Ashamed. Ashamed to be....what, an American??? White??? I dont quite know.

[growlypants]

How should I start this, for its not quite a rant, but by the end it may very well descend into one. I turned off my cable television 14 weeks ago when I discovered Air America Radio and also discovered that it could be streamed via the internet 24/7. So bye bye TV. And I havent really missed it. I was sick and tired of all the talking heads at the MSM making important news out of irrelevant stories such as Michael Jackson and Natalie Holloway (sorry, but she's dead. People go missing every day in this country. For some reason only the young, white, upper middle class ones get reported). And I also noticed, to my ultimate disquest, that they were ALL nothing more than mouthpieces for this criminal organization that had taken over my country back in 2000. Then THIS tragedy happened. I found that all the necessary info was available on the internet. The same pictures, the same videos, the same disaster. For the last 5 days my computer screen has been filled with scenes of absolute tragedy, despair, desperation, starvation, dehydration and death. And IMMEDIATELY I noticed that nearly EVERY SINGLE PERSON in these overflowing masses of humanity were black. New Orleans looks like a third world country. And nobody came to help these people. Nobody. Sure, some people TRIED to get to them to help with the impotent rescue operations, but they were turned away. Why??? I cant even begin to guess. I cant. These people, unable to esacape from the oncoming disaster for reasons that I'm guessing are almost CERTAINLY financial, were literally left there to die. When did MANDATORY EVACUTION really mean "get out if you can. If you cant, dont look for help from us." I didnt get the TPA report on that, did you??? No? Ok. What happened to these poor people is horrifying, and as an American, I am truly embarassed. Our government is supposed to be "for the people, by the people" and as representatives of US (the PEOPLE) we should be absolutely OUTRAGED. We should be in the streets in masses, protesting, demanding an explanation from OUR governtment as to how they could ABANDON our fellow AMERICAN citizens soley on the basis of their financial status and skin color. We should be demanding the immediate firing of the head of FEMA (quite possibly the most incompetent oranization I have ever seen), the immediate reignation of Bu$h and Cheyney. We should DEMAND that our national Guard be retuned to the soil they were sworn to protect. It sickens me. Were these people "inconvenient" for the Bu$h administration?? Were they somehow diverting money from this illegal, outrageous war he is perpetrating?? or were they simply "disposable". I'm not sure I want the answer to that either.

All the talk I hear that this is not a racist situation is, to ME, pure and utter bullshit. Im sorry, but it is. If this offends you, I dont care. Maybe you should look at YOURSELF and figure out WHY you're so offended?? Is it becuase that you, TOO, figure these horribly poor blacks are "disposable." Did you joke with your friends that "I bet they have no shortage of cigarettes" or "someone should airdrop them some 40's" I hope not. For your sake, I hope not. But I heard these "jokes", I read them on rightwing websites. It was disquesting. Of course this is about race, but its ALSO about income. If these had been RICH blacks, they had a better chance because rich people have influence. They have pull. So its more than likely that they would have faired much better. These poeple had NO chance, for they were BOTH black AND poor. As a white American, I am ashamed tonight. Ashamed that all the pictures I see on my computer screen are black faces. Ashamed that the enire government (of which about 98% is white) turned over in their beds and went back to sleep while these people screamed for help. And died. It wasnt until the news reporters, those who it seemed had sworn allegiance to the Bu$h administration, started to break ranks and report......the truth. When you're faced with the truth, the real, ugly, physical truth, its quite different from sitting in an air conditioned, sterile news room. They reported the desperation of the people, the deplorable conditions, the savagrey, the death. They saw this with their own eyes. The smelled it. And FINALLY, they broke ranks. They questioned everyone in the federal government, they screamed that nothing was being done for these people, they cried, they WEPT. And finally, Bu$hCo. decided they had better do something or his already tarnished image in the world would be further destroyed. So after 5 days, FIVE FUCKING DAYS....they send in trucks with water and food and diapers and formula and all the necessary equipment. The affluent white people, "holed" up at the Ritz Carlton and the Hyatt, were rushed to their OWN buses, rushed past THOUSANDS of stunned blacks, who had been living in concentration camp conditions in the Superdome. There they told their "horror" stories of being stranded in luxury hotels and being "forced" to eat cold cuts. I was physically ILL after I heard these white assholes making these irrelevant "complaints." I dont think that Bu$hCo. INTENTIONALLY tried to kill these people, I just dont think they CARED so they didnt make any kind of effort to help them, figuring the state would be able to handle this epic tragedy on their own. This is the forgotten class, but dont ever let this administration FORGET what they did in New Orleans in August-September of 2005. And dont YOU forget either, for if you do, you're no better than they are. And remember, the same thing CAN HAPPEN to YOU and YOUR family, and YOUR friends....as soon as you become INCONVENIENT

