Little Dutch Boy

Last night as I watched the Monday Night Football game from New Orleans, I remembered some of the negative comments I have heard about that city. I am ashamed for our country and some people I know who have such little foresight or compassion. Careful, it could happen to you.

In fact, before I go on with my ideas about New Orleans, I think it entirely appropriate to mention here, that many of us here have had our brushes with disaster and thank goodness, we have help available.

In 1995 we had our micro burst or whatever it was called, I still remember the neighborhood where I lived and the destruction we experienced. My sister's home was one of those totally destroyed. The insurance company did a good job of paying for the rebuilding and cleanup, but I will never forget some of the volunteers who came and just helped pick up the unbelievable mess that was blown all over the neighborhood yards.

Yes, we Midwesterners are always it seems ready to lend a helping hand. We seem to understand how we would feel if something bad happened to us. Wonder why we don't seem to have the same feelings about New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast? New Orleans is located where it is because it is the end of the largest river system in North America. Our entire heartland drains into the Missouri/Mississippi River Systems. As these systems get close to the sea they enter a very low flood plain area. The land is so flat that at places like Gulf Port, Mississippi, you can walk out into the ocean for a long long way without the water getting over your waist.

This is not the only place like this on earth. Some of the world's greatest river systems like the Nile and the Rhine Rivers have alluvial plains just like the Mississippi. All of these port cities have had to develop vast and complicated dyke and pumping systems so they can have open channels to the sea. Otherwise, there would be only little muddy shallow rivulets meandering towards the sea. These would not allow for ships to pass through due to the depth and constant changing in the directions of the water flow.

In the Netherlands, they are amazed at how poorly America has developed our flood wall and dyke systems.

For over a thousand years the Dutch have built flood walls to keep out the North Sea. The famous windmills of Holland pumped out the sea water, these have now been replaced with modern electric pumps.

Success has been so remarkable, that more than 26 percent of the land in the Netherlands is reclaimed land from the sea. Rich, fertile, and valuable, they prize their system and maintain it regularly.

Here in America, we have allowed the dykes and flood walls in one of our oldest and most important port cities to be built with sub standard materials and workmanship. We have also allowed billions to be wasted by crooked contractors who never completed the work as planned to keep New Orleans safe. Some people ask why are we going to fix these systems anyway, the city is below sea level and it will happen again. Balderdash, there are many major cities like New Orleans around the world below sea level. The access to the sea is paramount to a country's ability to succeed in commerce and trade. New Orleans is one of our oldest and most important cities. It sits astride our greatest access to the Gulf of Mexico.

Our great agricultural midlands send astronomical amounts of products down this natural water highway everyday. So the answer it would seem to me is not whether we should repair New Orleans, but how should we do it? My first suggestion is that we actually make a long range plan to fix the levees and make them safe from such a catastrophe in the future.

The little Dutch Boy who stuck his finger in a dyke to stop the leak was ironically not a story from the Netherlands. In fact, most of the people there have never heard of it before. American Author, Mary Maples Dodge, wrote a story called "Hans Brinker" also known as "Silver Skates." In this story she tells about the boy who saved the dyke.

I was so happy that New Orleans was able to have a good night for a change during the Monday Night Football show. I was also happy that the nay sayers are being proved wrong. New Orleans is a great city and worth the effort. Sometimes we forget that the shoe may be on the other foot. Not only did we get a lot of help in 1995 when our town was hit by bad weather, we also get regular help in this county for other types of disasters. In last weeks papers, we saw that our farming areas here are being declared a disaster area. While it is not the answer the farmers want, it is at least an example of how the whole country stands ready to give a helping hand when the weather causes human misery and other problems.

So the next time you hear someone trash mouthing New Orleans, just remember, it could be us who is in need.

Someone might ask, why do they build homes in that "tornado alley" area, they are just going to get hit again and again? Why do they try to raise crops there, it seems like they are always loosing them every few years to weather? Aren't you glad that there are programs like the Little Dutch Boy? Programs that help all of us when we are at our most vulnerable? I for one think we ought to do more for the gulf area. Someday I may want a thumb stuck between me and disaster.