[lit-ideas] Re: Katrina
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 00:15:27 -0400
> At 11:34 PM 9/2/2005, you wrote:
> > > [Original Message]
> > > From: Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx>
> > > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Date: 9/2/2005 11:06:04 PM
> > > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Katrina
> > >
> > >
> > >Nobody took control? Of course not, they were
> > > waiting for the government to. Unfortunately, the teet was dry.
> > >
> >
> >Paul, what do you think of the fact that our treasury is empty because
> >billionaire level people got most of the money? Or do you think that's
> >just a myth propagated by Bush haters? It's true, but for the sake of
> >argument, let's assume it's not true and the middle class got all the tax
> >money (an average of about $600 per return). Don't you think it's just
> >plain stupid to put one's country into a position where it has no money?
>
> Dude, Canada has been in receivership since the late 60s. We are
perilous.
> We live with it.
>
Except that Bush came into office and the first thing he did was give away
the money. Your government may be in receivership, but at least your
people get services. We get shit. And don't tell me the poor are getting
it all. If they were, they wouldn't keep getting poorer and poorer.
> In 1998, we had an absolutely terrible ice storm in a huge part of
Quebec.
> People spent 3 weeks without heat in the heart of a very brutal winter.
> BILLIONS of dollars of damage was done, but people from as far as 500
miles
> were taking their OWN vehicles and working in sub-zero conditions
> immediately to fix the problems -- and most of Canada doesn't even LIKE
> Quebec (jk). Of course there were fuckhead opportunists in the Montreal
> area who preyed on people by jacking prices up and there was some
looting.
> But, the thing was that the vast majority of people did what they could,
> without ANY government intervention and acted out of the goodness of
their
> hearts and fixed the problem as fast as was humanly possible. They didn't
> throw money at the problem. They actually put their OWN boots on and did
> something. I see NONE of that in this 'disaster'. People were abandoned
by
> their government and the national guard, FEMA etc. but they were also
> abandoned by the other 400,000 people who "knew better". It doesn't seem
> that ANYONE who can is trying to help. It's just sickening. They are
> obviously helpless people and they have no help.
>
This is where Marlena has a point. The mentality of the middle class is
very different from that of the disenfranchised poor. Not to mention that
these people were up to their rooftops in water. What could they have
done? Build a boat? Swim? Swim to where? The people in Canada were also
not coralled into one spot of 20,000 with no food or water or boots to pull
themselves up by in heat of over 100 degrees. Paul, there's no comparison.
I'm all for individual responsibility, but if we insist on individual
responsibility, then the billionaires should not have taken the money.
They suck the government tit harder than anybody and nobody even notices
let alone holds them accountable.
> >Then to set up DHS and have it do absolutely nothing. Slate said
Chertoff
> >proved he could pull together a very efficient press conference. You
keep
> >saying the poor are feasting off this government tit. I think that's
> >scapegoating, like the religious right blaming the gays for the
hurricane.
>
> take a look at who the people are who are STILL in New Orleans. Ask
> yourself why. It's not their fault. I'm not scapegoating. It's just the
way
> it is. And the thing is, it was predictable and technically avoidable. In
> reality, it obviously was NOT avoidable, afterall, it actually happened.
>
Are you a long distance runner or walker that you think people should just
walk out and go somewhere? Chemical plants are exploding, there's still
water, there are now gangs that are proliferating. Long distance
walking/running also takes drinking water. Where are they supposed to get
that? You sound like what they might be saying at this very moment at DHS
in response to this.
And it was absolutely avoidable. The fact that it happened had nothing to
do with avoidability and everything to do with utter lack of preparation.
Andy
> Paul
>
>
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