Troops helping a survivor
Posted on 09/04/2005 8:36:47 AM PDT by Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
Images from the stricken city of New Orleans show that many of those suffering in its streets and shelters are mainly black and poor.
The plight of those stranded amid the filth and the dead has highlighted a side of the city most tourists did not see - one in which two-thirds of its residents are black and more than a quarter live in poverty.
Anger is mounting among African-American leaders that this section was left behind when others fled.
Some say the chaos in Katrina's aftermath has exposed deep divisions in both the city and US society.
"We cannot allow it to be said by history that the difference between those who lived and... died... was nothing more than poverty, age or skin colour," Congressman Elijah Cummings said.
'Paycheck to paycheck'
Correspondents say New Orleans' glamorous reputation has always concealed a high level of deprivation.
NEW ORLEANS
485,000 residents 10 times national murder rate 21% of households without access to a car
The city famous for its jazz clubs and horse-drawn carriage rides was also a place in which about one in three children lived in poverty, in one of the poorest states in the country.
Observers say this group was particularly vulnerable in the face of a hurricane.
Many of those trapped by Katrina's floodwaters lived in dilapidated neighbourhoods that were long known to be exposed to disaster if the levees failed.
And a large number would have had no means to flee the region as the storm loomed - a recent US census found that one-fifth of the city's residents had no access to a car.
"We don't have transportation," one resident told WHBF-TV. "We're living paycheck to paycheck, it's not like we're just able to get up and leave."
A former leader of the black caucus in the House of Representatives agrees.
"It is one thing to receive a warning to get out - it's something else to have the ability to get out," US Congressman James Clyburn said.
Uneasy questions
Black members of Congress have also criticised the pace of relief efforts.
Some say the response was slow because those most affected are poor.
I'm ashamed of America. I'm ashamed of our government
Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick
"I'm ashamed of America. I'm ashamed of our government," Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick said.
"George Bush doesn't care about black people," rapper Kanye West told viewers of an NBC benefit concert for hurricane victims.
Other commentators object to the media's handling of the crisis.
"Television is creating a sympathetic image of white people fleeing, and black people caught up in a shoplifting orgy," Lawrence Aaron wrote in New Jersey's Record.
But some hope that the aftermath of the hurricane will force people to confront the issue of inequality.
"Most cities have a hidden, or not always talked about, poor population, black and white, and most of the time we look past them," Spencer Crew , the chief of a Cincinnati civil rights centre, told the New York Times.
"This is a moment in time when we can't look past them. Their plight is coming to the forefront now," he said.
I don't know. The liberals scream pretty loud my friend.
The question about why black poor were left behind might be more properly asked of that incompetent-boob-who-happens-to-be-black mayor: how is it that a black mayor ignored the poor black people who had elected him to office?
This is not a "white America problem". Americans of all races are contributing time, bucks, and even homes to the unfortunates: it is primarily the failure of an incompetent boob mayor and his liberal Democrat cronies to plan adequately for evacuation of the city! What is going on here is racial racketeering, which is the heinous attempt by politicians to bury incompetence under charges of institutional racism, which in this case is bogus and disgusting!
Follow the link to learn more about how this ignoramus of a mayor abandoned the poor blacks of New Orleans. There are even photos of buses that could have been ordered out by the incompetent mayor to move at least some poor constituents out of harm's way : ive-had-it-with-people-blaming-this-on-bush. The racial racketeers are indeed out in full self-righteous regalia. Put the facts into their faces!
Alot of American citizens live paycheck to paycheck. I would still have the common sense to get my butt out of there in any way I could. If there is a will, there is a way. The only people I feel sorry for is the very elderly and the hospitalized ones who had no recourse. As far as the looters and rapists you call citizens, I agree with a previous poster. If they were shooting at the help, then leave thier ignorant a**es there. It's no ones fault but thier own. They were free to leave. They have brains, I assume and can think for themselves. Have we got to start doing that for them too?
Another thing is that I've noticed whenever a black conservative is on television, they most always get shouted down by either the host or the opposing guest the host has. Am I not correct Mike? Did Charles Barron let you get a word in edgewise last time? No.
Long time reader, first time post.
