Posted on 09/09/2005 11:06:37 AM PDT by hipaatwo
Think local officials are less to blame for deaths in New Orleans than federal officials? In the most jaw-dropping story of the week, UPI has the police chief of Gretna, Louisiana, admitting that he closed off one of the major arteries out of New Orleans on Monday, before the storm hit:
"We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit.
"All our people had evacuated and we locked the city down," he said. The bridge in question -- the Crescent City Connection -- is the major artery heading west out of New Orleans across the Mississippi River.
He added that the small town, which he called "a bedroom community" for the city of New Orleans, would have been overwhelmed by the influx. "There was no food, water or shelter" in Gretna City, Lawson said. "We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people. If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."
For all the things that matter, carry on.
God bless you and yours.
Don't leave. I need your pings.
MHKING: A previous post to you had a tagline suggesting my wife was the author. I had not noticed that she apparently changed the tagline last night while she was posting. This morning's post was mine.
God bless each of you and yours.
I for one am hopeful you don't leave
For example-I have said before that I thought the riots in NO, after the hurricane, were race riots- and that is what I believe there were. That is based upon my experience being a social worker in inner city LA- and living thru the LA riots. That does NOT mean that I think all people of dark colors are looters. You may disagree me- you may think I am an idiot for thinking that- but it is just my opinion- equal to yours or anyone else's here. Everyone has one. Why would you allow some person's opinion of something cause you such dismay. If people you really love here have hurt your feelings - or called you a racist name or ranted on about your friends and relatives- then they are not such good friends afterall.
I don't mean to sound heartless and I learned this the hard way out there myself in FR world- it is a big world out there, there are lots of different agendas and this is an internet message board- and you are going to get your feelings hurt on occasion.
Much of what's being said these days is beyond mere opinion.
What people fail to remember is that the worst part of the Hurricane missed NO. After the Hurricane and before the levee broke the MS Gulf coast sustained much greater Hurricane damage.
As to the levee break the Emergency Director of NO said something to the effect that 'the water is rising but the break will be fixed in several hours'. Now if that was what he told FEMA and the LA officials it is no wonder that the seriousness of the flooding was not recognized for several hours.
Bookmark for later digestion.
Just as you guys have among you people who stereotype you, us "white folk" do, too.
Scroll down the names of those who have "suprised" or "offended" you this week; now be honest: haven't they embarassed you as human beings for a long time?
:-)
Don't even THINK about leaving; if you do, you just confirm to those jerks that they're right and you're wrong; your leaving would enhance their sense of self-rightous bigotry.
And that would make ME sick. We already have enough problmes around here with their uppity, malcontent, unappeasable attitude.
:-)
Timing is critical. It will take awhile before a reliable chronology is created.
Hang in there!
Slowly but surely the racists expose themselves and get removed from the board. For the most part, they are 3rd party scum who hate everyone, the real losers in life.
Amen.
It makes me so sad that someone can aim and fire rather than have a well thought comment or debate. Sometimes, people debate and I actually get swayed to their point of view a bit because they do it with intelligence and facts. Then there are those few who are just foolish, nasty people, sitting on a soap box, waiting to take a shot and they are becoming extremely hurtful to others.
Instead of debating a point, with thought out logic, some just insult or spew emotional garbage. It makes me sad and I just leave the thread frustrated. Then it prevents me from posting. That stinks. I know it's difficult for the Mods. They work hard and do a great job with thousands of people posting.
This week, someone posts something, I comment back and then they post back with a nasty dig. Why? When someone does that, their point is then moot, in my mind. I know, I'm not dealing with a mature adult. But reading that people are going out of their way to hurt other Good Freepers like this is depressing. There are some nasty people in this world and it's unfortunate but there are the few, really nasty ones, here on FR.
Like you said, Diva, we can get our feelings hurt and then just move on. You are right, it's best to ignore them. The Good Freepers, certainly outweighs the bad ones.
Thanks for reading my long post.
I didn't want to go on a rant but this thread just made me discouraged and angry. After reading these good posters, comments and opinions, since I joined FR and even before while lurking. I know, from who they are, they must have been reading some most vile disgusting comments to be this upset. It then upsets us all that exists here. Thanks.
You have a Wonderful Day! :)
Thanks GBUSA.
You have a good day yourself.
I know how tempting it is to throw in the towel and decide these people aren't worth your efforts. But the majority who look for your posts do so because we very much want to hear that there is a counterpoint to the jerks in our midst.
You won't find yourself doing ~more~ good anywhere else.
I didn't come here to have to defend my blackness - or all the sins of black America; I didn't come to justify how and why I am libertarian or conservative; I didn't come to be brow-beaten, insulted, put upon or trounced.
mh, I for one would like to be pinged to every single thread where you are finding the need to defend yourself. It might be time to start dogpiling on individuals like this and running them out of town on a rail! This is pure BS!
Please understand in every community with the population FR has increased to, is going to have it's share of idiots. While FR is certainly not where some of these fools should congregate, there is no way to remove those that continue to hide behind a cloak. I hope you and others that have been offended by some of the stupidity that has surfaced in these threads will take that into consideration and ignore their ignorance.
Please consider that my post to mhking above is for you too.
If you leave, we will be mostly jerks.
I still have not read this thread-and I am not going to, because I am not in the mood to read anyone's opinion of race relations. I already know everything I need to know and I know it is a perfect environment for some dim wit to say something stupid.
This is a place where people deposit their opinions on a variety of topics- and words to not victims make.
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