To the editor,

With all the billions of our tax dollars invested in, and talk of federal emergency preparedness, the federal response to Katrina is a national disgrace, and our chief executive, as well as those under him in FEMA and related departments, should truly be held accountable for the loss of lives and unnecessary suffering that were avoidable with more adequate and timely federal preparedness and assistance.

I believe that we need to support a congressional initiative for a truly independent Katrina Federal Response Commission, and not just another Whitewash Commission which the Bush administration may very well propose, to attempt to take the heat off.

This avoidable catastrophe clearly brings up for all of us, the issues of global warming, the undeniable growing intensity of hurricanes, the vital need for major public support for energy efficiencies of all kinds as well as a wide variety of decentralized, clean, bioregionally optimized renewable energies, big oil interests with their highly undemocratic and undue control over various of our government bodies, and the Bush Administration’s intimate ties with these very same special interests.

Rich Wenzel,

Lawrence