[DanCa]

1. I am not ashamed of america I am ashamed at who they voted for.

The one tragic flaw in our system is that while it's basically good, one incompentent person can destroy it from the top to the bottom. Congrats gop voters you out did yourself. Pat yourself on the back.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

2. my highway sign today read, 'Stop the Genocide in New Orleans'

It's just disgusting.

[bonito]

3. Well said.

[SmokingJacket]

4. I didn't hear that about the white people in hotels.

:puke: :cry:

Just more evidence. I agree with you, but go one step further: there was a decision made early on to NOT react with speed and energy. To punish the democratic citizens of New Orleans or not... I don't know. I don't know.

But it was deliberate. I believe it.

[Razorback22]

7. Wow.

I am in disbelief that relief was not quicker, and I put blame on many doorsteps, including 1600 Pennsylvania, but I am not quite ready to go as far as to say that it was deliberate. Do you know something that I don't? Please enlighten.

[growlypants]

18. i didnt say it was DELIBERATE. I said that the RESPONSE to their

plight was SLOWER

[Razorback22]

24. Deliberate

The poser to which I was responding did say deliberate.

[growlypants]

30. sorry!!

[SmokingJacket]

28. Just watching and thinking, no evidence.

The reaction to Ivan last year was swift and powerful. This time, the president was spotted literally eating cake and playing the guitar. How often do you see that???? VERY weird reaction.

I can't think of a reasonable explanation for the delay in response -- and the fact that lots of offers of help were TURNED DOWN -- except that he deliberately DID NOT want help for the (almost entirely democratic, largely black, many poor) citizens of a state with a dem governor.

I'm open to hearing arguments that prove me wrong though...

[noiretextatique]

5. one correction: it was INTENTIONAL

other than that, i agree with you 100%.

[BlueJac]

6. Just work hard...

and we can replace these fools in office. What is disgusting is the people that voted for bush.

[greekspeak]

8. Rant or whatever...just say it

We are here to listen. Just let it all out on us, cry a little, and then try to refocus. :hi:

[MuseRider]

9. Ashamed, angy, disgusted

I don't know, I am all of those right now and more but right now I am so sickened by it all that it is hard to verbalize. You did a good job of saying it. I find it very hard to think that the stories of the poor people in the Ritz are moving too many people although I do know a few who would consider that quite tragic. Those are people I stay well away from.

Gosh, I have nothing to add. Nicely done.

[Obamanaut]

10. Damn it! I understand you. I am 62, have voted in numerous

elections (for the wrong people, as it has turned out) and finally got mad emough to contact my congresspeople today - for the first time, ever. It's almost a rant, but you inspired me. Letter follows

Sir

I am sure by now that you’ve heard of the rumors regarding the delay in distributing relief supplies to coincide with the President’s visit to the LA-AL-MS area. Hopefully there will be an investigation to determine if these rumors have any basis in fact. Heaven help us all if they do.

