Cynthia Tucker
Posted on 09/07/2005 8:04:44 AM PDT by madprof98
Here in America, the land of opportunity, we gave up on the poor more than two decades ago. Under the careful tutelage of Ronald Reagan and other conservatives, we learned that the poor were simply too lazy to improve their prospects and their misery was their own fault.
We gave up on the white poor and the black poor, even though black Americans had suffered under three centuries of unconscionable oppression before a brief period — less than three decades — when they began to be treated as fully human. We gave up on the Native American poor, though they had been the victims of a historic savagery amounting to a holocaust.
We not only gave up trying to help the poor, but we also bought the argument that trying to assist them, especially through government programs, would just make matters worse. After all, years of relentless right-wing radio have taught us that the poor are illiterate, sick and jobless because of government welfare policies — or because they choose to be. So we turned our backs on the impoverished and tuned them out, leaving them stranded in the worst neighborhoods, worst schools and the worst geography — next to landfills, on top of toxic dumps, in the swamps.
So the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — with its pathetic images of desperately poor people, mostly black people, stuck in New Orleans without food, water or adequate shelter after all the affluent people had fled — should come as no surprise. This is a natural consequence of a political and social culture that has decreed: You're poor? Why would anyone want to be poor? Tough luck. You're on your own.
In fact, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune used just those words to describe the hurricane evacuation plan authorities put in place for residents who didn't own cars. Reporter Bruce Nolan wrote in July, "City, state and federal authorities are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans' poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own. In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation."
At least Nagin and his fellow city officials were trying to figure out how to get the poor out of town if disaster struck. Working with an anti-poverty agency and the Red Cross, they envisioned a private initiative, Operation Brother's Keeper, in which churches would enlist members with cars to offer rides to the have-nots.
By contrast, the ill-informed, incompetent Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is still puzzled by all those poor people who refused to order their chauffeurs to crank up the Bentleys. Last week, he told CNN:
"I think the death toll may go into the thousands. And unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the evacuation warnings. And I don't make judgments about why people choose not to evacuate. But you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. And to find people still there is just heart-wrenching to me because the mayor did everything he could to get them out of there."
If you're somebody like Brown, it's awfully easy to forget that there are people too poor to have a car, a credit card or a checking account, people stranded outside the magic circle, people without friends in high places. With Brown's GOP connections, he landed a job at FEMA after he was forced out as so-called czar of the International Arabian Horse Association.
In fact, it's easy for all of us who live in relative prosperity to forget that most of us are here because we had the good sense to be born to the right parents. While a few impoverished young adults can still scratch and claw their way into the mainstream, it is getting harder and harder to do so as the industrial jobs that created the great middle class are disappearing. (Why do you think so many working-class sons and daughters volunteer for the U.S. armed forces?) Income inequality is increasing in this country; the latest census shows that the number of people living in poverty is rising.
Still, a few predictable voices on the far-right fringe are already thinking up ways to blame Hurricane Katrina's victims for their plight. Some are playing up the lawlessness of a few thugs, others are casting responsibility for the crisis solely on local authorities. Haven't we listened to those callous self-promoters long enough?
Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed levees and exploded the conventional wisdom about a shared American prosperity, exposing a group of people so poor they didn't have $50 for a bus ticket out of town. If we want to learn something from this disaster, the lesson ought to be: America's poor deserve better than this.
— Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays.
He was one horny bastard...
Prior to the 100's of billions and herculean effort pouring in after the hurricane, the nation was already redistributing an enormous portion of its wealth to "entitlement" programs. It is likely that most of these poor were being supported 100% by the federal government. They certainly are being supported 100% now.
lmfao.
We not only gave up trying to help the poor, but we also bought the argument that trying to assist them, especially through government programs, would just make matters worse....
Ms. Tucker, you arrogant socialist beeyatch, the poor are not yours to give up on.
PS The last census, I would suspect, would show that the number of people with blue eyes is rising, as well as the number of people with brown eyes, green eyes, etc.
THAT'S BECAUSE THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY!!!
Tell us what the poverty RATE is, to get anywhere into the ballpark of possible relevance.
The fact that the author did NOT do that tells me all I need to know.
Damn, you need to read this stuff so closely to catch all the bull!
Bingo!
They mean nothing to her other than a stick to beat Bush with.
All the way home I held her cr(unintelligible>), But the safety belt, it wouldn't budge
Maybe they're volunteering for the armed forces to serve their country and defend their families?
