squinney wrote:Again, and I'll reword it so that maybe you can get my point, it's the "hope" that has gotten us to this point.
It's the ignoring the poor while feeding the corporations.
It's the shift from caring about one another to every man for himself mentality.
It's the not in my backyard of the wealthy, which the poor cannot afford to combat for their own communities.
It's the smaller government is good mantra, leave it to faith based charities.
It's the very principles for which the current government stands, for which the neocons and right wing elements have been striving for thirty years, that have lead us to this point where in the case of a national disaster, poor people are left to die, government reaction is slow and no one wants to hear the truth, because it messes with their "hope."
As far as 9/11 and Bush asking us all to continue working... Don't you see the irony in that coming from a man that had just finished a month long vacation?
It's exactly that disconnect between the have's and the have not's, the wrongness of the direction of this administration, that is becoming more focused due to this natural disaster, and I for one, do not want it swept under the carpet or to be dimmed.
Squinney,
I hardly think asking the focus to be shift more on what IS being done instead of what MISTAKES WERE made can be called sweeping it under the rug. I said "let's table it until the people are taken care of" then let's find a way to keep those mistakes from happening again.
There may be some mentality that it's every man for himself but I think the WORLD offering their help as was stated in a previous post in this thread negates that statement quite a bit.
Not ALL of the people left in New Orleans are poor and black! A lot of those people MADE A CONSCIENCE decision to stay. It's true that some could not get out due to their financial circumstances. But, let's be fair. If you are going to talk about the people left, talk about all of them.
And what is this with the haves and have nots? I don't have a lot but I give everything I can. My town is not what you would call a prosperous town but we are doing everything we can do to help these people. Fortunately, our town does not have that every man for himself mentality, especially when it comes to our neighbors.
So what if Bush was on a month long vacation at the time of 9/11? If I were President, I'm sure I'd need a long vacation too! At least he came off of vacation and took the situation in hand and he held this country together. But, now Hurricane Katrina comes along and now you find fault because he was on vacation? He may have been on vacation but he was still the President and he took charge. He brought this country together whether you or others want to accept that or not.
What is tearing our country apart are the ones that continue to find fault with what is wrong. If it's wrong, fine, point it out! Fix it! But fix it once the victims are taken care of. They need our focus. They need us, as a country to be united in our efforts.
What are you supposed to do when you do get there to give your help and you are shot at? What do you do when you are there to take people out of the situation and they refuse to go? Now, the ones that decided to stay in New Orleans (these are the ones that decided to stay when the rescuers were there to take them out), are we supposed to feel sorry for them and concentrate on them? Don't you think the thing to do is continue our efforts to get those out that want to get out? If you offer someone help and they refuse it, what are you supposed to do? Force it down their throats and take them out at gunpoint? Now, wouldn't that be violating their civil rights?
I am just saying (AGAIN) ~ we know what mistakes were made. Now, let's take care of the victims. Once the victims are taken care of, let's sit down and find a solution! Let's figure out how to avoid this kind of thing in the future. Complaining about it does nothing to help. And if hope is what got us where we are today (in your opinion) then why is the world coming to aid these victims? What's wrong with that kind of hope?
Seems as though the Mayor of New Orleans tends to agree with me somewhat. He says, we are making progress, we are looking toward the future. If he can stop blaming and being angry and start looking to the future, why can't you?
