Posted on 12/09/2005 6:13:30 AM PST by LdSentinal
The victim mentality of New Orleans was on full display, aided and abetted by race hustlers, at Congressional hearings about response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, giving the rest of the country yet another reason not to care about what happens to Louisiana.
This mentality, that somehow some insidious force beyond the individual’s control causes misery in his life and keeps him in a disadvantaged position in society, is a major reason why Louisiana in general, and New Orleans in particular, are among the poorest areas in the country. Ordinarily, the fruit of this attitude, that a person’s inability to make much of himself in life is not his fault but some “others,” could be seen encapsulated in the Orleans Parish School District, where learning was sacrificed on the altar of inefficiency and politics, few demands were made in learning, and many students and their families did little to change this situation or take control of their educational futures. As a result, it was perhaps the worst school district in America.
But with recent state activity to put education in the hands of those who actually mean it with the near-dismemberment of the district, now the best example of this attitude comes in hearings in front of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina of the U.S. House of Representatives. While the Committee has tackled serious matters previously, allowing self-styled “representatives” of New Orleans evacuees to testify was a sop thrown to the few Democrats on the committee.
Most House Democrats wanted to boycott the enterprise, saying they wanted a federal government-wide investigation, not just that of the House. This is because they knew that, since the Republicans control the House, that in the course of the investigation there would be no shielding to public view of New Orleans as a poster child for the failed liberal policies of the Democrats, where generally policy decisions made by Louisiana but specifically by New Orleans would illustrate the destruction liberal Democrats have visited upon, in particular, our most disadvantaged citizens.
Victimization is a big part of this ideology. We saw it with how the Gov. Kathleen Blanco administration handled the matter of getting troops and buses into New Orleans, depending on others to do it for them, flailing about waiting for help to show up. We saw it in the response in New Orleans, where Mayor Ray Nagin failed to implement plans, instead stalking around complaining he wasn’t getting help. In larger terms, politicians such as these are the product of an electorate that itself is less willing than others to do the things it needs – demand better education, access that better education, stop expecting government to take care of them – than those in other parts of the country. Liberalism excuses these attitudes, saying they’re not people’s fault, and it’s a snake oil that Democrats still try to peddle frequently.
Thus, we get the pathological need to ascribe unfortunate situations to some sinister motive beyond the person’s control, despite no evidence to back it up. In this instance, it’s the idea that “racism” had something to do with rescue operations. Note that for this charge to be credible it would have to be demonstrated that most rescuers (many who were black) were irredeemably racist in attitude and action and/or it was government policy to promote this behavior among them. Since no such evidence exists, only the most exaggerated, wildest accusations can be brought forward to support this claim.
Democrat leaders shied away from participation in this committee’s investigations because they wanted to avoid this welfare-state mentality on parade, of a party that conjures up imaginary impediments of institutionalized racism instead of seriously debating issues, even as they believe it. These beliefs are losers at the ballot box because the American people are smart enough to see that this is not reality.
But one of the party’s genuine kooks didn’t get, or ignored, the message. The main instigator behind this portion of the hearings, the nutty, racist Rep. Cynthia McKinney, eloquently stated from their start, “And the world saw the effects of American-style racism in the drama as it was outplayed [sic] by the Katrina survivors.”
She was followed by, in the main, people who make their living off of crying racism and “community activists” who could offer no hard proof any crazy assertions they made when challenged other than “says you.” Perhaps the most famous comment was the incredulous comparing of the evacuee situation to the Holocaust, but maybe more indicative of the mindset and credibility of the professional complainers is another (again, eloquent) remark made by one them: “It was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was [sic] black.”
So, let me get this straight, in a city that mostly is black already, run mostly by black politicians who planned and supervised the (non)evacuation, where a large portion of the flooding occurred in an area of the city where almost all of the residents were black, where because of income differentials blacks disproportionately had reduced private means of evacuation, then the fact that mostly blacks needed rescuing is a sign of racism? Maybe it’s because I didn’t graduate from the typical Orleans Parish public school, but I can’t follow that logic at all.
And neither will the rest of the nation as it debates what kind of assistance the state will receive, and it won’t be too willing to send much to an environment where such moronic attitudes flourish. It doesn’t matter the expressed views aren’t held by all, unlikely even a majority, of Louisianans, but it is things like this or trying to cover incompetency in execution or refusal to reform themselves or relief-money looting which make indelible impressions in the minds of the country. Is there any place in America whose people, from its top officials on down, do a better job of shooting themselves in their own feet?
