"You can believe that he's suddenly worried about poor people if you want"

understandinglife

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Sun Sep-18-05 11:36 PM
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"You can believe that he's suddenly worried about poor people if you want"

Edited on Sun Sep-18-05 11:38 PM by understandinglife

Mr. Herbert characterizes the awful and obvious American reality.

In an eerily lit, nationally televised appearance outside the historic St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, President Bush promised the world to the Gulf Coast residents whose lives were upended by Hurricane Katrina.

He seemed to be saying that no effort, no amount of money, would be spared. Two hundred billion dollars? No problem. This will be bigger than the Marshall Plan. The end of the rainbow is here.

"Throughout the area hit by the hurricane," said Mr. Bush, "we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives."

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You can believe that he's suddenly worried about poor people if you want to. What is more likely is that his reference to racism and poverty was just another opportunistic Karl Rove moment, never to be acted upon.

From Good Grief by BOB HERBERT on September 19, 2005

Link:

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/09/19/opinion/19herbert.html?hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print

And, on the same Op-Ed 'page,' Mr Krugman characterizes the harshness of that reality -- America is 'ruled by a political movement that is hostile to the idea of helping citizens in need.'

Maybe President Bush would have been mugging with a guitar the day after the levees broke even if New Orleans had been a mostly white city. Maybe Palm Beach would also have had to wait five days after a hurricane hit before key military units received orders to join rescue operations.

But in a larger sense, the administration's lethally inept response to Hurricane Katrina had a lot to do with race. For race is the biggest reason the United States, uniquely among advanced countries, is ruled by a political movement that is hostile to the idea of helping citizens in need.

Race, after all, was central to the emergence of a Republican majority: essentially, the South switched sides after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Today, states that had slavery in 1860 are much more likely to vote Republican than states that didn't.

And who can honestly deny that race is a major reason America treats its poor more harshly than any other advanced country? To put it crudely: a middle-class European, thinking about the poor, says to himself, "There but for the grace of God go I." A middle-class American is all too likely to think, perhaps without admitting it to himself, "Why should I be taxed to support those people?"

From Tragedy in Black and White by Paul Krugman on September 19, 2005

Link:

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/09/19/opinion/19krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Mr Krugman concludes with where I begin "

I'd like to believe that Katrina will change everything - that we'll all now realize how important it is to have a government committed to helping those in need, whatever the color of their skin. But I wouldn't bet on it."

No, I would not bet one cent on the current situation.

What I will do is give everything I have to support the person most likely to lead our government to be "committed to helping those in need, whatever the color of their skin." -- Specifically, Congressman John Conyers:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=106x23663

Let us all reject and terminate the horrific realm of Bush and the neoconsters and embark on improving the world occupied by most folk on this planet - the world of the have a little, and have nothing, and let us change their opportunities, and advance civilization.

If we do we will find that the terror the beneficiaries of perpetual war find so lucrative will dissipate and, in its place, will emerge the stability and sanity needed to preserve our society and the planet, so another generation or two can actually live here.

Peace.