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45 Years on the Federal Plantation - the Long Term Effects of Direct Deposit
Sep 3, 2005
As I watched the remorseful scenes unfold in and around the Superdome, my mind wandered to the civilian victims of WWII. Countless millions were displaced by the horrors of colliding armies.
Probably because I was born shortly after WWII started, I've always had a keen interest in the war from an historical aspect. I've watched quite a number of videos and movies concerning almost every major campaign.
Invariably, the film maker includes scenes of displaced civilians and the suffering they endured. One favorite scene included in probably half of the movies I've seen, shows a long line of civilians trudging single file down a narrow road in the country. Up above, Nazi pilots see them and swoop down to strafe the fleeing civilians, spraying the column with machine gun bullets.
Once the attackers had satisfied their thirst for blood, the civilians climbed out of the protective ditches on either side of the road. They brushed themselves off, collected their meager belongings, and once again began their march to safety, which brings me to my point.
Do the people at the Superdome lack the basic instincts for survival?
Most say they have lost everything. What is preventing them from picking up their lawn chairs and walking out of New Orleans?
Surely, there is a way out. Otherwise, how did the myriad of reporters get there with all of the heavy equipment required to beam the tragic scenes to us?
Why not use highway 610 and walk right out of New Orleans?
From numerous personal visits, I know that it's not a great distance to Kenner. My maps indicate it's somewhere around 10 miles.
What's at Kenner? Well for one thing, the New Orleans airport is at Kenner. Certainly the local airport has to be the logical place to go when you're in need of emergency supplies.
Why are these people stuck at the Superdome?
I repeat, do they lack the ability to react to their basic survival instincts?
My conclusion is that they do. They have lost the ability to think for themselves and respond to their basic instincts.
Instead, they remain in an untenable situation and make desperate pleas to television audiences throughout the world.
How could this be?
Here's what I think. These people have been on the "Federal Plantation" for generations. They subsist on their monthly "gubment check." They are the product of 40 plus years of depending upon the government for their very existence. So, when they are put in situation where the government can't tell them what to do, they are lost. Worse than that, they have lost the ability to think for themselves. They have lost the ability to react to their basic survival instincts. They cannot get out of the ditch and continue their march to safety after Katrina has strafed them.
Furthermore, they are not a community. They are a mass of anonymous humans each fighting for a chance to suckle at the government breasts. How else can you explain six murders and 12 rapes in the Superdome while Katrina was roaring? The perpetrators had to view their victims as strangers, members of another tribe, to justify their assaults.
A really horrifying thought is that this lack of initiative, the inability to think and take action, permeates the political infrastructure of Louisiana. I cannot think of a more inept pair of "leaders" than New Orleans Mayor Nagin and Louisiana Governor Blanco.
Mayor Nagin in a public display of incompetence, admitted on CNN cameras that he "doesn't know whose problem this is" when questioned about disaster relief response. I can tell you Mayor Nagin, it's your problem. However, your many years of taking orders from the political machinery that runs the State of Louisiana has left you without the ability to think for yourself and make the necessary preparations for eventual disasters.
Mayor Nagin you were warned repeatedly that there was a 20 foot tidal surge on the way. You knew that the levies most likely would not hold up against the surge. What plans did you make to protect your constituents in the event flooding took place? Apparently, you had none.
And Governor Blanco, you are in control of the National Guard. Contrary to the main stream media's insinuations that President Bush should have called up the National Guard, you are the one who could have staged Louisiana Guard units in Baton Rouge, or Alexandria, prior to the storm. You are the Commander in Chief of the Louisiana National Guard. You are the one responsible for the proper use of the National Guard during times of disaster.
Having spent six years in the Texas Army National Guard, I'm surprised that any Guard units are in New Orleans. It generally takes at least 48 hours just to mobilize a unit; that is get everyone to show up at the Armory. It takes another 48 hours to load the trucks with equipment and various gear. Then you have the march, the actual movement of the unit to the theatre of operations.
Meanwhile, refugees are filling up sports arenas, the convention center, etc throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The constant barrage of new reports leads us to believe that these people will be productive members of our community. They just need a little help getting started again, after their misfortune.
Of course, this is a lie. By and large, these people will simply move into one of the government projects when they are forced to leave their temporary arrangements. They won't add to the economy, because they don't work. They will simply make the crowded projects even more crowded and increase the crime rate.
After all, you don't even have to go to the mail box to get your "gubment check." They can direct deposit it right into your account.
Good post!