Indeed, many thinking people will think the best thing we can do to HELP these people long-term is make them sink or swim right now; preclude the rebuilding of the plantations; dilute the influence of these moronic attitudes on a previously captive audience; and help those willing to open their eyes to how the rest of the nation "stops being poor" to stop being poor.
The story is months old. The time for pity is past. If you're not willing to get up off your butts and make something happen, then shut up and go away. I'm not going to do it for you.
Excellent article
"Is there any place in America whose people, from its top officials on down, do a better job of shooting themselves in their own feet?"
No, there's not. I hate to say it but watching this train wreck on a daily basis leads me to believe that Orleans Parish needs to be federalized. That would solve 99% of the problems. Just take the damn thing over for the next 10 years, boot out the race pimps and numbskulls who couldn't run a lemonade stand much less a city of half a million people and run it like any other city that operates in a "normal" fashion.
Otherwise, don't send those IDIOTS one more dime.
Very good article and to the point.
Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and Baltimore also spring to mind, as does San Francisco... oh wait, they voted to ban guns, never mind...
How do you square this with the images of countless ... countless ... unused, flooded automobiles in the Lower 9th Ward?The fact that people chose not to evacuate ... after a mandatory evacuation order ... is not a matter of reduced private means of evacacuation ... but of free will.
A thousand brand new automobiles per square mile would have done no good at all ... if people had chosen not to use them.
Willful disobedience of a mandatory evacuation order ... and a refusal to accept personal responsibility for one's own safety ... are the culprits here ... not reduced private means of transportation!
[Certainly there are some few exceptions for elderly and/or disabled folks ... but the majority of those died in situ ... so we are talking about mostly able bodied folks who were rescued.]
Unfortunately, the White House and the Republicans in Washington have been so afraid of being accused of "blaming the victim" that they have allowed the liberal news media to totally ignore the abysmal failures of Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco. Instead, the Big Lie of Republican racism has been what the American Sheeple have been spoon-fed.
Sadly, "federalizing it" would only mean that federal government race pimps and numbskulls would be appointed, rather than the home-grown ones they have today. I mean, what competent person would want to take on a job like that?
First it was sad..now its stupid....they had plenty of warning..and they stayed...and I don't fall for the "poor" excuse...and now the true story is that the levees failed....somehting that the residents were in control of..corruption and stupidity...even the Police...My wallet is closed to these idiots...they voted for them...they should live by them
Appoint General "Don't get stuck on stupid" Honore as Parish Benevolent Dictator.
That's about the only way things will change.
Goodwill for NO evaporated with these claims of racism. And, that loss of goodwill will generate more claims of racism.
I didn't see any racism by the military helo crews that flew 24/7 pulling 40,000 of these people off roof tops.
The biggest airborne rescue operation in history, yet they didn't even receive a "Thank you". It didn't go along with the DNC/media script.
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Looks like it might be time to repost this from one of the brightest of the Founding Fathers.
"The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIX, 1782. ME 2:230
I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. Papers 12:442
"I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173
"Our cities... exhibit specimens of London only; our country is a different nation." --Thomas Jefferson to Andre de Daschkoff, 1809. ME 12:304
"Everyone, by his property or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs and a degree of freedom which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:401
"An insurrection... of science, talents, and courage, against rank and birth... has failed in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could not be restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from the panic of this first catastrophe." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:402
"I fear nothing for our liberty from the assaults of force; but I have seen and felt much, and fear more from English books, English prejudices, English manners, and the apes, the dupes, and designs among our professional crafts. When I look around me for security against these seductions, I find it in the wide spread of our agricultural citizens, in their unsophisticated minds, their independence and their power, if called on, to crush the Humists of our cities, and to maintain the principles which severed us from England." --Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:120
Grandpa worked as a painter, laborer, etc. to earn pennies to put food on a table for seven kids. There was no such thing as welfare or government assistance, and my grandparents would not have done that anyway.
The seven children they raised were taxpayers who had a higher standard of living, as the kids attended school and worked hard.
These seven kids had 27 kids (my generation) who generally attended college and have an even higher standard of living. We are productive taxpayers enjoying the best America has to offer, and our only misery comes when we talk about the taxes we pay to take care of worthless slugs like those in New Orleans. We have no compassion for lazy ass parasites who do not want to make any effort to do what my grandparents did. Two generations later, New Orleans people could all be well off if they would just get off their lazy damn butts and teach kids that happiness and financial security requires some effort on their part.
Didn't receive a thank you? Didn't receive a thank you by who? The 40,000 you speak of or the idiots on the panel. I would assume most if not all of the rescued thanked the crews. I wouldn't expect the idiots on the panel to thank them. That wasn't their agenda.
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