Perhaps you’ve also heard or read words from various members of the administration that there was no way the partial collapse of the New Orleans levee system could have been predicted. Surely you are aware of the disaster simulation “Hurricane Pam” which addressed not only that scenario but also the need to evacuate thousands of displaced citizens and the use of the Superdome as a shelter. Note also that the Times-Picayune of New Orleans ran a multi-part series on that and the reduction of funding to the Army Corps of Engineers for that very project (levee upgrade and repairs.)

If there is an investigation into the rumors listed in my first paragraph, or even if not, can we not suggest an investigation at least into why all levels of government seemed so woefully ill prepared to deal with this hurricane. We suspected that the hurricane would make landfall somewhere along the Gulf Coast as soon as it had passed over the southern tip of Florida. We knew that it would strengthen as it traveled slowly over the warm waters of the Gulf. The predicted eye landfall was narrowed to a strip approximately 100 miles long 24 hours prior to that landfall. The “Hurricane Pam” simulation is germane here.

Finally, I’ve included an email from a citizen in the United Kingdom, from the CNN link provided. She writes “Oh America, this is your shame…” I agree.

Respectfully,


usnret88
Florida

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/02/katrina.emails/index.html

As a European watching in horror the evolving and increasing chaos in the American South, I find it well nigh impossible to believe the lack of civic responsibility evidenced by this disaster. How can any local authority recommend via the media evacuation of an area... but at the same time make no effort to transport the poor, the needy and even those most dependent on that authority -- the prisoners in the local jail -- simply beggars belief. While racism is ostensibly banned and frowned upon amongst your nation, this is surely economic cleansing where ethnic cleansing would be generally reckoned to be unacceptable? I'm not surprised that anarchy and armed looting has started in the face of such desperate conditions as these people have been abandoned in. Oh America, this is your shame -- please learn from it that everyone deserves care and dignity.
Fiona Wilson
London, UK

[sniffa]

13. weLcome to DU - i know you've been here a bit but..

i wanted to say hi and weLcome you, since i haven't since you've joined.

thank you for sharing your Letter and your thoughts. :hi:

[Obamanaut]

44. Thanks for the welcome. n/t

[growlypants]

19. Well done!

[Frederik]

27. That British lady

coined a very chilling but accurate phrase there: "economic cleansing".

[Razorback22]

11. My father in law was in the Sheraton

My father in law was "holed" up in the Sheraton for 4 days. He and my mother in law went to NO for the weekend, bad choice on their part, but that is another issue. When the storm hit, they were sent to the ballroom of the hotel. They were not allowed out, and could not go to their private rooms. They did have food and water, but it ran out after the 3rd day and they had nothing after that. They used makeshift bathrooms, which were also in the ballroom, consisting of buckets and curtains. without electricity, they sat in the dark room and sweltered along with the other 300+ people. After 4 days, they were taken by bus to Baton Rouge, where they were able to get a rental car and drive home to VA, where they arrived today. They were lucky and they know it. I do have to disagree with your point about racism though. I believe that disparity in treatment between whites and blacks was more based on geography than race. Meaning, since the hotels were filled mostly with white travellers, they were, obviously the ones holed up in the hotels. the blacks, geographically, were in houses, many of them very substandard as NO is a very poor city by nature, and having been there many times, I know that these communities were in parts of NO that are very low, and were the first to flood and flood deep. I know that you have looked at pictures of mostly blacks that are suffering in the flood, but that also may be due to a large majority of the city residents being people of color. I take race situations seriously, and I don't like to make accusations of racism until I have looked at all of the facts.

[growlypants]

14. wasnt refering to your father in laws' situation.

