“Every politician I talk to seems to say the same thing: "Now is not the time to point fingers." Spin doctors even come up with the term blame game. "I'm not going to play the blame game," they say, dismissing you when you ask for answers, for the names of officials who made key decisions. I notice that some reporters start using the term too. I can't understand why. Demanding accountability is no game, and there's nothing wrong with trying to understand who made mistakes, who failed. If no one is held accountable for their decisions, for their actions, all of this will happen again. Not one person has yet to stand up and admit wrongdoing. No politician, no bureaucrat, has admitted a specific mistake. Some have made blanket statements, saying they accept responsibility for whatever went wrong. But that's not good enough. We need to know specifics. What was done wrong? What were the mistakes? I ask any official I can. No one will answer. The only "mistakes" they admit to are actually veiled criticisms of others. The mayor should have declared a mandatory evacuation on Saturday, instead of waiting until Sunday. Precious hours were lost. The governor could have done that as well, but didn't. They could have moved hundreds of city buses and local school buses to higher ground and used them to evacuate the nearly one hundred thousand residents who had no access to private transportation. They didn't. There were plenty of mistakes to go around. I just want someone to admit to them.”
Quote by Anderson Cooper
Work
Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival
This book is a personal account of the author's encounters with conflict and natural calamities, offering insights into the human spirit in extreme circumstances. more
Author
You May Also Like
“There's magic to be mined in mistakes.”
Source: Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
Source: Queen of Shadows
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan
Source: Wish You Were Here
Source: Wish You Were Here
“I sometimes cry at night when I realize my vasectomy is permanent.”
Source: Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?
“It's not what I don't understand in the Bible that troubles me; it's what I do that worries me.”
