Bubbling up from the flood that destroyed New Orleans are images, beamed around the world, of America's original and continuing sin: the shabby, contemptuous treatment this country metes out, decade after decade, to poor people in general and the descendants of African slaves in particular. The world sees New Orleans burning and dying today, but the televised anarchy - the shooting and looting, needless deaths, helpless rage and maddening governmental incompetence - was centuries in the making.
I would really hope Kevin Irwin would not mind if I use a paraphrase of something he said: this guy is living in the 1840s. The US has the highest standard of living for those considered its "poorest". Those who are considered poor in this country on average have a car, two TVs, phone service. They have public assistance. Yet, somehow, because a town was devasted by a hurricane this shmuck thinks it is because of slavery. As usual, leave it to the Lunatic Lefties to use any tragedy to advance their liberal, blame America, America always wrong agenda. The poor in this country are just so mistreated that one of their biggest health concerns is OBESITY! Come on now....
Of course, better to blame the age old slavery issue rather than say that the liberal Democrat mayor and his policies had already eroded the critical infrastructure (see the post directly below this one). Hmm. Of course, we cannot say that the mayor was inefectual in demanding people leave, showing a lack of certainty over the weekend, over whether or not it was right to evacuate. Nope, we can't say these people should have left....therefore, it must be...THE MAN!
That hard, unsympathetic view is the traditional American response to the poverty, ignorance and rage that afflict many of us whose great-great-grandparents once made up the captive African slave labor pool. In far too many cities, including New Orleans, the marching orders on the front lines of American race relations are to control and contain the very poor in ghettos as cheaply as possible; ignore them completely if possible; and call in the troops if the brutes get out of line.
By almost every statistical measure, New Orleans is a bad place to be poor. Half the city's households make less than $28,000 a year, and 28% of the population lives in poverty.
In the late 1990s, the state's school systems ranked dead last in the nation in the number of computers per student (1 per 88), and Louisiana has the nation's second-highest percentage of adults who never finished high school. By the state's own measure, 47% of the public schools in New Orleans rank as "academically unacceptable."
OK, let me get this straight. The fact that people are poor is America's fault? Whatever happened to responsibility? You know, maybe if there were competent leadership...oh wait, can't criticize the mayor, now can we? And as for the state's school system, who has been in control of the state? Hmmm...I guess such liberal policies don't work...It seems like you have a failure of leadership, not racisim. But of course, this answer is not the one to make Mr. Lewis feel better, so he continues....
The authorities provided no transportation out of the danger zone, apparently figuring the neglected thousands would somehow weather the storm in their uninsured, low-lying shacks and public housing projects. The poor were expected to remain invisible at the bottom of the pecking order and somehow weather the storm.
Again, to fit his sad twisted view of the world, Mr. Lewis has to fabricate. There were buses. In fact, there were many empty buses that were heading away from the city. Many downtown refused to get on them. So, that must be the white man's fault, right? It must all be because of something that happened 200 years ago, right? Come on now. What is sadder still is this clown expects us to buy this stuff. Saddest of all is that some people do buy this worldview of the US government has so oppressive and hateful...
All in all, they acted exactly the way you could predict people would act who have been locked up in a ghetto for generations.
OK, this is not 1930s Warsaw. We have freedom of mobility in this nation. Also, what do you think would be the reaction if a white commentator had said such an arrogant and self-serving statement about people's actions?
President Bush initially shunned the Gulf Coast and headed to political fund-raisers in the West.
OK, I guess the President should have ripped off his shirt, revealing the big red S on the front, and done a few laps around the planet to turn back time and warn the people, who were warned for four days straight, that the big one was coming? Is that it, Mr. Lewis? Come on now. You sound absolutely ignornat, not indignant. I am tired of hearing the crap of the President should have....look, he is not superhuman. And, I get tired of the vacation and trip idiocy. The President, quite frankly, is never on vacation. He is surrounded by the job at all times. The only vacation he gets is getting the hell out of the Beltway, and instead of having thousands of talking heads, he only has a few dozen. Mr. Lewis, would you get to some relevance, intead of mouthing off Louis Farakhan's talking points?
When asked about the rising death toll, Brown attributed it to "people who did not heed the advance warnings." Brown's smug ignorance of the conditions of the place he was tasked to save became the final door slammed on the trap that tens of thousands of the city's poorest found themselves.
Look, I hate to see people suffer, but let's look. 75-80% got out and heeded the warnings. They took advantage of the free buses and the advance notice. So, while I do not think that the people who died or were injured deserved it, they did not heed advance warnings. I do not think Mr. Brown was being smug; he was simply stating a fact. Remember, four days of warnings. Free buses.
Here comes the big finish:
The challenge for America is to remember the faces of the evacuees who will surely be ushered back into a black hole of public indifference as soon as the White House and local officials can manage it. While pledging ourselves to remember their mistreatment and fight for their cause, we should also be sure to cast a searching, skeptical eye on the money that Bush has pledged for rebuilding.
Ten billion dollars are about to pass into the sticky hands of politicians in the No. 1 and No. 3 most corrupt states in America. Worried about looting? You ain't seen nothing yet.
Yes, cast an eye on the money, because Bush used the secret Rovian machine to taint the money with smallpox, and he will use his mind control machine to make people kill each other, not desire education, and choose to give up on life. Oh, and did you know that AIDS was created by the CIA? Come on now, Mr. Lewis, now you are just being petty and lashing out.
It is articles like this that hinder the cause of race relations in this country. This is not a time to be looking to the past to cite past wrongs as reason for modern failures. It is time to look to the future. However, you cannot maintain power over people by empowering them. Better to simply have them blame someone else. That way, they will always look to people like Mr. Lewis to lead them to more hate, and Mr. Lewis and liberals like him will keep people poor and stupid, so to speak. Better than dealing with the problem, the elitists like Mr. Lewis want instead to drive us apart, rather than bring us together to achieve new greatness as a country. Disgraceful. This is a travesty and a ridiculous article. Don't buy the hype.
AND MR. LEWIS, WE COULDN'T SAVE SOME OF THE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY WERE SHOOTING AT THE RESCUERS....WE COULDN'T SAVE SOME OF THE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY DID NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FREE BUSING AND THE ADVANCED WARNING... It was not, I REPEAT, WAS NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE BLACK....Do you get it, or do you need me to write in caps some more?
