Posted on 09/07/2005 7:01:16 AM PDT by Millee
Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday devoted the first of two shows to the wake of Hurricane Katrina, saying: "I think ... this country owes these people an apology" – referring to the survivors for their treatment after the disaster struck and to those who were left to die as help failed to arrive.
"This makes me so mad. This should not have happened," said a tearful Winfrey, who wore a gas mask inside New Orleans' now-vacated Superdome, where she was overcome by the stench. "Nothing I saw on television prepared me for what I experienced on the ground," she said on the show, which featured stories from all over the Gulf Coast, including those from New Orleans police superintendent Eddie Compass.
Compass told of children being sexually assaulted in the Superdome and how gang members threatened to take him hostage as he toured the facility. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin actually cut short his interview with Winfrey, so overcome with emotion and anger because, he said, other cities would have received a swifter response from the federal government.
Also on the show, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey and Faith Hill were shown among those distributing food. While unloading a truck at a Gulfport, Miss., shelter, a survivor asked Hill to sing "Amazing Grace." She did.
"I was sitting at home feeling frustrated and useless, like so many other people, so I came down to personally assess how I could best be of service," Winfrey told The New York Times in a statement.
Wednesday's show will take Winfrey to Mississippi and show relief efforts by Chris Rock, Julia Roberts, Lisa Marie Presley and others.
Those two states were absolutely clobbered by Katrina and they can definitely use some help in the recovery effort.
The main difference between them and New Orleans is that the people of Alabama and Mississippi aren't sheep following an idiotic shepherd.
At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.
Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, and shelter.
If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you.
Right now the site mostly covers Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas but I will add various churches, schools, and other charities in Lubbock and Austin tonight. My wife was down at Reunion Arena in Dallas yesterday handing out care packages and spiritually ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer. She says that the situation is tragic and that there's a lot of work to be done. There are so many children who don't know where their parents are or even if their parents are still alive.
There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would appreciate it if you would get the word out.
Many thanks,
Michael McCullough
Stingray blogsite
I agree! I caught one of her "giveaway" shows and every time a razor or candle or whatever would be given away they would scream and jump up and down. They act likes she walks on water.
Maybe Opera forgot that there was a mandatory evacuation ordered and that the people who stayed behind disobeyed the order. Some were not physically able to leave and that is understandable. However, many stayed just to loot. Where is the looters' apologies to the nation?
Excellent post!
I think I kind of agree with her. By her warped logic Oprah owes me a Pontiac G6.
I'm sorry. Now where's my car?
I think worthless Democrat crooks in office owe the country an apology for not caring about the hostages on their plantation enough to have water for them when they order them to a death trap. Now it will cost taxpayers in the USA billions to clean up that cesspool of a city. It should be quarantined like Chernobyl, because I suspect it will prove to be more toxic. We should build a monument: Here lies the welfare state.
My Mom, 82, is a great barometer of public opinion, and a huge Okra fan.
She was disgusted with Okra today, both the leading political questions, and her grandstanding at the Super Dome.
Me too. I read about Noah's Wish that takes care of the animals. Let the libs take care of the people. These people blaming President Bush piss me off. As the ever intelligent P Diddy said in today's NY Post: "Those are my people there." Can you imagine if a white musician said something like that? He and Jay Z are sending their designer duds and 1 million dollars between both of them. How generous. Wonder if he'll send one of his yachts for them to live on.
I have problems with people who keep the hate alive......on both sides of the fence. I see alot of that in what Oprah Inc and like celebrities and polidiots and presstitutes are doing......last thing this country needs right now is crap stirring racist remarks be they from majority or minority or media propagandist professionals.
Just my opinion but her show does a disservice to the truth.......doom on those that do such for ratings. As when the hate erupts her purchased positon in life is moot as is everyone elses. She and others spewing THAT message which divides a country has no merit, worth or validity cept to flame a fire that needs to be put out once and for all......
The response of volunteers was , is, and will continue to be amazing for folks in the disaster of our time IMO.....Yet all they can do is set back an bitch because times were tough for 4 days........yes people died, yes the injuries, stress , heat , lack of food and water was too much for the aged, weak, young and sick . Catastrophies have that effect on human beings darn it....
That storm didn't stop at the city limits of NOLA and relief came for all not just "them" as they have taken to calling the victims of the massive storm and it's killer flood.
Sorry I ain't gonna let these media whores sell my nations care and concern to further their own personal agenda....aka bank account.
Oprah's and anyone else who think we owe them an apology is full of it.......America and all it's people are responding with time , money and materials. To even try and suggest such is an insult to those that saved themselves and those who fought to get to em and help em....
Damn !
I watched clips of the show on E tv. The clips were excellent and I found myself wondering what the whole show was like. She should just keep her yap shut and stop sounding like a space cadet. Now that the truth is coming out about Blanco, the blame she should laid squarely at HER FEET and NAGIN's feet too.
Time an a judge will fix the polidiots that did wrong hopefully.....or future votes against em.
It's up to us with donations of time and money or just the offer or help getting a job as most want to earn their way vs doing the baby bird sqwakin till they are fed for free....We have to help these folks help themselves where possible to preserve their pride and do it "for" those that are too weak, injured or ill to do so . I have seen folks here take total strangers into their homes, give them money from their own bank accounts and even loan them the extra family cars.....hate is a mythical critter here in the Panhandle of Texas unless yer a criminal and then .....katy bar the door.
These displaced folks due the storm have a great chance of total fiscal recovery IMO. Regardless of their prior standing in life be it poverty or wealth. If they squander the opportunity that fate has presented them then so be it their fault not "ours"........
Stay safe !
Oprah went to the Superdome...had to take needed Guardsmen and other LEOs and support people away from helping others to be with her. Inexcusable...and she did it for her "show", to boost ratings and make money.
Sickening and disgusting...then on top of that, to ad insult to injury, she says we owe and apology? No, it is her who owes a whole lot of brave and selfless people the apolgy IMHO.
What did I do Oprah?
Justify's her dizzy outlook on things with all than spin 'n such huh .......:o)
Point taken with her visit....I didn't even want to see GW's administration or the Socialist Rat's go down there as I personally know the entourage that is associated with such a high level visit.....pretty much the folks in dire straits couldn't even see a TV for the moral support such vists propose to be.....
Assets like TIME , POL products , and personnel, LEO's vehicles etc etc were needed for rescue, recovery and relief. Don't take from the potential resources for such if it serves no valid worth for the VICTIMS.
Just my opinion......Stay safe !
We sorry we send that Hurricane, Miss Oprah. We didn' think it would be so bad. We didn' mean you no harm.
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