Blame Shifting at the NAACP

One expects bombast from politicians. Politics is a world of exaggeration and innuendo; after all swaying the public is what it is all about. National political figures make outrageous statements as a matter of course. They have become part of the landscape, an annoying part of the political season that we usually tune out and disregard. The press does not often call them on their rhetoric, and no one seems concerned about how factual they are. It is almost miraculous that a system so fraught with exaggeration and falsehood nurtures our Democracy and prosperity. It is not pretty, it is not easy to follow; but it works.

Yet every once in awhile something particularly ugly rises to the surface of the political cesspool that needs a thorough debunking, ugly, even when compared to the subterranean standards of those who make their living with the ugliness of exaggeration and misrepresentation. This one comes from Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP:

"Katrina served to underscore how the war in Iraq has weakened, rather than strengthened, our defenses, including our levees," Bond said. "The problem isn't that we can't prosecute a war in the Persian Gulf and protect our citizens on the Gulf Coast at home. The problem is that we cannot do either one."

"It can be said that Katrina, like lynching, not only destroyed the work of generations in a single day, but is resulting in a deliberate effort to dispossess black landholders."

What is Mr. Bond saying in this muddled inarticulate statement? He is saying that we are an inept nation, we cannot fight wars and we cannot, due to our ineptness, protect our citizens from natural disasters. Then, using the analogy of lynching, he attempts to raise the ire of his audience with civil rights boilerplate filled with insinuation: the white man is lynching you, he is behind Katrina, he is stealing your land, he is killing you! You are a victim, not a victim of a natural disaster beyond the control of man, but a victim of the racist government. This builds on earlier claims made by the usual professional civil rights opportunists that the levees collapsed because of federal malfeasance, the relief took a few days to ramp up because black people were the victims, and other nonsensical gems such as explosives on the levees, cannibalism (after a mere 24 hours), and the rape of infants.

Let us look at some facts and deconstruct Mr. Bond’s comments. By way of definition, let us call “facts” information that is verifiable, comes from a reasonably reliable source and has had some rational thought involved in its compilation.

Fact One: Of the victims released to families from the improvised morgue in St. Gabriel soon after Katrina, 44% were African-American, 47% were Caucasian, 3% were Hispanic and 8% were Unknown. The final demographic numbers vary but all held that a bit over half the victims were African-Americans. Demographically New Orleans was very much an African-American city, where African-Americans outnumbered whites 61 percent to 36 percent. The high percentage of white victims seems to defy the claim that Katrina was a “Black Disaster,” certainly the white or Hispanic victims would disagree with the claim. The demographic that suffered the most was the aged. People 60 and older made up about 15 percent of New Orleans residents but 74 percent of the known victims. All this is annoyingly inconvenient for those who depend on African-American victim hood for their hefty salaries.

Fact Two: Major Ray Nagin had not issued mandatory evacuation orders 24 hours prior to Katrina smashing into the Gulf Coast New Orleans. Thousands of school buses that should have been used to evacuate citizens, particularly the elderly, sat idle, eventually submerging in water.

Fact Three: Governor Kathleen Blanco had not mobilized the Louisiana National Guard nor asked for federal aid 12 hours prior to Katrina hitting, deferring vital decisions for purely political reasons, even after being admonished by the President, a very proactive, concerned president, who offered federal help very early on.

Fact Four: The Katrina rescue, recovery and relief effort was the largest, most responsive and most comprehensive in history, not just American history, in the history of humankind. It was in fact an unprecedented achievement, which exhibited America’s abundant compassion, charity and sense of civic responsibility. Race did not figure into the rescue efforts, or into the many millions of dollars donated to help the victims.

Taking responsibility is not a leftist virtue, but blame shifting certainly is. Blame for the botched state and local response to Katrina should land squarely on the state and local officials that were derelict in their duty. The truth is that New Orleans had warnings and funding for many years. The levees were their perpetual special projects cash cow where museums, gambling boats, marinas, etc… arose from funds earmarked for flood control. They squandered it for temporary and petty gain. Despite having comprehensive written plans (very pretty on paper when soliciting Federal funds) supplies were in fact not positioned, security was not planned for nor were contingencies planned for hospitals, nursing homes, fire stations, police stations, ambulances or any other civic authority. Despite the obvious and glaring dereliction by the city and the state government, Senator Mary Landrieu (Dem-LA) placed the blame on the Federal Government and President Bush. In Louisiana, before and after Katrina, politics trumped lives. The Democrats, as in all things, saw the disaster as a political opportunity, and knowing the truth full well, they used Katrina propaganda to hammer the administration. Julian Bond is riding that wave.

