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Archive for October, 2005

NATURAL DISASTERS & RACISM ?

Posted by straight shooter on October 2, 2005 under Political, Social Concerns

For the past couple of weeks now the national media talking heads and print journalists have been obsessing as to who must shoulder the blame for what virtually everyone agrees was a slow response to Hurricane Katrina after the massive storm ravaged sections of the Gulf Coast and left the historic city of New Orleans immersed in a sea of toxic, deadly flood water.

Having said that, it seemed impossible to imagine how anyone – regardless of ideology or party – could affix blame based on charges of racism, insensitivity or any other irrational claim. But this is modern day America and goodness knows we cannot expect anyone to take responsibility for themselves or their personal situation. We must always scapegoat someone else, we must never admit our own failures or shortcomings, and above all else we have to be free of any kind of accountability. Just ask New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin or Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco about their lack of taking responsibility for what they were suppose to do and instead passing the buck to the federal government – they were suppose to be the first line of defense.

The finger pointing started in the first couple of days after Katrina slammed into the coast, with bitterness directed at President Bush and the Republican Party for being cold-hearted and numb to the thousands of people stranded in New Orleans – the vast majority of them poor and black. It was the perfect recipe for one of Jesse Jackson’s lectures on racism and poverty, never mind that in all his years of ranting about the subject and claiming to be the voice of the voiceless, hardly anyone has benefited from his tirades other than himself. It seemed only a matter of time before someone decided this was a matter of race and economics, rather than about a natural disaster of epic proportions. How sad!

The wails and cries of racism started flowing from the mouths of those who never intend to make America a color blind society because they, in fact, are the chief beneficiaries of the very tensions they supposedly want to quell – but instead, knowingly, do whatever they can to increase the tension. The Al Sharptons, Jesse Jacksons, Sheila Jackson Lees and any number of “intellectual” rappers and hip-hop artists have literally made millions trumpeting race as the only factor in people’s lives. They should be ashamed of themselves but then that would require taking responsibility for their OWN actions?

Millions and millions of hard working, tax paying, church going people from across the U.S. have opened their checkbooks, homes, church buildings and communities to give those hit hardest by Katrina a fighting chance to start over.

Does any of it matter to those who profit from stirring up racial tensions when they do not actually exist? Of course not, because they are not interested in making things better, except for themselves. Who is selfish and who is giving something back? Hmmm.