Does Uncle Sam Want Appalachia to Suffer?

Local helicopter pilot threatened with arrest for helping the stranded; Tennessee National Guard sent to Middle East.

As I reported from Maui last year right after a predictable and preventable fire destroyed Lahaina, the State (municipal, state, and federal) was eerily absent and ineffective in helping the disaster-stricken people. It was only weeks after the town was totally incinerated that the federal money started flowing into the pockets of well-positioned disaster contractors. There’s no business like Federally Contracted Disaster Business!

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, my younger brother and his buddies on the North Shore tried to deliver supplies to the Lahaina townspeople, and most of these supplies were turned back because they weren’t FEMA authorized. Apparently Uncle Sam doesn’t want local civilians helping local civilians. When it comes to “helping” the citizenry, Uncle Sam is a strict monopolist.

Prudent citizens understand the extreme peril of Uncle Sam’s stated desire to help. As President Reagan remarked in an August 12, 1986 speech:

I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.

I was reminded of Reagan’s remark on Wednesday evening at a little gathering in Georgetown hosted by a friend who’d just fled from his hurricane stricken home in Asheville, North Carolina to seek refuge with his parents in D.C.

“The place is totally destroyed and all basic services and public safety have completely broken down,” he explained. “It’s astonishing how quickly a region can revert to total chaos.”

“What about the National Guard?” I asked.

“Their deployment was delayed,” he replied. “I didn’t see any National Guard troops before I departed.”

This morning I saw the news in The Hill that a Pilot flying Helene rescue missions in NC threatened with arrest.

Likewise, a large Tennessee National Guard was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas on Saturday, Sept. 28—the day after the hurricane struck the region—to prepare for deployment to the Middle East. Does Uncle Sam want the people of Appalachia to suffer?

I posed the same question during the dark days of official U.S. government response to COVID-19, when the NIH issued nihilistic treatment guidelines, and Drs. Zev Zelenko, Peter McCullough, Paul Marik, Pierre Kory, George Fareed, Mary Bowden, and others were relentlessly persecuted for trying to help their patients to stay out of hospital and avoid dying.

I wonder if the State is a Sadist. Do ranking officials enjoy watching the plebeians suffer?