Mississippians Worry They're Forgotten

AP ^ | 9/3/05

[Uncle Joe Cannon]

Mississippians Worry They're Forgotten

POSTED: 7:42 pm EDT September 3, 2005

JACKSON, Miss. -- In Mississippi, there is misery and despair among victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Survivors are wondering how long it will take to get food, clean water and shelter. And they're more than angry at the federal government and the national news media.

Anger at the government stems from the belief that aid has been too slow in arriving.

There's also a feeling that Mississippi has been getting short shrift from the news media, which seem to be focusing most of their attention on New Orleans.

Mississippi's death toll from Katrina stands at 144. Along the battered Mississippi Gulf Coast, crews have begun searching boats for corpses.

President George W. Bush toured ravaged areas of the Mississippi coast on Friday with Gov. Haley Barbour and other state officials. They also flew over flooded New Orleans.

[Clock King]

Beat me to the response...

[joem15]

I don't think that they are forgotten in Wisconsin. We are collecting every useful thing that we can muster and shipping it to Missippi because of Brett Favre and his family.

[pitbully]

Maybe by the MSM, not the rest of the Country.They have a competent Gov.Not Like Louisiana's Gov.She is like Miss Scarlet from gone with the wind.

[billnaz]

Mississippians have a long tradition of self-reliance. And despite propaganda to the contrary, the different races get along with each other. Mississippians will band together and come out of this as a great example to the rest of the country.

That said, I also hope that the government doesn't spend all the resources on the mess in Louisiana, some of which can be traced to incompetence at the state and local levels.

[SoftballMominVA]

I have a friend stationed in Pearl. He is working flightline about 18 out of every 24 hours. He says the planes are constantly going, sending out aid. It's going out as fast as it can.....but it will never be fast enough will it?

[SauronOfMordor]

Looks more devastated than anything I've seen in La.

I do not believe the "official" body count for MS. At all

First person account from MS -- bodies in trees and on beach

[bad company]

MS is 40% black.

Well Haley Barbor needs to get on the ball. Get a half dozen Black people to stand on a street corner calling Bush a racist and the media will swarm them by tomorrow morning. Of course those TV cameras will come equipped with jackson and sharpton stationed in front of them, so no plan is perfect.

[RayChuang88]

Mississippians will rise from this mess. They will care for each other and anybody else that they can.

I almost want to bet that by January 2009 the cities of Gulfport and Biloxi will be back on their feet with rebuilt everything and even the construction of a seawall system to reduce the effects of storm surges, while New Orleans will still be an unliveable mess....

[dfwgator]

The problem with your plan is that Barbour is a conservative Republican. The MSM will never let a conservative Republican look good. "But DFW, what about Giuliani you ask."

Giuliani is a liberal Republican, big difference.

[evad]

nod...
much higher

[Blood of Tyrants]

As usual, the politicians send the aid to where the cameras are.

[Comus]

I just returned from Pass Christian, MS. My son lives there. I am going back in the morning to help some of the people we met going in to his house. There is no looting. Signs everywhere say "Looters will be shot".

[kempo]

Bush will not be hurt by this. The majority of the people of this country knows that the corrupt LA. and N.O. officals were the reason for the screw ups.

What do you do if your the mayor of New Orleans (20 ft. below sea level) and you are told 24 to 48 hours a head of time that a hurricane will be in your vicinity? Do you wait until the night of and say OK everybody leave?

[stboz]

I almost want to bet that by January 2009 the cities of Gulfport and Biloxi will be back on their feet with rebuilt everything

I don't doubt it for a minute. I'm in Fresno now, but my heart is in Mississippi.

[GatorGirl]

Here's a link to an enormous high res photo of the Pascagoula, MS shoreline after the storm. Denizens of dial-up beware!

www.noaa.gov

I'm not sure why these people are complaining. There is alot of help on the ground in Mississippi. And frankly, I'd be glad that there were no media whores hounding me for a sound bite while I tried to weave together the shredded remains of my home and life as I knew it!

[WKB]

Mississippians will rise from this mess. They will care for each other and anybody else that they can.



When I think of the first words to the song "Dixieland"

I wish I was in the land of cotton,
"old times" there are not forgotten,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.


I don't think about the "old times" of the slavery days of the 1850s
or even the "old times" of the separation days of the 1950s

But I think about the old times of ,truth honesty
and The American way, the old times of "Love thy neighbor as thy self" that are still so prevalent and relevant in Mississippi.

Of course we have our fair share of thugs and deadheads but all in all I have been very proud of our State, from Haley Barbour on down.

[stboz]

Damn! We're good!!!

[joem15]

Guys like Geraldo Rivera and Shep Smith love and embrace these stories. It is their "raison d'être" which is French for their "reason for being." They love these situations. Don't make any mistake about it, they are in reporters Heaven. And they revel in it.

[bourbon]

beautiful post.

I'm proud too.

[Comus]

My thoughts exactly. We were "Raised Right". We take care of our neighbors, black and white.