On understanding frustration

As they acknowledge the failures to provide aid to people killed, injured and dispossessed by Hurricane Katrina, politicians will often offer a line about understanding the frustration of people who are receiving no assistance. Speaking on Larry King's interview program, CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper has a reply:

KING: Anderson Cooper in Biloxi, Mississippi and you were an angry man today, Anderson at what?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I wouldn't say I'm angry, you know. I think I'm tired of hearing the politicians say that, you know, they understand the frustration of people down here. To me, you know, it's not frustration. It's not that people are frustrated.

It's that people are dying. I mean there are people dying. They're drowning to death and they drown in their living rooms and their bodies are rotting where they drowned and there are corpses in the street being eaten by rats and this is the United States of America.

It's not a question of me being angry. People down here are frustrated and angry and it goes beyond just frustration. It's, you know, there are a lot of people who listen to you on satellite radio who are down here who are able to, you know, get some radio and they're -- you know they come up to me and they tell me if I hear them one more time, you know, congratulating each other and thanking each other for all their efforts, the politicians, you know.

They would like them to come down here and roll up their sleeves and get in the tent and help out with some people because there's a lot of need here and there's not much help. I mean there are a lot of hardworking people here from FEMA and the national government and God bless them but I got to tell you there is a great need here, Larry, and it is shocking to see firsthand.

Meanwhile, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, does not understand anybody's frustration. Radiating empathy, he declared, "It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed." The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, observed that federal officials "don't have a clue what's going on down here." To which the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, responded, "I understand the mayor's frustration."