I was talking about these, these, FOOLS who had the NERVE to complain (aftering being rushed by THOUSANDS OF BLACK PEOPLE, who had been living in feces infested SQUALLOR) that the were "forced" to EAT COLD CUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I take race situations very seriously myself, which is EXACTLY WHY IM SO FUIROUS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE BLACK PEOPLE IN NOLA. If you think for one second (ONE SECOND!) that if some rich neighborhood, chok-full of McMansions and expensive cars, had flooded to the extent that NOLA flooded, that those white people (of which I AM ONE) would be allowed to drown, and starve for FIVE FUCKING DAYS, and dehydrate and to (GASP!!) not have their Valium and their xanax, that they would be allowed to stand on the roofs of their McMansions with makeshift signs BEGGING FOR HELP then you are completely out of touch with reality. helicopters and river boats and swift boats and every other goddamn boat in the tri state area would have been in there rescuing people. You know that and I know that and everyone else here on DU knows that

[Razorback22]

22. too black and white (figuratively)

I think you are being a bit to black and white, pardon the pun, about who was affected. the McMansions and the whites that live in them were also affected. Their houses are destroyed, they, also, have lost everything. I imagine, yes, that they also had to wade in chest deep water and try to find high ground. they also have no food or water. I agree that the images we see on TV are mostly of blacks, but I can't believe that there were not thousands of white residents also deeply affected. Maybe I am out of touch, or maybe you are wrong. Probably neither of us will ever know.

[sniffa]

17. weLcome to DU razorback

:hi:

i see you're a LocaL. hopefuLLy we'LL meet some day at one of the infamous boston pahties/meetups.

[Razorback22]

21. Thanks for the Welcome

Maybe ovah at Hahvad in Cambridge Squayah

[bribri16]

25. The disaster struck everyone...but the rescue didn't. That's the sad

part. The point about the Ritz Carlton is that everyone was being told that the buses had been halted because of danger, yet 18 buses were able to go to the Ritz with adequate security and evacuate those people. So I guess rescuers can risk their lives for whites who are wealthy but as for the poor and poor blacks they wouldn't dare face danger. That's the point, I think. I too am having trouble deciding which I am more ashamed of.

[sniffa]

12. i agree with your entire rant and nominated

as a white maLe, i know i have a Leg up regardLess of how poor and destitute my famiLy gets. at the same time, i know i wiLL never, ever truLy know what it's Like to be bLack.

the Least i can do, is acknowLedge these facts.

if others can't that's a shame.

[growlypants]

15. thank you. My sentiments exactly. And its SAD that we have to admit

stuff like that

[mongo]

36. Come to Appalachia for a while

You can camp out back of my friends house - 3 kids, no indoor toilet.

It might be easier for you to understand - and you'll learn some things This guy is a fountain of useful information.

It's more about economic caste than skin color. Last time this area flooded out, it took Bush two and a half weeks to sign a disaster order so that FEMA could even come in.

The really sad thing is that the working poor are always hit the hardest. If you owned your trailer or house, but couldn't afford insurance, you were screwed. People whose homes were wrecked got checks for 2,000.

But if you lived on welfare in section 8 housing, you got a check for 11,000. Figure that one out.

[distantearlywarning]

16. Me too. Well said.

:cry:

[sniffa]

20. here's a kick

hopefuLLy we get that 5th vote.

everyone, incLuding LiberaLs, need to recognize what many choose to deny or ignore.

[suegeo]

23. I didnt get the TPA report on that...

Ha ha. I heard that Cheney used that TPA report while gutting the fish he caught on his still on-going vacation. He didn't eat the fish, he just caught them, killed them, gutted them and then left their rotting remains at the national park to smell up the place for the next group of campers, because well, he is a P-I-G pig.

They don't care about us. They care about the haves and the have mores. They don't like government (Drown it in a bath tub!) and they want to establish corporate-state rule, which is Fascism.

[Blue_In_AK]

26. Quintanilla on Hardball

just said it right out loud -- the (lack of) response in NO is a CIVIL RIGHTS issue. I was so proud of him for saying that.

[Cleita]

29. Well, be glad you aren't Condimelda Rice, shopping for

$1,000 Ferragammo shoes, while African Americans were dying shoeless in New Orleans. Whew, I wouldn't want her karma.

