Survivors on ABC and MSNBC

I have many things to say about the President's speech last night but I haven't fully thought them through, yet. I do want to make a statement about ABC's coverage. After the speech, Ted Koppel tossed to Dean Reynolds who was in the partking lots of the Reliant Center, Houston, with a group of evacuees. They had all just watched the speech together and he wanted to solicit comments. I wanted to hear what the people thought. It was overwhelmingly positive - they, to a person, said they trusted the President and were hopeful they would, one day, be able to return to their homes. What was most interesting, though, was the way Mr. Reynolds asked questions. As an insurance agent and a former debate/mock trial teacher, I know why 'leading questions' are asked - they are meant to elicite a certain response. Well, Dean was leading but no one wanted to follow down his path. He asked, incredulous at the responses coming from the members of this band of citizens, aren't you angry at the President and the Federal Government for the late response? One beautiful women said No, if I'm angry at anyone, it is our local officals - all those RTD and school buses sitting there, while the water was rising. They should have gotten people out - they knew it was going to happen. Another older woman said, I had the chance to get out but I foolishly chose to stay. I didn't believe it would happen, but the main people wasn't Katrina, it was the levees. Yes, the first woman broke in; it was the levees. So, Dean propted, you ARE angry at the Corps of Engineers, right? No, not at all, our local and state government got lots of federal money for those levees, lots of it and they used it for everything else but the levees.
You get the gist... Again, I am heartened by what I hear from my fellow Americans - regular people. They will hopefully hold their government leaders up to scrutiny in an honest way but will hold themselves accountable, too. Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, was interviewed by Chris Matthews (MSNBC) - I only saw the last statements the governor made but, they were powerful words (paraphrasing, of course). He was most pleased about the Gulf Enterprise Zone. The federal help is great, he said, but what we need most is to rebuild the confidence of the private sector - we need the private sector to believe in us again and to come back - to build again, better than before. This is too big for the federal government. We need private investment...
Those words are music to a capitalist's ears, the government (We the people) can't afford (nor should we) to be the savior, let the free market get busy - I saw survivors on television last night, not victims.
Here is a link to an article about my brother-in-law and another survivor
'Hurricane' survives Katrina, joins force