People Using Tragedy To Push Political Viewpoints- Page 2

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:00am

Had it been Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard that had been flooded... well...

[Pinguin]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:01am

I really honestly don't believe that it would be any different. The administration is INEFFECTIVE, most certainly, but I don't think that the adminstration is being ineffective because they have any sort of malintent or disinterest towards the victims.

I think they honestly don't know what to do or how to do it :0)

Now the COUNTRY'S response is probably more telling -how much the country is willing to help this community through donations, etc. is probably more of a meter to me. Not the incompetence of the adminstration.

**edit** and M J R, I agree with you, a lot of it has to do with the lack of affluence in the community and how much resources they have and blah blah blah

Updated On: 9/4/05 at 02:01 AM

[Plum]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:04am

You can't really separate the administration from the people so neatly. It's made up of people. Lot's of 'em, and not just the leaders whose faces we recognize. There's been incompetence and delays at all levels, so really, the societal and political distinction you're trying to make doesn't seem true to me.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:12am

Pinguin, I honestly don't think this is a per se a race issue. I think that it is an economic issue, and it just so happens that many (but not all) of those affected happen to be black. This tragedy was borne, in part, due to the fact that these people could not afford to get out of town. And, to my knowledge, no resources were provided to get them out if they wanted to go, but could not afford to do so.

I think a middle class, or upper middle class area under similar circumstances would have had more resources at their individual disposal. More contact with people in power. A larger ability to get a response on day one because of the influence and power. Race comes into play only because so many of the poor in New Orleans are black.

I hope that makes sense.


EDIT: It is kind of weird, but during this whole fiasco I kept on thinking of the Titanic, or at least as portrayed in the movie, where the some of the wealthy got out on boats, while the poor in steerage were locked below to drown.
Updated On: 9/4/05 at 02:12 AM

[M J R]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:25am

The Titanic reference is actually fairly accurate - anyone who had a car or who could afford any sort of transportation out of the area made use of it. I've been trying to see what efforts ANY branch of the government made to provide evacuation for those who could NOT afford it themselves...

[Plum]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:27am

Well, that was the idea of getting people into the Superdome, wasn't it? It just didn't work out too well.

[M J R]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:28am

Not at all...

[zzannahk]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:30am

hope this works:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015

Here are the New Orleans buses that could have evacuated the city before the hurricane hit, sitting around in nice, neat, flooded, useless rows afterwards. (Source: Yahoo News, 9/1/05, via "Our Way of Life," which has a lot of good commentary.) There are approximately 200 buses in this picture alone, and there are clearly more that are beyond the margins of the photo. If each one of the 200 could carry 60 people, that's 12,000 who could have been ferried out on each trip to, say, Baton Rouge on higher ground just 75 miles away.

Updated On: 9/4/05 at 02:30 AM

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 10:15am

I tend to agree with YouWantIt... just visualize this. There's a neighborhood of affluent African-Americans (is that still the PC term? I can't keep up) who run businesses, teach in private high schools and slap braces on all the neighborhood kids. Nearby is a neighborhood of trailer homes inhabited by very poor white people - people who are janitors, who operate the french-fry machine and whose most dressy outfit is a pair of jeans and a polo shirt from Goodwill.

Who would the government come in to rescue first???

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 10:18am

This situation deteriorated into a tragedy BECAUSE OF political viewpoints.

[lildogs]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 10:34am

I think DGrant makes a pretty good point. The response time is a directly proportional to the political power of the victims, which is none. The fact that armed soldiers were more concerned with protecting private property than rescuing survivors and cleaning up dead bodies should tell you all you need to know.

I went to college in the Gulf region, and I'm telling you, segregation is very much alive.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 11:29am

lol plum, maybe it's the cycles of the moon or something?

and I see that paplovesbimbo posted, (er I meant mumbo-jumbo) but I've banned him......so where I can see he posted something after me, I don't get to read any more of his ridiculous, condescending, posts of his.........ahhhhh

Updated On: 9/4/05 at 11:29 AM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 11:32am

To those who continue to say "...this isn't the time for finger-pointing..." including Chertoff, I have but one sentence:

THERE ARE SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS OF HURRICANE SEASON LEFT.

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to ...

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 12:13pm

Still, no one answered my question.

I have an uncle and cousin who live in a trailer park in Georgia. If disaster had hit them instead of Baton Rouge, my family and I would be the ones waiting to hear whether they were safe or dead, realizing fully that because they're dirt poor, the government doesn't give a sh!t whether they live or die.

It makes me sick, and it makes me FURIOUS!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:00pm

Your point is absolutely dead on, CM, and, naturally, in this country, race and class are inextricably bound together. People can get all "But I'm not a racist!" panicky, but the fact is, if you're talking poverty, people of color are disproportionaly represented in that group.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:13pm

CM - honestly, the only reason I didn't give an outright answer to your question is that I think the answer is obvious - however sickening I think that is.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 1:18pm

CM - I did answer because I figured the middle class and rich would have found a way out, and the poor, well, they would be stuck just like those in NO. I am not sure if the demograophics of those who stayed in Mississippi regarding race were the same as those in NO . . . but I am pretty sure the demographics for most regarding economic standing were very similar.

What is perhaps the most sad and ironic, is many of these poor voted for George Bush because they believed he understood them, simply because he was able to throw out some socially conservative, hate mongering lingo towards homosexuals and the "Liberal Elite", bribe many churches with "faith-based" money, so they too pushed the Bush Agenda, able to take economics and opportunity out of the equation and prey on their fear of and discomfort with others. I wonder how many of those churches in MS, ALA and LA are still standing? I wonder how many would vote differently now given the chance.


Updated On: 9/4/05 at 01:18 PM

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 9/4/05 at 2:27pm

(I believe this was already stated, but it bears repeating.)

Yes this is a class based discussion, those people were put into this horrible situation because they lacked basic resources. In this country, however, with any discussion of class there is an immediate necessity to discuss race.
There are many people of all races in the extreme poverty of this country, there are a disproportionate number of people that are African American included amoung that number.

You Want it When?: The demographics of poor urban communities accross the south is heavily African American, the rural communites are almost exclusivly white. Both types of community were devasted in this disaster, there are far more people effected in the urban areas though.