Jesse Jackson hits out at Bush, suggests race behind New Orleans' plight

[Mass]

Great statement from somebody who really understands the issue of poverty.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usweatherracejackson

BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - Civil Rights leader
Jesse Jackson fired off a fierce attack on
President George W. Bush over Hurricane Katrina and claimed black people were being locked out of top relief roles.


Jackson raised the sensitive issue of race, simmering below the surface in New Orleans, even before the hurricane tragedy, pointing out that many of those trapped in the city by the storm were poor and black.

"There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people, and black people ... we seem to adjust more easily to black pain."

Jackson spoke after leading a bus convoy into New Orleans to rescue 450 students trapped at Xavier University, and said he had been shocked by scenes of pain among refugees trying to flee the city.

"We reach out today for our president to lead from the ground, not the air," Jackson said, as Bush toured hurricane hit areas by foot and by helicopter after admitting government relief efforts so far were "not acceptable."

Jackson said 120,000 people in New Orleans make less than 8,000 dollars a year. "They are poor people, black people for the most part without private transportation, many of them are old and sick."

And he also criticized the role given to former presidents
George Bush senior and
Bill Clinton as coordinators for a fund raising effort following the Katrina tragedy, similar to their role as tsunami fund raisers.

"Why are there no African Americans in that circle?" Jackson asked.

"How can blacks be left out of the leadership and trapped into the suffering?"

Jackson also found time to throw political barbs Bush's way, claiming the president's policies had given the top five percent of Americans a tax cut and a "five billion dollar a month war in
Iraq" while federal officials had neglected flood control systems in New Orleans.

"When the 9/11 tragedy struck us, the president was there in two days, on the ground embracing police and firemen. When the tsunami struck, he immediately mobilized world opinion.

"The UN relief effort for the tsunami was superior to the US effort for New Orleans and Louisiana. For American citizens, we deserve better."

Bush earlier on Friday rejected claims that expenditure or use of troops in Iraq had been partly to blame for what critics say was a sluggish, initial response by the US government to the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

"We've got plenty of resources to do both," Bush said, and also predicted that "the great city of New Orleans will rise again."

"I'm going to fly out of here in a minute, but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen. I understand the devastation requires more than one day's attention," Bush said at New Orleans airport.

"It's going to require the attention of this country for a long period of time. This is one of the worst natural disasters we have faced, with national consequences. And therefore, there will be a national response," he said.

[Mass]

1. Amazing how Bush called two white males to help raising funds.

and kudos to Jackson to stay on the issue: NO and the hurricane area.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

2. He's also fully aware of the funding cut for reinforcing the levees.

I heard him talk about it.