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She chastised me for assigning blame right now. Here's my response. If anyone needs/wants to use pieces and/or parts of it to fortify your emails to clueless people, feel free to copy away (warning: this is long)
RE: Pointing fingers
“This isn’t the time to point fingers or place blame.”
Oh, it absolutely IS the right time to point fingers and place blame.
For the past five years, I have stood by and watched the dignity of our country eviscerated by this administration. I have been quiet and purposeful, being careful not to step on other people’s toes who might not agree with my social or political views. I have done what I can through meaningful discussion and civic action, all the while maintaining the politically correct veneer that dissenters of this administration are supposed to adopt for fear of being labeled unpatriotic and un-American.
What I have seen unfold in this country this week was the ultimate last straw. The politically correct veneer has quite literally come off the hinges and I cannot be made to remain silent – WILL NOT be made to remain silent – until my fellow citizens demand to take this country back from the criminally negligent individuals running it into the ground.
The response to this disaster is a NATIONAL DISGRACE. If we cannot, as individuals and as a nation, simultaneously be compassionate toward the victims, and hold the people responsible for ALLOWING thousands of our fellow citizens to die, en masse, of dehydration and hunger, then I fear for the future of our country. Dick Cheney is nowhere to be seen. And, Condileeza Rice was on vacation this week, laughing it up at the Broadway production of Spamalot and perusing Ferragamo’s fall line-up of sensible pumps while the shoes of her fellow citizens in New Orleans were soaked with water infested with urine, feces, vomit, decaying corpses and chemicals. If not now, just exactly WHEN are we supposed to point the fingers?
As for political agendas, I would direct your attention to the following:
Bush’s visit to the devastated area on Friday. Do not believe for one minute that convoys of trucks magically appearing as Bush entered the area was anything more than a cleverly crafted photo opportunity. Imagine my disgust this morning, via a news report on BBC television, when I learned during an interview with a member of the U.S. Northern Command that they had everything in place ready to move in days ago. DAYS AGO! The reason they didn't? They couldn't until Bush ordered it...FIVE DAYS AFTER the disaster, to coincide with his visit to the area. In case you find this difficult to believe, I could hardly believe my ears, either, so I took the time to visit BBC's website and pulled up the transcript. Here it is:
Announcer: Now I'm sure you're aware of the criticism that the authorities have been slow to respond to this. When did you get the order to start relief work?
Lieutenant Commander Sean Kelly: NorthCom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready for the storm when it hit Florida because, as you remember, it crossed the bottom part of Florida, and then we were planning, you know, once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast. So what we did was we activated what we call defense coordinating officers to work with the state to say okay, what do you think you'll need, and we set up staging bases that could be started. We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it's search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.
When you recover from the sick realization of our so-called President holding back aid to dying people until he could grace them with his presence, there's more:
You might want to ask yourself “where are all the helicopters?” The helicopters that could have been air-dropping water and food to these people DAYS AGO? They are in Iraq, along with the National Guard troops, fighting George Bush’s immoral war based on lies and deception.
Next, you should ask yourself why FEMA is so ineffective in handling this situation. In 2001, Bush appointed his old college buddy Joe Albaugh to head FEMA. Of course, it didn’t matter that the man had absolutely no background in emergency management. A year later, Albaugh left FEMA to start a business to “help rebuild Iraq,” which translated means war profiteering. That’s when another Bush friend, and current FEMA director Michael Brown was appointed. In case you aren't aware of Mr. Brown’s credentials for filling this crucial role in our government, he is a lawyer whose last job title was counsel for the Arabian Horse Association of America, from which he was fired.
After you wrap your head around that, I’m sure you’ll also be interested to learn that a year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations.
In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze.
And news this morning is that Halliburton (that’s right, Dick Cheney’s former company) has received a no-bid contract to lead the reconstruction of New Orleans.
These are verifiable facts. I'm not just pulling these things out of thin air.
Political agendas, indeed. Go back and read the examples above, and then honestly ask yourself who is promoting political agendas.
Finally, you’ll want to consider the fact that at the same time tens of thousands of our poorest citizens were left to literally die in New Orleans, China successfully evacuated 790,000 people from a killer typhoon 155 miles in diameter before it slammed into its coastal cities and villages. That's right, CHINA. News reports put the death toll at 3, with dozens injured. Could there possibly be anything more painfully, pathetically ironic?
All this, and we’re expected to not point fingers and get upset? The Republicans are quick to point fingers and express moral outrage over right-wing issues such as teaching so-called “intelligent design” in the public schools, preventing loving individuals from marrying, and trying to keep women from exercising choice over their own lives and bodies. But when our own citizens are dying in deplorable, outrageous conditions that could have been dramatically reduced with proper planning, but wasn't because the funds and resources were needed to fight a war based on LIES, and then are left in those conditions until the Preisdent can get his lying ass down there for a photo-op, we’re supposed to sit here quietly and not hold those at fault accountable because “this isn’t the time?”
You’re right, this isn’t the time to be pointing fingers. The “right time” passed us long, long ago. THAT’S why our country is in this deplorable situation. THAT’S why I am absolutely boiling over with rage in regards to this massive failure by our government.
Yes, we need to be pointing fingers right now, because sadly, we have run out of time.
Don't think for a minute that I don't love you dearly, and I'm sorry if I have upset you. But It is precisely because I DO love you and care for your well being, that I am SO upset and filled with rage. This could be any one of us, but for the grace of God. And I don't want to see any of my family, friends or any of our fellow countrymen fall victim to the ineptitude of the people supposedlyleading this country.
So yes, I will reach into my pocket with one hand and generously support our fellow mankind who most desperately need it. But with the other hand, I will point my finger, and I will assess blame,and I will do it now. And, I hope once the reality of why we're in this mess sinks in, you'll be pointing your fingers with me as well - because this does, and should, transcend political affiliations. Our survival as a nation and as a great society is teetering on the brink of no return and I desperately hope you'll help me pull it back from those whe deserve neither our respect, nor our votes.
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