General welfare.

It needs to be said, so I will be the "heartless grinch" who dares to broach the forbidden subject. FEMA was broadly criticized for its tardy and inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina ("Katrina Exposes Fatal Flaws," October 3). While I am no constitutional lawyer, I certainly am a citizen of the United States with a right and a duty to read, study, and interpret the Constitution of the United States. Accordingly, I have done so and find no authorization for the involvement of the federal government in local disaster relief.

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution lists 18 specific powers of the Congress, none of which is to authorize or finance localized disaster relief. Some people would make a case that the justification for it comes from the "general welfare" clause laid out in the first of those 18 listed powers. Such an errant interpretation would, of course, require that the relief for and reconstruction of New Orleans and its strategic ocean port would be general welfare for the country and not simply specific regional welfare.

However, that same general welfare clause specifies that the taxes collected to provide that "general" welfare will be uniform throughout the country. Well, what about the tax relief now being offered to New Orleans' business and citizens and to contractors coming into the area to help in the reconstruction? That situation certainly violates the uniform taxation clause. Let's face it, regional welfare is not general welfare and is blatantly unconstitutional. What if Canon City, Colorado, were to be destroyed by some natural catastrophe; would the federal relief, which would surely follow, be justified as general welfare for the entire United States?

No! We citizens have no legal obligation to provide localized disaster relief. But we Christians (and hopefully members of other religions) do have a moral obligation to help one another. I close then with an appeal to all of my fellow Christians to join me in meeting these personal obligations.

KEN CAREY

Canon City, Colorado