[MsTryska]

34. not just that Cleita......

She's from Alabama, and her daddy was from Louisiana - for all practical purposes those are her people.


it seems she forgot that.

[Cleita]

35. Yes, it really shows what a *itch she really is.n/t

[maxpower]

31. Kick

Well said

[natrat]

32. slightly ot but

i have never seen a sleazier person than george hw bush on tv yesterday saying "no one could predict the levy would break"---I guess it hit home just how ugly this group is.Clinton wasn't too far behind but there was something profoudly disturbing about the other.

[sniffa]

33. no one couLd have predicted

that terrorists wouLd use pLanes as missLes.

see a pattern?

[Nimble_Idea]

37. People on DU who choose to ignore it

are probably just part of the KKK themselves. But you, my friend, hit it right on. It's not that they are offended and mad that you are telling the truth, they are mad because you are telling the truth and they thought it was a big fucking secret. The secret is out for the world to see yet again, not like everyone didn't know it already. This just shows that when a person has an (R) next to their name on the ballot, R means racist party. Plain and simple, Every election year when 90% of the blacks vote against this party , it warms my heart.....I see hope and a fight still left for justice against these bigots.

To you, who have spoken the truth, a salute.

[Razorback22]

39. A bit offended

I am a bit offended that you are calling out everyone that doen't agree with the racial aspect of this discussion as a bigot. I consider myself an open minded person respectful of all people, I just don't choose to see racism lurking in everything that goes horribly wrong for the poor and black community. There were people of all cultures and races that were devastated by this catastrophe.

[growlypants]

41. you are right, people of both races WERE devestated by this tragedy,

BUT it seems that it was STRICTLY the impoverished black population that was left there for FIVE DAYS (five days!!!thats 120 hours!!!)to lieterally STARVE and DEHYDRATE. Its simply unconscionable that something like this would be allowed to happen. Its ridiculous. We dont let DOGS go 5 days without food or water. Can you imagine if there was some situation where some group just totally ignored the plight of a large pack of dogs and didnt offer them any food or water and they were begging for help??? The SPCA, PETA, every damn animal rights organization in the world would be out of their minds with fury. I GUARANTEE you that one of those organizations would have found a way to drop those animals some food and some fresh water. Guarantee it!! As for the plight of the white people, yes im quite aware that MANY of them are devestated, but MOST OF THEM got OUT of the soup bowl that is NOLA because they could AFFORD too. So yes, their homes may have been destroyed, but they SURVIVED and along with thei lives they still have their dignity (and homeowners insurance. Dont forget that. Most of these incredibly poor people Im sure didnt have homeowners insurance. Their lives are completely devestated).

[boston bean]

38. It is racist. I go to school part time, later in life, and I am there

with a bunch of kids in their late teens and early twenties.

To be honest with you, most of them had barely even heard about the devastation. Needless to say, I told them all about it and how if it were white babies and white women, we would not be seeing this on the television. That it is disgusting and that our gov't official are disgraceful.

I hope I did my little share of informing people, but I'm telling you the more I try to talk with people the more I find out how ill informed they are.

They just go on with their lives and if it doesn't make the local news, well it just didn't happen or its not important enough to know about.

I am beside myself with what is going on, it is so transparent, I wonder how many more don't see the light.

[growlypants]

42. welcome to DU!

:hi:

[SemperEadem]

40. So well said

And finally, Bu$hCo. decided they had better do something or his already tarnished image in the world would be further destroyed. So after 5 days, FIVE FUCKING DAYS....they send in trucks with water and food and diapers and formula and all the necessary equipment.

Funny how it coincided with * finally showing his ugly face there.

I believe that the government delayed because they wanted to cull the poor population, and their tactics assured them of success.

[growlypants]

43. I hope its not that evil, but it could be. If thats truly the case, then

we, as Americans, are truly doomed. I believe its time for a revolution.