by Texas Apostate 26 Replies latest social current
That's the only card Jesse Jackson know how to play.
One of the most bizarre and pointless statements ever made by anybody:
I LOVE JESSE JACKSON AND ALWAYS WILL.
AS FAR AS IM CONCERNED THE GOVERNMENT WOULD HAVE ACTED FASTER IF "NO' WAS LILLY WHITE!
Edited to add:
Thats one reason after I reach 1000 posts i'm outta here, everytime something happens it turns into a race riot. Give me a fucking break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Texas A,
I agree with your post completely. Mayor Nagin sent those people to a place that they never should' ve gone. Be like telling people to use the elevators during a fire instead of using the stairs.
Were those busses out of water and gassed up?? If so, that would've been an excellent idea. Just wondering. How about the LA National Guard? Where were they? I heard that the Mississippi Nat'l Guard helped out in their state right away. Mayor Giuliani is one of a kind. Decreased crime in NY and got his ass in gear during 9/1/01. Isn't it ironic that this is happening around the same time 4 years later?
Have you heard how this influx of people is going to be handled down the road there in Houston? Juni Breeze
The governor positioned the National Guard 30 miles away and then completely lost communication with the city of New Orleans during the hurricane, so the story goes. Not receiving any information from the city (where was the mayor, etc???) she wouldn't order them into the city.
Jesse Jackson is not the only one talking about this. Its all over the news. Lets face it, this wouldn't have happened in the Hamptons, we'd have them out and have their houses halfway built by now. Of course race and poverty had everything to do with it. Why else would it take us 5 fricking days to get there. Give me a break.
Sherry
Jesse Jackson is not the only one talking about this. Its all over the news. Lets face it, this wouldn't have happened in the Hamptons, we'd have them out and have their houses halfway built by now. Of course race and poverty had everything to do with it. Why else would it take us 5 fricking days to get there. Give me a break.
Sherry Finally, a voice of reason thanks Sherry! M'
Let's compare Bush to Giuliani and what do we get, eh? Our government listened and responded to Rudy, not Mayor Nagin...
Get your heads out of the sand people. It is all about class .... read this article in USA Today, many excellent points made on the topic.
Of course race and poverty had everything to do with it. Why else would it take us 5 fricking days to get there.
I guess that would depend on what you mean by "us". I am willing to agree that the federal government has dropped ball to some extent, but first let's get a few things straight:
1. The evacuation was 5 days ago. But the levy broke, and the majority of the damage to New Orleans was done, just THREE days ago, on Tuesday. In fact, until the levy gave way, all the news coverage on was extolling the luck of the city and how it had dodged the bullet.
2. The evacuation plan was designed and instituted by the local and state authoritites. Local and State level action plans are always the first line of defense when a disaster strikes. The local authorities who sent the poorest people with the least resources into the Superdome without any plan for caring for those people in the days leading up to and directly after the storm bear a great portion of the blame here. There was no stockpile of provisions to care for the number of people that took refuge there. If we're going to talk about who dropped the ball, we should start THERE before deciding that the feds are to solely blame.
3. The conditions in and around the city of New Orleans have been such that swift, decisive, and effective action simply weren't immediately possible. The lack of any air traffic control measures, impassable/flooded roads, the destroyed infrastructure of the State of LA--these are all factors that have been major contributors to the chaos surrounding the relief effort.
4. This situation, and the actual scope of the damage in New Orleans, is of such a magnitude that we have NEVER had to deal with anything close to it in modern history. FEMA and Homeland Security are bureaucratic agencies, and actually moving and distributing supplies and personnel to disseminate them in such dire circumstances is hardly an operation that can be designed and deployed in a few hours.
5. Some of the blame for the delay must lay squarely on the shoulders of the very people who need to be helped. The people housed in these evacuation centers are the poorest, least educated citizens of New Orleans. Even under the best of conditions, violence would still likely have broken out instigated by the same portion of society that practiced it in the now flooded neighborhoods they hailed from. When, early on, the press, aid workers and medical pesonnel were attacked by the very people they were trying to help, they had no choice but to wait for reinforcements to bring some order before going back in. As always, a small minority of jackasses makes the majority suffer for their actions.
Now, all that said, were the feds slower to act than they should have been? Maybe. But the logistics involved and the factors to consider are so giagantic that I simply cannot buy that this is 'all about race'.
Sara Annie: Do you work for FEMA?
Well, I am not a fan of Jackson (and Mec, I would love to talk to you about this, let's dialogue on JJ), but I think he made the right call this time.
If this was Brentwood, or the hallowed hills of the rich in New England, the situation would have been dealt with much more quickly.
I saw something on the news tonite that was heartbreaking ... a black woman who worked at one of the high-end hotels was saying (paraphrase, cause I can't quote the exact words) "Many people staying at the hotel, who had several vehicles at their disposal, packed up on Saturday and put their luggage in their SUV and drove off and refused to take anyone with them who needed transportation."
Yes, the rich are different.
t
Sara Annie:Do you work for FEMA?
No, I simply don't believe in assigning the most nefarious of motives without a little critical thought. To blindly state "This is ALL about race and poverty" while ignoring the realities of the situation is not only bad form, it's illogical. I will agree that there is definitely a racial component to the delay in relief to those who are stranded in New Orleans. But I just will not concede that the blame for this lies solely on the shoulders of the Feds.
It is interesting you should ask,though. My husband does post disaster structural evaulation with a volunteer group of other professionals. On Tuesday night, the FEMA contact he's worked with over the years was on our phone by 11 PM telling him to be ready to head out to the gulf coast at any time. Over the last few days, there have been numerous emails flying about the scope of the damage and the timeline for the work they'll do (they evaluate post-disaster structural integrity and decide which structures must be razed, which are habitable, which need rebuilding, etc). In the past, when he's gone to areas that have suffered tornadic, earthquake or hurricane activity he has generally been gone for about 2 weeks. This time, due to the sheer size of the affected area and the fact that a major metropolitan area is involved, it is likely that he will be gone for three months doing just the first 'shift' of the work that needs to be done. This, more than anything else, has helped me get my head around just how gigantic the destruction from this even is. And given the enormity of the destruction, I think it's unfair to assume that the task of bringing relief to those affected by it would be any less daunting.
