It was probably inevitable that any attempts to deal with the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita would be quickly politicized, but the degree to which this has happened was neither necessary nor helpful. American politicians seem to delight in attributing blame, but right now the United States must contend with the desperate need for massive rescue and reconstruction efforts.

Personally, I think the governmental failures that contributed to the problems caused by the two hurricanes were bipartisan and occurred at all levels of government: local, state, and federal. My strong suspicion is that after all the recriminations finally end and all of the investigations and hearings are concluded, we’re going to find that Congress and the executive branch made mistakes in planning, funding, and responding to the emergencies, that state government and the National Guard made mistakes, and that even the Mayor of New Orleans made serious errors in judgment.

The fact of the matter is that human beings are not perfect and human institutions are far from perfect. Anyone who truly believes that government can protect us from all disasters or that planning can eliminate all possibilities of mistake is naive. What is also clear, however, is that now that the populations of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Gulf Coast communities in other states have suffered catastrophic losses, we must not waste time and energy trading political barbs about whose mistakes were worst. This is not the time for either political party to make points for future elections.

What needs to be done now is twofold. First, all levels of government must act together to provide reasonable help to those individuals, businesses, and other organizations that suffered in the hurricanes. Political posturing can only impede this process. Such behavior can lead either to too little aid or too much.

Further, in providing this assistance, all thoughts of political advantage, “pork,” or favoritism should be prohibited. In recent days, suggestions have been made that corruption is already a problem in the allocation of “no-bid” contracts to allies of various politicians at all levels of government. Just as “war profiteering” was outlawed during World War II, it should be outlawed now.

At the same time, many promises of aid have been made, but little has been said has to how this aid will be paid for. Will our governments make rational decisions about how to finance this aid?

Second, government needs to begin the process of making changes to existing emergency procedures so that when the next disaster hits – and it inevitably will – all levels of government will be able to respond better. It seems clear that the governmental response to Hurricane Rita was better than that to Hurricane Katrina. Certainly, there were many reasons for this improvement, but one, at least, was that officials had learned from their mistakes during Katrina.

I do not mean to suggest that there should not be investigations into how and why the overall response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was not better. There well may be blame to apportion and penalties to exact. But now is not the time to do this. The time to apportion blame and exact penalties is after the crisis is over and those affected have been given whatever help is necessary and appropriate.

Although the two hurricanes may now be history, the damage they did to property and to human lives is still very much with us and, therefore, the real crisis continues. Thousands of businesses are shuttered; hundreds of thousands of individuals are still not permitted in their homes. Let government during this period help those who need help and make those changes that need to be made. When this is accomplished, then the politicians can have a field day in exchanging accusations and placing blame wherever they wish.

Now, however, the nation needs to put the needs of those who suffered first and let politics take a back seat. Let us all hope that we can come together in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita just as we did after the devastating events of 9-11 and do what is best for the nation.