Monday, September 05, 2005
neck deep in shit creek
as an american living overseas, i am often put in the position of answering questions on americans and the united states. i make every effort to be as representative as i possibly can, with as much integrity in my response as possible. however, in light of what has happened in new orleans over the past week, i have been utterly speechless. truly, i am flabergasted by the events that have unfolded.
i was shocked but not surprised at the destruction caused by hurricane katrina. afterall, mother nature, when she wants to rise up and get downright nasty, reigns supreme. what i found to be most shocking and totally shameful was the response to the victims left ravaged by the brutal storm. there were literally hundreds of thousands of people, yes, mostly black americans, left stranded without food, water, ample clothing, and proper shelter. this was not an over night thing. this went on for six fucking days! it is an absolute disgrace this was allowed to happen.
in six days, you could drive a car from one end of the country on the east coast, clear across the country to the west coast, and all the way back again to the east coast, still with enough time to catch a full nine innings of a baseball game along the way. so for it to take six days for a rescue effort, to not only get organized but, mobilized, is a total joke. why were there not more people driving their own cars down to help those people evacuate? why were school buses from kansas city not commandeered and driven to new orleans the next day? one answer could be the price of fuel, and that would be legitimate (thanks to W). someone pointed out to me the other day, that when the big hurricane wreaked havoc in florida last year, the federal government was there with aid the very next day. so what took so long in louisiana? no one from the white house will say it, so i will for them. it was because the people who were left in new orleans were predominantly black. pure and simple it all boiled down to race. once again displaying to the world that racism is alive and thriving in america. you could bet your very last dollar that had there been a hundred thousand wealthy white folks stranded in that flooded city, fighting amongst the waste and dead bodies for some clean water to drink, that the entire united states military would be mobilized to get them out of there in less than a single day. this shoot to kill policy that came straight from the white house, as a first response, now i ask you, what the fuck is that about? of course those people were hostile. they were abandoned for six days! jesse jackson coined it perfectly. he said, "this situation is like the hull of a slave ship." he was not wrong.
there is going to be a lot of finger pointing over this for years to come. however, there are a few issues that have already come to my attention. mainly, the diversion of funds to upgrade the levee system in new orleans over 18 months ago (never happened), the money was used in order to fund a war in iraq. irony does not get any more blatant than that. i am going on the record here- i do not blame george bush jr. for the hurricane. i do hold him responsible for the shit house relief effort up to this point, and there is no amount of rhetoric that will ever make up for it. i do hold bush jr. responsible for the diversion of federal funds (that is public money, tax payers money, not his) away from social programs and infrastructure, in order to fight an illigitimate war on the other side of the planet. could this disaster (hurricane) have been prevented? who knows and frankly, who cares? it happened. could the rescue operation have gone better? hell yes.
george bush jr. ought to be fired! he claims to have run a few businesses in his time, so he should know- when the business fucks up royally, who gets fired? the boss. so it makes perfect sense to me that he should get the sack over this fiasco.
i was shocked but not surprised at the destruction caused by hurricane katrina. afterall, mother nature, when she wants to rise up and get downright nasty, reigns supreme. what i found to be most shocking and totally shameful was the response to the victims left ravaged by the brutal storm. there were literally hundreds of thousands of people, yes, mostly black americans, left stranded without food, water, ample clothing, and proper shelter. this was not an over night thing. this went on for six fucking days! it is an absolute disgrace this was allowed to happen.
in six days, you could drive a car from one end of the country on the east coast, clear across the country to the west coast, and all the way back again to the east coast, still with enough time to catch a full nine innings of a baseball game along the way. so for it to take six days for a rescue effort, to not only get organized but, mobilized, is a total joke. why were there not more people driving their own cars down to help those people evacuate? why were school buses from kansas city not commandeered and driven to new orleans the next day? one answer could be the price of fuel, and that would be legitimate (thanks to W). someone pointed out to me the other day, that when the big hurricane wreaked havoc in florida last year, the federal government was there with aid the very next day. so what took so long in louisiana? no one from the white house will say it, so i will for them. it was because the people who were left in new orleans were predominantly black. pure and simple it all boiled down to race. once again displaying to the world that racism is alive and thriving in america. you could bet your very last dollar that had there been a hundred thousand wealthy white folks stranded in that flooded city, fighting amongst the waste and dead bodies for some clean water to drink, that the entire united states military would be mobilized to get them out of there in less than a single day. this shoot to kill policy that came straight from the white house, as a first response, now i ask you, what the fuck is that about? of course those people were hostile. they were abandoned for six days! jesse jackson coined it perfectly. he said, "this situation is like the hull of a slave ship." he was not wrong.
there is going to be a lot of finger pointing over this for years to come. however, there are a few issues that have already come to my attention. mainly, the diversion of funds to upgrade the levee system in new orleans over 18 months ago (never happened), the money was used in order to fund a war in iraq. irony does not get any more blatant than that. i am going on the record here- i do not blame george bush jr. for the hurricane. i do hold him responsible for the shit house relief effort up to this point, and there is no amount of rhetoric that will ever make up for it. i do hold bush jr. responsible for the diversion of federal funds (that is public money, tax payers money, not his) away from social programs and infrastructure, in order to fight an illigitimate war on the other side of the planet. could this disaster (hurricane) have been prevented? who knows and frankly, who cares? it happened. could the rescue operation have gone better? hell yes.
george bush jr. ought to be fired! he claims to have run a few businesses in his time, so he should know- when the business fucks up royally, who gets fired? the boss. so it makes perfect sense to me that he should get the sack over this fiasco.
