Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Those lucky poor folks...
Barbara Bush said of the refugees currently housed in the Astrodome: "many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this is working very well for them."
I'm sure this will go far in dispelling the underlying tone racism currently festering with the response to Katrina coverage. Check out The Blog of 8's post regarding right wing pontification on the state of the poor in New Orleans. It is apparent from these sorry excuses of absolute bigotry that the wingnut side of the political fence has a problem.
In the big picture, I'm not one who ascribes the criminally inept response to the hurricane as an example of racist policies from our government. I think it is a prime example of this administrations blindness to reality. To hear the head of Fema protest he wasn't aware of the refugee crisis at the convention center after days of coverage on live t.v., to hear the president ponder that no one foresaw the breaching of the dikes... there are just a veritable ton of examples, is to listen to an administration disconnected from reality. You cant just make your own reality up as you progress in response to an ongoing disaster, and that method of governance is the hallmark of this administration.
Of course the people who bore the consequences of this malfeasance were the poor, and when the cameras descended onto New Orleans the poor were mainly blacks. They cant be blamed for feeling like race was a factor in the alacrity with which they were helped. Somewhere in the depths of my soul, I have an unfortunate feeling that the response from this administration to the devastation of say, Aspen Colorado by an avalanche would have been faster and more complete than the devastation of some American ghetto of poor people.
In the meantime, the refugees at the Astrodome can thank their lucky stars that they no longer have their own residences or jobs and so on. Thank goodness we have the former 1st lady, current 1st mother to point out how fortunate they really are.
I'm sure this will go far in dispelling the underlying tone racism currently festering with the response to Katrina coverage. Check out The Blog of 8's post regarding right wing pontification on the state of the poor in New Orleans. It is apparent from these sorry excuses of absolute bigotry that the wingnut side of the political fence has a problem.
In the big picture, I'm not one who ascribes the criminally inept response to the hurricane as an example of racist policies from our government. I think it is a prime example of this administrations blindness to reality. To hear the head of Fema protest he wasn't aware of the refugee crisis at the convention center after days of coverage on live t.v., to hear the president ponder that no one foresaw the breaching of the dikes... there are just a veritable ton of examples, is to listen to an administration disconnected from reality. You cant just make your own reality up as you progress in response to an ongoing disaster, and that method of governance is the hallmark of this administration.
Of course the people who bore the consequences of this malfeasance were the poor, and when the cameras descended onto New Orleans the poor were mainly blacks. They cant be blamed for feeling like race was a factor in the alacrity with which they were helped. Somewhere in the depths of my soul, I have an unfortunate feeling that the response from this administration to the devastation of say, Aspen Colorado by an avalanche would have been faster and more complete than the devastation of some American ghetto of poor people.
In the meantime, the refugees at the Astrodome can thank their lucky stars that they no longer have their own residences or jobs and so on. Thank goodness we have the former 1st lady, current 1st mother to point out how fortunate they really are.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
