Posted on 09/01/2005 9:28:17 AM PDT by Sonny M
I'm known to write occasionally that the rest of America doesn't understand the South. Now comes some clear and convincing evidence.
As fate would have it, InsiderAdvantage, the company that I lead, just this week purchased the long-established Washington, D.C.-based Southern Political Report. Hastings Wyman, a widely respected political reporter in Washington, will continue to edit the publication.
But as Hurricane Katrina approached, we were in the last stages of creating a daily web-based version of the report. Immediately, we called on all the resources of the Southern Political Report, including its vast network of contacts, many of whom live in Katrina's path.
As early as Monday afternoon, we realized the storm was far more devastating than was being reported by the TV news networks. For starters, our sources said New Orleans would start to flood by daybreak Tuesday. They also explained how entire foundations of the Southern economy had been erased, such as the burgeoning casino resorts along the Mississippi coast.
By late Tuesday night, we had been told off the record that the death toll of about 80 being announced would possibly swell into the thousands.
So why on Tuesday night was network television airing shows like "Tommy Lee Goes to College," instead of providing wall-to-wall live coverage of this historic, catastrophic event? Where were the rock stars announcing soon-to-come mega-concerts to raise quick cash for the stricken region? And why in the world was the stock market rising both on Monday and Wednesday?
I'll tell you why. It's because the know-it-alls in New York and Washington don't have a clue about the American South. They don't comprehend its political might and economic muscle, and thus the ultimately crippling impact Katrina is going to have on them, too. It's that simple.
This isn't to knock the courageous and resourceful print and broadcast reporters on the scene or the media venues that have devoted practically all their column space or airtime to this cataclysmic event.
I'm aiming higher with my complaint -- at the top-level program directors and network executives who think that earthquakes in California and attacks on New York warrant the full attention of the world, but life-threatening emergencies in the swamps and "backwoods" of the South don't.
Well guess what? They matter now.
Let the word get out: While everyone in the storm's path is grateful for the efforts of so many across the nation, it's also clear that the disconnect between the top corporate and media leaders in America and the people of the South is far more serious than even I had imagined.
Wednesday's declaration by the mayor of New Orleans that "thousands may be dead" -- whether confirmed or not at the time -- should have justified an end to regular TV network programming.
It wasn't to be. One of my own local network affiliates -- like most others around the nation -- kept airing "General Hospital" via the network feed.
You can bet that if New York City were underwater, and thousands were presumed dead with countless others' lives still hanging in the balance, these same networks would have suspended regular programming to cover every developing second of the disaster's unfolding events.
These effete national executives just can't get a handle on the South, be it our politics -- especially in predicting our elections -- or our economic significance. They are always a day late and a dollar short.
They think we're racists, when in fact the greatest peaceful mixing of races in the nation -- and maybe the world -- occurs in the South every day. Substantial African-American and Hispanic communities are an integral part of our economy and communities.
They assume we are dumb and poorly educated. That ignores the massive improvements that have been made since the Civil War ended. That's when a dual set of second-class citizens was created overnight -- destitute whites, including many in the former planter class, and uneducated former slaves.
Trace a line from Houston through Atlanta, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Miami, and yes, what was once New Orleans, and you will see the clear outline of who controls Congress and the White House.
We are the growth of America and its future.
But it took days for the nation as a whole to even tip its hat to a natural disaster that has the potential to drag America into a full-blown recession.
I'm American before all else. I'm proud of every part and each person in the United States. Like Frank Sinatra, I love New York. I travel to Los Angeles at the first chance.
But this week, I speak the words no one else wants to say: The South has been hit with the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. And too much of America didn't want to notice until it had to.
And I say this as a brooklyn born, and still living in, New Yorker.
Already posted.
I've been wondering where the Hollyweirds are. They are pretty quick to get in front of the camera and announce their donations when disaster strikes in other countries. Where are they now??
I'm sorry, I tried looking it up, I didn't find it, my bad.
Deo Vindice
yup...and, even tody, if you asked New Orleans residents if they had to vote for Katrina or Union Gen. "Beast" Butler as the most cruelest ever to visit the Big Easy, I'd bet a lot would say "Butler!"