If Ms. Tucker hates the United States so very, very much, perhaps she should think about moving to Canada or Mexico? After all, she is free to stay and free to leave.
She must have escaped from the re-education camp. (It's probably Bush's fault.)
Who is being ignored here is the people that took the warning seriously, who did leave before the storm hit, rich, poor, and the middle class - in fact most of the population of New Orleans. They are just as homeless as the people who stayed behind, but yet it is these people who refused to leave, of who's ranks the looters, rapers, arsonist, and killers came from, that are getting all the media attention.
The long-awaited Cynthia Tucker crapfest is here, I see.
Priorities Baby! Did you notice how many of those rooftop strandees waving flags were smoking $5/pack cigarettes while leaning on $80 or more per month satellite TV dishes?
If a liberal was up for an election outside of New Orleans, you can bet the Liberal Governmnent/ moveon/ Soros machine would have utilized the school buses to get the poor in New Orleans to the polls.
Uh... Wasn't it Bill Clinton's FEMA Director(name escapes me now) who recommended his former roomate for the job?
http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0905/0905evac.htm
Closer scrutiny reveals the lies surrounding Katrina evacuation and recovery
By Linda Prussen-Razzano
web posted September 5, 2005
Having lived on Long Island for most of my life, I weathered only the most minor effects of hurricanes. Typically, their devastating strength drained along the coastline as they churned northwards. When I was a child, my father comforted me through Hurricane Belle; not by holding me and telling me everything would be alright, but by his activity in securing our house, his purchase of supplies and preparations, and his explanations of hurricanes and their threats.
While the storm whipped overhead, my piqued curiosity prompted me to ask about all different kinds of natural disasters. We passed the time discussing typhoons, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods. I never thought I would use this information, but I did; twice.
At 19, my passenger and I found ourselves caught in the only flash flood in the history of Long Island. What started as a heavy rain became an overwhelming downpour within minutes. Not unlike the City of New Orleans, the patch of road on which I traveled was nestled in a natural funnel. In the space of minutes, we experienced more rain in that small bit of road alongside Eisenhower Park than all of Long Island had received in a year. With traffic surrounding me, I had not choice but to inch forward to the overpass that would take me to higher ground. Just moments before my car cleared the water now pouring in under my doors, the engine stalled, and my Monte Carlo sank back down the embankment, eventually to be completely submerged.
We had to wait until the water rose inside the car and the pressure stabilized before we could get out.
The gas pumps at the corner station began bubbling up, turning the water so black you couldn’t see your hand just two inches under the surface. An elderly man, trapped in his car, didn’t want to leave. Plodding through chest deep water, my passenger and I managed to get his door open and help him slog back to safety.
Everyone caught in that mess experienced a loss, but it is nothing compared to Katrina.
The second time I used my father’s sage advice came when I moved to Texas. In the bottom tip of the tornado belt, I knew what to do when the sky turned an ominous shade of green, the clouds started rotating above my head, and where to seek shelter to maximize my potential for living. It was in those few moments, when the doors and windows rattled and I imagined that my new house would be reduced to kindling around me, that all my priorities changed…forever.
The folks in Louisiana and Mississippi experienced wide scale devastation during Katrina. New Orleans, and other parts of the coast, experienced a second, even more devastating blow from the horrible flooding. One is bad enough, but both? It’s a catastrophe beyond comprehension, and our fellow Americans need our compassion, our generosity, and our understanding as they rebuild their entire lives.
We should be coming together, as we did after other catastrophic events in the last decade, to help and heal.
Sadly, that is not the case.
What I find astonishing is the almost immediate response from Bush Bashers to blame everything that happened, from the actual hurricane itself, to the anarchy that quickly erupted, on the President and his administration. When they do so, they not only distort the truth, they outright lie to the public, and they are doing so daily through any media venue that will give them the opportunity.
Lie #1: President Bush doesn’t care about the people of New Orleans.
This outrageous lie is thoroughly debunked by the fact that it was President Bush who pushed for a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.(1) Governor Blanco issued only a voluntary evacuation order, but admitted that she received a call from the President on August 27, 2005, urging her to make it a mandatory one. He wanted as many people as possible out of the path of the storm.
So much for the President not caring.
Despite the fact that New Orlean’s own Emergency Response Guidelines call for a mandatory evacuation of the City if a strike by a Category 3 Hurricane is projected, with 72 hours advance notice to all residents, Mayor Nagin didn’t order a mandatory evaluation until Sunday. Further, he only did so after Max Maxfield, the National Hurricane Director, called Nagin at his home to plead that he empty the City. (2)
Why did Nagin wait so long? He was worried about the legalities. If people want to affix blame, perhaps they can look at lawyers.
