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."
Forgive my ignorance, but could you translate that post for me?
I guess.
People--any people--need to be responsible for their own affairs at some point and some of them are a waste of time.
I don't see any good reason to limit that statement to "ghetto folks." It's true in gated communities too...it's true of all mankind; it's part of the human experience.
Otherwise you find yourself repeating the same argument over and over and it never seems to end.
Everyone needs a little R&R. I don't know if Mike had that
But the phrase "ghetto folks..."
Is it yours?
Well, that depends on who is paying the bribe and for what purpose....
I remember commuting over that bridge and the residents of the housing project next to the bridge thought target practice on moving cars was great sport.....
Ain't no love lost in that neighborhood.
Is that yours?
There are folks who live in the ghetto and then there are 'ghetto folks'. If a person doesn't clarify which one they're talking about then yes, it makes a person sound like a bigot. The more I think about these issues, the more I feel like conservatives SHOULD have a serious discussion about all these issues. NO LIBERALS ALLOWED.
I have some thoughts about all of this.
One of the directives to posting on FR is that there is to be NO racism.......and I take that very seriously.
Yet, here on FR, I see bigotry all over the place........against blacks, against Hispanics, against Asians.........and I don't see it being controlled (at least at the level that it should be).
For years, conservatives have been labeled as racists by the leftist media and politicians, but I don't think it is true for the vast majority of us. But the stereotype is that we are.........and it is obviously true of SOME of us who post on this forum (and trolls who mimic the stereotype).
If threads are allowed to continue that label large groups of people with an image that is not true, and with comments that are thinly veiled or overtly prejudiced, then this forum is playing into the hands of the left, and losing its legitimacy.
For me, it's not a matter of who is an 'adult' or strong enough to keep fighting..........it's a matter of right and wrong. And what has gone on here is just wrong.
FR has a strong reputation that is at peril of being lost if two of our strongest, wisest black conservatives are forced out because of bigotry that has been left unchallenged.
I really hope this trend to accepting racism is reversed, and the mods get a grip on some of these threads.
JMHO....
R&R sounds good to me! :-)
Rodney and Michael are the real deal, and a genuine and significant loss to the synergy that makes this place great.
As to the rest of your post, Amen.
Get back to work, Robinson!
Because I like you.
Absolutely agree. And the reason they left has GOT to be addressed, IMO.
I've tried, and failed, to understand what exactly happened on this thread. I feel a little like I am reading a book with every fourth word in every sentence removed. It ~almost~ makes sense but something's missing. That's only posted as a disclaimer that I didn't (couldn't) follow ~this thread~ in particular.
But I've seen racism on this forum. I know it's here. It surfaces sometimes and I'm pretty good at spotting it. rdb3... I fought it right along with you a few weeks back, (before Katrina ate new Orleans) about the two soldiers in Seattle that got beat up outside a bar. I got pretty dang mad on those threads, and you know what? We probably didn't change the minds of the jerks we argued with. But we did leave witness to others that those views shouldn't stand unquestioned, uncondemned, unchallenged in a conservative forum. It's not what we are.
For their part, the mgmt here in the past week have pulled every post I reported for racism. I do believe they try to enforce 'no racism' rules. But there was a lot of sludge that was flung around the forum in the Katrina wake, so much that it was hard to find a spot I wanted to wade into. I HATED to see that happening. I fought it a lot, was sickened by it alot, and it just seemed to be everywhere all of the sudden. The last thing I want to see is racism unchallenged on this forum. So don't leave us alone here.
I'd urge you to stay.
"A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day... " LOTR, ROTK.
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