After the horrific hurricane damage that destroyed or damaged as many as 100,000 homes in Western North Carolina, one would think FEMA and local officials would move heaven and earth to get those affected out of flimsy tents and trailers and into solid dwellings as winter inexorably descends. One would think wrongly:
Graphic: Matt von Swol. Used with permission.
WNC resident (and X user) Margo reported last month that her area had "56 passenger bus load groups of skilled Amish carpenters coming down from Lancaster PA weekly to help build tiny homes for Cabins for Christ." Margo was doing her bit, looking for help finding room to lodge all of the volunteers. "We are bringing our own supplies and would be 100% self-sufficient," she posted, "Just need a place under [a] roof to sleep and house our volunteers from Monday night through Friday night every week."
That’s the kind of selflessness Americans have always revered. How many tiny homes have they built?
Teamed up with Cabins 4 Christ, the Amish volunteers have been working five-day shifts before swapping out for the next team of volunteers. Nobody seems to know how many tiny homes have been built. But I used my paid research assistant, ChatGPT, to do some investigating for me. For whatever it's worth, ChatGPT claims that "In disaster relief efforts, such as the recent North Carolina project, Amish carpenters often build small cabins in as little as 5 days."
If a small team can build a home each week, and there are hundreds of volunteers working for almost four weeks, they must have built more than a hundred quality cottages by now. All on their own dime. If you know anything about Amish carpentry, you might safely assume those little cottages are well-built.
So that sort of kindness, generocity and help must be welcomed, right? Right?
Of course not. There’s no indication the work of the Amish is dangerous, that it would in any way harm public health or safety. The Amish live simply, without all the gadgets and conveniences upon which most Americans rely, but they know how to build solid, warm shelter. After all, they live in Pennsylvania where they deal with cold every year. Shouldn’t local bureaucrats make whatever exceptions are necessary, even if only temporarily? FEMA is surely not taking up the slack, and though Donald Trump will likely turn his attention to that red taped agency, that’s going to take time, and winter is nearly upon us.
But the bureaucratic mindset, as explained by the invaluable Thomas Sowell, dominates even there, even now:
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing."
And so it goes as Joe Biden fades to transparency and his handlers howl in outrage and plot Trump’s, and America’s, destruction.
Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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