How ironic, that The Drudge Report (3) and Free Republic (4) have pictures of dozens of New Orleans’ submerged and now useless school buses, buses that could have been used to transport residents out of the City prior to the storm, bring in supplies after the storm, and help evacuees escape the flooding. Meanwhile, Governor Blanco issued a request to the State of Louisiana to provide her with buses from local school districts.
According to a Washington Post report on Sunday, September 4, “Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.”
Bush’s offer to have the federal government aid in the evacuation was rejected. (5)
Lie #2: The Bush Administration was slow in coordinating help.
Mike Brown, Under Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security for Emergency Response and Preparedness, received the order from President Bush on August 27, two full days before the storm hit the region, to prepare for Katrina disaster relief. (6) The President also declared the entire region under a State of Emergency, so that FEMA could coordinate efforts at the request of the Governors. (7) Under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, the Federal Government and FEMA are not allowed to interfere with local operations unless they are authorized by state and local leaders.
Blanco did not authorize this until September 1, 2005.
Further, according to an Association Press report on August 30, “The federal government began rushing baby formula, communications equipment, generators, water and ice into hard-hit areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, along with doctors, nurses and first-aid supplies. The U.S. Defense Department sent experts to help with search-and-rescue operations.” (8) FEMA was there and helping, in the capacity that was allowed by local officials, but could not swing into full gear until after Blanco gave them permission.
Lie #3: The Bush Administration did nothing to control the anarchy.
The local and state governments have control over law enforcement activities in their state, and such activities could only be coordinated through the federal government with their permission. It was not until terrible reports of rapes and violence, videos of looting, and reports of shoots being fired at rescue workers did Governor Blanco relinquish any claim of control on an out-of-control city.
An August 31, 2005 Fox News Report reveals, “The looting prompted authorities to send more than 70 additional officers and an armed personnel carrier into the city. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter but was expected to recover, authorities said. Blanco said she will ask President Bush for military troops to help keep looting under control.” (9) Almost immediately thereafter, FEMA, the military, and the Bush Administration began to restore order.
Further, on September 2, 2005, the Bush administration “sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law.” (10)
Lie #4: The Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the flooding.
Predictions of wide spread devastation have been known since Hurricane Camille in 1969. Despite these, it was local officials who reportedly appropriated funds designated for levee improvements towards such necessary purchases as a casino, hotel, and other projects.
Amazing, isn’t it?
From the carnage inside the Superdome, to the massacre of the truth on television, this is a sad time for all of America.
Just don’t forget who helped all this to happen….because despite what the media wants you to believe, it wasn’t President Bush.
Linda Prussen-Razzano is frequent contributor to Enter Stage Right and a number of other online magazines.
Footnotes:
1. Associated Press, “Mandatory Evacuation Ordered for New Orleans,” August 28, 2005, 10:48 a.m. CT.
2. Knight Ridder Newspapers, “National Hurricane Director had to call Nagin at home Saturday night to plead: "Get people out..." by Marc Caputo, David Ovalle, and Erika Bolstad, August 28, 2005
3. www.drudgereport.com
4. www.freerepublic.com
5. Washington Post, “Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting, White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials,” Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu, Washington Post Staff Writers, Sunday, September 4, 2005; Page A01
6. FEMA Press Release, “Emergency Aid Authorized For Katrina Emergency Response In LA” August 27, 2005
7. Associated Press, “Bush Declares Emergency in Louisiana,” August 27, 2005
8. Associated Press, “Federal Government sent emergency supplies to Louisiana as early as Tuesday,” August 30, 2005
9. Fox News.com, “It’s Not Safe In New Orleans,” August 31, 2005
10. Washington Post, Ibid
I feel for these people in a sense that they have been trough something completely traumatic. However, they are poor for a reason. It is a life they worn born into and one in which they actually embrace.I used to do tax returns in Eastern NC. It is amazing how many of this clas of people are willing to take poor paying jobs, or lesser paying jobs in order to get a large Earned Income Credit. There were people who would look at me when I told them they were getting X amount of doallrs and would complain that they make too much money and their refund was too small. It blows my mind.
There are two types of poor people. The working poor, and the ones latched on to the govenrment tit.
It's time to wean these people once and for all.
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