I hope God doesn't punish the "elites" I live near them, by default, that would mean he'd knock off my home too.
I love the tagline.
The height of irony is the way "uneducated" people (especially Southerners) are treated by liberals depends so heavily on skin color. Black poverty is a national shame; white poverty is a sign of shiftlessness. Black hunger is a moral imperative, white hunger is funny. Black ingorance is "revolutionary," poor white igorance is the sign of a Klucker. White resentment of the rich is politically correct and leftist, poor white resentment is "regressive populism" and incipient fascism. And all this hypocrisy with regard to two communities that, were it not for skin color, would be indistinguishable, and by people who have always claimed that they want everyone to be treated the same.
Oh, and don't forget that Biblical Fundamentalism, while a quaint and legitimate form of cultural expression among Blacks, is stupid and reactionary in whites. Don't get me started!
"They assume we are dumb and poorly educated."
This is sadly too true. The dumb southern Bush-supporting hick is one of the bigoted left/elite's staples. It helps them explain why their ideology is rejected by a majority of Americans and allows them to feel oh so superior. If you doubt this, think about how southerners are portrayed on TV and in movies.
Christians and southerners are the last 2 groups where bigotry against them is permitted.
Excellent post; true in every word. Thanks!
This is sadly too true. The dumb southern Bush-supporting hick is one of the bigoted left/elite's staples. It helps them explain why their ideology is rejected by a majority of Americans and allows them to feel oh so superior. If you doubt this, think about how southerners are portrayed on TV and in movies.
Ahem--that's white Southerners. For some reason Black Southerners don't count as Southerners, even if they're poor, uneducated, and have bad teeth. I suppose the Left benevolently refrains from ridiculing their "useful idiots." I wonder how they'd treat the still too-prevalent "yellow dog Democrats" who are as dumb as bricks and are still voting against Herbert Hoover? Ditto, I suppose.
Christians and southerners are the last 2 groups where bigotry against them is permitted.
Black chr*stians don't seem to qualify as chr*stians in liberal eyes, just as Black Southerners aren't considered Southerners and Hispanic Catholics aren't considered Catholics.
The way liberals look at the world there's "us" and "the other." Bigotry is only bad when it's directed at "the other." When directed at oneself it is considered commendable self-criticism. The thing is, white Southerners are frozen as eternal "us" in the liberal worldview. No matter how bitter and ugly anti-Southern bigotry becomes, it is never regarded as true "bigotry" because it is not directed against "the other." White Southerners can't be "the other," no matter how they are ridiculed or how culturally removed their detractors are.
Kinda like the caste system in India, ain't it?
Might as well joke about it. Can't get the hypocritical bastards to see that their attitude violates their own vaunted ideological system.
Nobody understands the South.
I suspect even the South doesn't understand the South.
To me, the South is totally incomprehensible.
With relatives in the area this has pissed me off since Sunday. The total cluelessness of the liberal elite/MSM could not be more obvious.
"Ahem--that's white Southerners. For some reason Black Southerners don't count as Southerners..."
Well said and clarification point taken.
There's truth in that also. The South today especially underestimates the affect of New England puritanism on its own culture, considering itself the pure and undefiled heirs of Old South cavalierism. In fact, the Old South (being cavalier) simply did not take religion very seriously; it was just a part of the culture. The Bible Belt South, with its snake-handlers, tongues-speakers, "born-agains," "word-of-knowledge" receivers, revivalists, etc., is simply the current manifestation of the "puritan religious ferment" of the ante-bellum period, which took place in the North. (The Great Awakening and American Calvinism began in New England, after all.)
Myself, I have a great affection for the old New England. Ironically, today's South is about all that's left of it, and the contemporary "Unitarian-Universalists" of Massachusetts don't even seem to realize it! Nor do the neo-Confederates, of course.
You got that right. I don't see any wall to wall coverage on my TV channels right now on how you can help donate etc. It's TV shows as usual. We don't have cable, but we sure had wall to wall coverage on 9/11. I'm not saying it was wrong on 9/11. But this disaster isn't getting half the air time in order to help these people.
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