I have no doubt that these same lawless people would be rioting, burning, shooting, and looting just as you see them do after a NFL or NBA championship game. Sadly, these are the ones that will get the press and the liberals will twist it to their benefit as always.
A FEMA crisis? Ignored?
Drop it, the racist angle is slander, and the inner city underclass has been perpetuated by their socialist leaders in those cities for 40 years.
They remain in that state of living for votes. It is very simple.
"what, precisely, is to be done with the large, predominately Black inner-city underclass during a FEMA crisis?"
Well, the question answers itself when posed in the context of what actually happened in New Orleans.
* Forcefully evacuate them
* Plenty of Armed guards
* Seperate the Men from the Women
* Likely advisable to seperate by races
* Impose Martial law (really impose it) at the same time as a declaration of emergency
* (before a disaster) Federalize Local governments that do not meet a standard of accountability and competence.
If these whiners really want Uncle Sugar to take care of them, then this is just partly what they have to look forward to.
The fact is that in any disaster, the poor and vulnerable will always be the hardest hit. That is just the way it is, has always been, and always will be, despite the best intentions of any government. It is one of those immutable laws.
Not to say that gobernment should not do what it can to mitigate it, but in a disaster the job is just too big for government alone. It also takes action by individuals not relying on the government to avoid the catastrophe.
yes, they do.
Conservatives come out looking like the intelligent ones (which of course we are), because we don't scream and flail and call people names. We have facts.
I do understand that the media is on the side of the libs, which makes it more difficult for us.
But the more facts we have, and the more often we repeat them, some of it has got to sink in.
What other options do we have??????
Thank God for Project 21, and all the organizations like it. Thanks, Michael.
This time around the black political leadership in New Orleans ignoring them and and the elite Democratic leadership in Baton Rouge giving them last priority did not work. Where, then, must our plans be changed? will leadership come from that treats these people as full-fledged American citizens with both rights and responsibilities come from.
There, just a little bit of specificity really helps.
I have looked at the map of Louisiana, and there are hundreds of other small communities with schools that could have been used as shelters, but I'll bet there is no love lost between the rural and urban states. It is very telling that they had to ship all those people out of state. Louisianna is a red state now, don't you think?
;^|
'Paycheck to paycheck'
This may be true for many but I still haven't heard the stats on how many people in NO rely on some form of government assistance.
when my husband and I first started out we were poor(paycheck to paycheck) with absolutly no help from friends, family or government we slowly over a ten year span brought ourselves into middle class, with only our brains and hard physical labor.WHY??? because when you take away all the bling bling it boils down to one truth....so that we can take care of ourselves and our children in emergency situations..ie..we won't starve if the economy goes to shit etc... we know(without the government telling us) that if any worst case senerio came along, we would be responsible for our own well being and future. These poor in New Orleans allowed themselves to be in such a vulnerable position by not using their brains and not learning self sufficiency. There is no excuse for not having a better plan in place or a better levy. But the people and responsible for their own financial circumstances..not the president. This is true in every state in our country. If NO was full of poverty stricken, then that was the mayor and governors problem to fix, years ago!!
This plan cannot be repeated enough. People need to understand that what we are seeing came about because it was planned! The plan called for optional use of government-owned buses to evacuate the poor, and for whatever reason the mayor or governor opted not to activate that option. These people were left to weather the storm and it's aftermath by plan and choice of their local and state elected leaders.
I'm still trying to figure out why Nagin didn't use municipal assets to transport the city's indigent out to Baton Rouge as a staging area for further diaspora.
that would have been dead easy.
a LOT.
It may be that the governor state she "blew it" by not accepting Bush's call to her for assistance is noted Nagin had told her it was all under control an hour before.
Well Nagin is the idiot and the one that really blew it, while his personal vehicles and items he cared for went to high ground Saturday, his "memo" on immediate evacuation from the mayors office (public document of DANGER) then he does no t send any bus or any request for any transportation to assist the lower lying communities, white or black. Now it's a shame he has resorted to racism as a reason for his public outcry and urges support of the country's top level racist's to scream it out loud thru the media, RACISM, the reason for his lack of preparing for the storm, HHUUHHHH!!!
jisthinkin'
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