to make its way through Congress, many in the delegation from the great state of South Carolina, along with a few other states, balked at the cost. “Let New York and New Jersey pay for it” was their attitude. “Why should we bail them out with our tax dollars?”
At the time, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez made the prophetic comment that someday, states like South Carolina may need the same kind of help, and that as Americans, that’s what we do; we help each other out when things get tough. Well, once it became apparent this week to the Palmetto State officials as to the extent of the devastation from the rains, guess who immediately expressed hope that the feds would send aid? The South Carolina congressional delegation, the same folks who could not bring themselves to support the same kind of aid to those Yankees up north back in 2012. All of a sudden, they now see the wisdom of having a federal government, with the resources no state, no corporation could begin to match, to come on down and lend a hand.
Uh, huh. One can only hope that these leaders realize that the U.S. Government does do a few things right. Sometimes, ya gotta have funds available for emergencies, life-and-death events, and to be there for people in need. Sounds like a good use of tax dollars to me. And yet, I can’t shake the feeling that those people down there have not gotten over losing the Civil War (and many of them down South can’t even bring themselves to call it that, preferring to call it “The War Between the States”, which always baffled me). Why in their minds did the upper East Coast not deserve help during their major storm? And, should the legislators from those states now buck on supporting federal aid to the South now?
Of course, they won’t. They know what the citizens of the Carolinas are going through. We are still the United States of America. We will be there for the folks in that part of the country as they slowly rebuild. Then too, volunteers from all over the country will come in, send donations, and do what we can to give them our support. We take care of our own in times like this.
I only hope that the next time a major catastrophe hits – a tornado that damages communities in Kansas, terrible flooding in Pittsburgh, another severe earthquake in California – that the good folks of the South Carolina congressional delegation will take the lead in supporting funding the federal emergency aid that is needed. No one is immune from national weather catastrophes; the politicians in South Carolina have been given a bit of a reality lesson. We’ll find out if they have long memories.