FEMA apparently doesn’t feel it’s been ridiculed enough for its disastrously pathetic performance following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav.FEMA recently claimed the reason Baton Rouge residents, some in need for weeks after Hurricane Gustav, could not get the emergency food and water they required was the gluttony of Louisiana residents.They said Louisana residents were eating more Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) — or those small brown packages of dry foods that can be heated up with water and a special pouch — than the agency anticipated.I kid you not. I am not nearly clever enough to think this up.Both Gov. Bobby Jindal and his spokeswoman Melissa Sellers pointed out this claim is ridiculous and “pretty nutty.”Yet FEMA will not relent.Has anyone in FEMA ever actually eaten an MRE?Assuming the residents of Baton Rouge are worrying about stuffing their faces with Meal No. 2, “Chicken with Vegetables and Noodles” or “Wheat Snack Bread” covered in “Cheese Paste with Bacon and Jalapeños” seems so painfully ignorant it’s not worth writing about.Assuming anyone in Louisiana would stop to consider their involvement in one of the seven deadly sins after going through the hell those two storms rained upon us seems more ridiculous than a big dog with a little hat.But, as I type this, I look up and see the two unopened boxes of MREs I got after Hurricane Gustav. I took them to eat if the power didn’t return, but they have been left to sit for months.I think back to Hurricane Katrina. I spent the semester after the storm in 110 West Laville Hall, and almost everyone on the hall had MREs.Sure, most of us were affected — my house was hit, and my family had to live in Houston for about a year.But MREs were fun.We’re college students, and heating food up with water in a pouch — sad as it may be — was entertaining.FEMA is by no means right.But perhaps they have a point, however ineloquently they have decided to present it. Almost no one outside of FEMA would claim the agency has been particularly effective while trying to do the single job they are responsible for. FEMA is sort of like a plumber who doesn’t know what an Allen wrench is — there isn’t much reason to listen to them.Excuses, excuses, excuses.Nonetheless, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and a few other times it’s close.And that is what FEMA is: almost right.Of course we shouldn’t be taking MREs when others are in far more need, and we shouldn’t be heating up pouches with water because we think it’s fun. Of course we shouldn’t stockpile them to eat later when we’ve spent too much cash at Bogie’s the night before and still need a snack. Of course we shouldn’t get a box and go through them all, looking for the, like, four tasty treats included in the 12 meals offered.But of course we do. We’re college students.And I can’t imagine, in any way, that this stops with us.”FEMA brought up this same assertion during the storms, and the governor made it clear that it is nutty to tell the people of south Louisiana that we are simply eating too much and are choosing MREs over our terrific local cuisine,” Sellers told The Times-Picayune.Well, yeah.But I can’t afford Juban’s every night. Hell, I can’t even afford Wendy’s every night.I doubt you can either.And there are thousands in this city who can’t afford it ever. There are thousands in this city who could use extra MREs. There are probably thousands in this city who took a few extra ones.We were wrong.But it still remains unbelievable that FEMA didn’t, oh I don’t know, take this into consideration before coming out here to hand out supplies.When your job is to feed a city in need, it seems like the idea “maybe some people might eat a bit more than others” might have a punch-you-in-the-face kind of obviousness.Apparently not.Not that any of this is surprising. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s painful to see a government agency charged with one of the most noble and important jobs in the our country act like a 6-year-old who just hit a baseball through the neighbor’s window.Blaming people in need for being too needy is far easier than helping them.Maybe FEMA should take a page out of Les Miles’s book and show some courage by taking responsibility for their actions.We’ll do the same.—-Contact Travis Andrews at [email protected]