Convergent Blame Gaming
Frank was late getting home from work and sat down immediately and a bit breathless to eat. Kenneth had prepared a late-summer favorite: a corn and tomato supper.
Between urgent bites of corn off the cob, Frank said, "I had lunch with Tina today."
Ken sliced a tomato. "Arch-conservative, Bush-can-do-no-wrong Tina?"
"The same. Tina, it seems, is furious with FEMA and its performance in New Orleans."
"No! Why shouldn't I be surprised to hear that?"
"Well, it's pretty obvious in the end, but the path is a bit tortuous. She started out with a riddle: 'Who', she asked, 'were the first rescuers on the scene after the hurricane?' "
"Who?"
" 'The Canadians!' she exclaimed, slapping her palm on the top of the table. 'Can you believe that! They didn't ask anybody, they just went in there and rescued people!' "
"I can almost hear where this parable is going."
"Exactly. Next she related the story of all those law enforcement types from West Virginia who were ready to head down to Louisiana to help out, but weren't allowed in by FEMA. With great excitement she nearly yelled at me: 'What were they thinking of! Didn't they know there was a bureaucracy to deal with!' "
"On my goodness," Ken moaned. "So, rather than a cautionary tale of organizational indifference and inept malingering told by a Liberal…."
"Exactly! The failure of FEMA is an illustrative story of rampant bureaucracy and woefully misspent tax dollars read by a conservative from the book of Government is the Problem. Clearly, she implied, if we want to improve disaster response the only real solution is to get rid of FEMA entirely…."
"…instead of insisting that it do its job. Surely a remarkable conclusion. Perhaps we should celebrate that the two of you agreed on something."
"How would we celebrate, though, since we agreed but for entirely separate reasons that suggest entirely different solutions?"
Frank buttered another ear of corn, Kenneth sliced another tomato, and a thoughtful silence ensued.