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Dear Mr. Speaker,
As much as it pains me to do so, and as much as I agree with your underlying argument in the talk you gave to CPAC (particularly where the need for accountability at all levels of government in the face of a National Disaster is concerned)...
I am writing to say that I'm baffled with your characterization of the denizens of the 9th ward of New Orleans as having suffered Katrina because of their lack of education.
Firstly, painting everyone who lived in the 9th ward as uneducated is a very lazy and largely innaccurate intellectual generalization; many people in the 9th were educated, as I'm sure you know.
Of course, many were not so lucky in their education or, more importantly, in their means as your well-heeled 99.99% baccalaureate caucasian audience at CPAC.
Nevertheless, the Citizens of New Orleans suffered, and many died:
The plurality were simply Americans who inarguably deserved better, regardless of their station in life.
In that regard, your remarks were patently callous.
I was left wondering why you gave no focus whatsover to the Army Corps of Engineers whose levees failed due to a combination of hubris, de-funding and outsourcing. Instead, with a glib quip you ended up blaming the poor, who are our charge, for drowning in their attics because they never completed a degree.
To frame it in a millieu that might seem familiar, let's say, hypothetically, that a nasty meteor were screaming on a collision course with the Earth, we all had 3 to 5 days of warning, and scientists could accurately predict it would hit somewhere in the southern United States.
For fun let us assume, perhaps, that it were predicted to hit square in the middle of Georgia's 6th Congressional District...
I think you would agree that it would be grievously unfair for any politician, especially one with naked Presidential ambitions, to retroactively paint those without the financial wherewithal to evacuate the poorest sections of your former district as culpable for their own plight in a massive natural disaster.
As you are well aware, not everybody in Atlanta could get out in time, even with notification.
Rich and poor alike, people in many instances held on to their land and homes for dear life all over the Gulf Coast, during Katrina, for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with attained level of education.
Mr. Gingrich, I recently had the opportunity to see you up close, and in person:
You were having brunch at Geoffrey's on the PCH in Malibu, California with an elegant woman wearing what looked to be a hand-tailored suit.
I suspect you were raising money.
I suspect you were doing much the same thing at CPAC.
Your rhetoric has impact, and if you genuinely think you're worthy of the office, I would suggest that you focus on the good of the People rather than implementing another ideological playbook.
It's the only way you'd ever get my vote."
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