Mr. Bond’s comments remind me of the endless TV coverage of the Katrina catastrophe. I was struck by the pre-programmed hostility of many of the New Orleans refugees. (Yes, they were seeking refuge. Jesse Jackson was looking for a sound bite when he spun the word into something racist). One man said, “I want a cool place to sleep, a shower and a check!” The calls of “It’s about time” as initial deliveries of water and food arrived amazed me. There was a full three days of warning for a catastrophe so large it dwarfed all previous and most of the people featured in press stories prepared for it not one iota. They assumed others would care for them, expected it, demanded it and were hostile when it was not fast enough for their comfort. This was the ugly manifestation of an entitlement society.

It is the reality of a crime-ridden welfare city and a state run by cronyism and “politically correct” left politicians howling that the rest of America “owes us justice,” while they are guilty of corruption on a scale that swallows millions of tax dollars every year. Let me state this very clearly, Democrats were and still are the power brokers in Louisiana. They ran New Orleans for many years and astonishingly still do. They were and are the ones who preside over a cavernous money pit that sucks up federal pork for infrastructure improvements and social issues and now, untold millions for rebuilding.

Julian Bond is part of that system. Rather than empowering the African-American community, he chains them into a reliable Democrat party voting block with populist nonsense. Rather than calling on African-Americans to take responsibility for their communities and themselves, he exploits past grievances and invents new injustices where none existed before. As is ever the case with the left, when things are going too well in America, it is time to invent some injustice or concoct a conspiracy. As American prosperity continues and unemployment and poverty fall ever lower, those who like Mr. Bond depend on these issues for political power will have to go to greater than ever lengths to exploit them. In the run up to the 2008 elections, watch how America will be portrayed in the rhetoric of the left, how troubled we will become, how poor, how crime ridden, how racist, and how stupid, how selfish, how, as with Katrina, power and politics will trump truth.

Julian Bond will certainly be doing his part in keeping the African-American vote heavily for the Democrats with promises that will not be kept and accusations that will be false, pandering to a minority community that is doing better than ever before, under a Republican administration. The minority Mr. Bond represents received a vast outpouring of compassion, volunteerism and charity after Katrina that went a long way toward unifying us, and all Mr. Bond and the NAACP can do is condemn us and pull us apart. African-Americans deserve better.

Lance Fairchok is a senior writer for The New Media Journal. He is a retired Air Force Intelligence professional with many years of service in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. His travels left him fascinated by the wide differences in human cultural perceptions and how ideas spread in diverse populations. He writes and does research on a variety of subjects to include totalitarian ideologies, radical Islam and press accuracy. He currently teaches and writes on the Emerald Coast of Florida.

Lance Fairchok has written the first most honest and factual deconstruction of the Katrina/New Orleans mythology that I have seen to date. The article is NOT about Julian Bond, but is is about the irresponsible actions of people who are elected to make difficult decisions and failed.

His description of New Orleans and Louisiana politics is dead on target and his assessment of the entire issue could not be more accurate.

This is a great post worth keeping. Great find and thanks for posting.

The calls of “It’s about time” as initial deliveries of water and food arrived amazed me. There was a full three days of warning for a catastrophe so large it dwarfed all previous and most of the people featured in press stories prepared for it not one iota. They assumed others would care for them, expected it, demanded it and were hostile when it was not fast enough for their comfort. This was the ugly manifestation of an entitlement society.

Worth repeating. Excellent article.

Insanity:

Reelecting the same incompetent corrupt Democrat leaders and expecting different results!

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How many new homes has the NAACP built in New Orleans?

How much money has the NAACP donated to the refugees?

Why, after almost 2 yrs is it the Democrat cesspools that remain unimproved while New Orleans neighboring towns move forward, rebuilding and improving their lives.

Katrina has turned into the biggest cash furnace of all time. People are using it to milk millions from the government, churches and donors.

See my tagline below

Note: this topic is from 7/17/2007.

Thanks seanrobins.

...This one comes from Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP: "Katrina served to underscore how the war in Iraq has weakened, rather than strengthened, our defenses, including our levees... The problem isn't that we can't prosecute a war in the Persian Gulf and protect our citizens on the Gulf Coast at home. The problem is that we cannot do either one. It can be said that Katrina, like lynching, not only destroyed the work of generations in a single day, but is resulting in a deliberate effort to dispossess black landholders." ...using the analogy of lynching, he attempts to raise the ire of his audience with civil rights boilerplate filled with insinuation: the white man is lynching you, he is behind Katrina, he is stealing your land, he is killing you! You are a victim, not a victim of a natural disaster beyond the control of man, but a victim of the racist government. This builds on earlier claims made by the usual professional civil rights opportunists that the levees collapsed because of federal malfeasance, the relief took a few days to ramp up because black people were the victims, and other nonsensical gems such as explosives on the levees, cannibalism (after a mere 24 hours), and the rape of infants.

There was a full three days of warning for a catastrophe so large it dwarfed all previous and most of the people featured in press stories prepared for it not one iota. They assumed others would care for them, expected it, demanded it and were hostile when it was not fast enough for their comfort. This was the ugly manifestation of an entitlement society.

BINGO!

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