The simple fact that private security firms were required to gain control of New Orleans shows how ineffective our government has become. From Baghdad to the streets of another disaster, the men of Blackwater USA, a private security firm, went inside New Orleans to provide additional help. After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA was unprepared, and the city fell into chaos, so why not hire out the federal government’s job to private firms?

Blackwater USA teams spread out in New Orleans heavily armed and driving black SUVs with tinted windows. They emptied an apartment and set up their headquarters while throwing the owner’s belongings out of the window into the street. These vigilantes are well-known for the security detail they provide to senior level diplomats in Iraq.

The use of private contractors in Iraq has never been seen in the world before.

Now in New Orleans, these private contractors are in a field doing what the government should be doing: serving and protecting its citizens. The fact that there are more than 220 private contracted firms performing security details and beginning the restoration is astonishing.

It is hard to believe and downright disturbing that the battle-hardened men of Blackwater USA are running around New Orleans with automatic assault rifles and flack jackets with extra ammo.

Under contract of the Department of Homeland Security, and wearing law enforcement badges of the State of Louisiana, they have been given free range to carry loaded weapons and “make arrests and use lethal force if we deem necessary.”

Both the examples of Iraq and the disaster in the aftermath of Katrina are manifestations of what our government is doing – or, more accurately, what it is not doing.

Republicans argue for smaller government. They insist it’s important that each person has the right to succeed without government getting in the way. They want to cut taxes, increase the deficit and continue to run our country into the ground.

Democrats fare no better with me. They want to increase taxes and provide citizens with the services that we should be demanding. The increase in revenue is for Uncle Sam to pad his own pockets so these Democrats can escape to their upstate New York mansions on the weekends while pretending to help citizens. Why raise our taxes when you’ll waste away our hard-earned money?

Both political parties either ignore or are blind to the fact that they have become ineffective on the international scene, and more frighteningly, here at home.

With a refreshing outlook of our country from my friend from Australia, I’ve realized just how much trouble we’re in. We are sucking oil out of the ground at an ever-increasing rate, global warming is taking its toll and our growth rate is not sustainable.

I do not have an optimistic outlook for this country on its current course. I’m not the only one who feels our current path is one toward ruin.

In the new book by Jared Diamond, “Collapse,” he argues “environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies, but other societies found solutions and persisted.”

When we look at history, and why certain civilizations have survived or failed, it is hauntingly easy to draw parallels between why societies have collapsed in the past and the current course our country is on.

This is not an optimistic look, but there is always some hope for the future of the world and the future of our great nation.

As my friend said, “America has gotten to the stature it has, but it will take twice as much work to maintain and improve it.”

Surprisingly wise words.

Without a drastic reversal of policies, trends and societal tendencies, we have much to fear in the future.

– Ramsey Tesdell is a senior in English from Slater.