Where are all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?
Where is all the media asking the tough questions about why the federal government hasn't solved the problem? Asking where the FEMA trucks (and trailers) are?
Why isn't the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels in Chicago ?
When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines ?
Where are Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks?
Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen television sets?
When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a 'vanilla' Iowa , because that's the way God wants it?
Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of cannibalism?
Where are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural people?
How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever again?
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I got the post above from a friend in E-mail and it really gave me pause to think about the differences in certain areas of the country.... even after Katrina, all you heard about was what was happening (or not happening, according to some sources) in New Orleans....you didn't hear much about the surrounding areas that were just as hard hit, if not worse. It was conventional wisdom that it was "all George Bush's fault",of course.
What was the difference between NO and the other areas hard hit by Katrina, and now the vast areas hit last week in Iowa? As far as I can tell, the main difference is in the expectations of the victims involved.
In those areas with large populations that were dependant on the government for their livelihood, and where there was constant reinforcement of the idea that "it's not your fault; you deserve help to survive", the people reacted just as you would expect from a victim mentality - they didn't even have the chutzpah to get out of the way when they knew the flood waters were coming.
That helplessness included those responsible for the welfare of the community. Mayor Nagin decried the lack of Federal aid when he didn't even use the resources available to him to evacuate people from the danger; letting school buses get flooded rather than using them to transport people to safety.
N O had an election soon after the disaster and the people re-elected Nagin as Mayor in spite of his lack of ability as demonstrated in the disaster; they preferred maintaining the status quo of eternal dependence on government aid to the possibility of a new paradigm of self-reliance with assistance to get over the hump.
We haven't heard one word of complaint from those in Alabama or Mississippi that suffered just as much as the residents of N O from Katrina, or even those in LA that weren't in the city proper, nor from the current victims of flooding in Iowa.
The main difference in expectations seems to stem from the race of those involved. I say this knowing full well that that statement will certainly make me, ipso facto, a Racist, but I don't think that anyone can argue about the fact that one group is predominately (poor)Black and the other two groups are predominately white and "middle class" Black. I think that race IS a factor, but attitude is a much greater factor.
I believe that the poor attitude is engendered by the social engineering schemes of the Left. I truly believe that the "Compassionate" Left are the true racists.
Misguided "help" in the form of welfare with no strings attached (no strings other than the loss of self-pride and trust in self-reliance) has led to multi-generational government dependents that truly ARE incapable of fending for themselves.
The racism of soft expectations has proved to be more destructive to the Black race than the harshest forms of Jim Crow bigotry ever were.
We need to have an honest dialogue on race relations in the U.S., but I don't see it happening as long as the mass media only puts up the race pimps such as Jackson, Sharpton, and Wright as the "true" representatives of the Black population. Their only interest in race relations is in keeping them as strained as possible so that they can continue their money making power bases.
Have Blacks been abused in our past? YES, beyond denying by any sane person.
Are there inherent/unfair difficulties in being Black in America? I would say Yes, but with the stipulation that ALL of the races have some form of unfair conditions to deal with just by existing.
It's a true measure of the individual how he/she deals with those conditions in constructive and uplifting ways. We need to decide as a society whether we are going to continue with our heritage of self-reliance and self-determination, or move on to a Socialistic mode of the individual being merely a ward of the State.
Seems an easy choice to me, but not for the 'all compassionate' Left...
Posted by Delftsman3 at June 29, 2008 07:29 PM | TrackBack