|
Nyawlins
September 10, 2005 3) The Outrage The worst-case scenario we had read about days earlier had come true. And in spite of the warnings and predictions of the scale of this disaster, nothing was done to prepare for a rapid evacuation of the city. The tales of outrage... of indifference and incompetence at the highest levels of government... bombarded the airwaves from all directions. Even the shills at Fox News were expressing outrage at the disaster response... or, more accurately, the LACK of disaster response. While the great city of New Orleans was filling up with water, the emperor was out giving fundraising speeches, playing golf, and strumming a guitar. Why wasn't he on the phone getting relief moving? The head of Homeland Security didn't even know that 15,000 people were at the convention center waiting for help until he heard about it from a reporter days later. When some Navy ships were finally mobilized to go to New Orleans for rescue operations, why did they have to come from Norfolk, VA? Do they mean to tell me that there are no ships in any naval port on the Gulf of Mexico, from Brownsville to Key West, that could have been mobilized to help those people? If that's the case, then our national defense is stretched so thin, they couldn't repel an invasion from Jamaica. So while hundreds - if not thousands - of people were dying from the horrific and disgusting conditions of this flood, and the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana were BEGGING the federal government for help, emperor Bush was playing golf, Condi-sleeza Rice was watching Broadway shows and shopping for fancy shoes, and Cheney and Rumsfeld were hiding in the back room, probably plotting how to turn this disaster to their advantage. These fools sat on their hands for days, and when the nation began to notice their negligence, those bastards started blaming the victims. They blamed them for not evacuating when they were told to... even though most of these people had NO WAY to evacuate... they didn't have cars; Greyhound, Amtrak and the airlines had cancelled service, and every rental car in the area was long gone. Some people did have cars, but they didn't have any money and they didn't have credit cards, so how were they going to pay for gas or motel rooms? So even though there was a "mandatory evacuation," a lot of people had no means to evacuate, and nothing was done to help them. How hard could it have been to come up with a few hundred school buses to bring people up to Baton Rouge or someplace? Regarding the so-called "looting." People were starving, people couldn't get drinkable water, and their clothes were in shambles. The supplies they desperately needed could only be found on the shelves of stores that were closed... many of these people were willing and able to buy what they needed, but they were unable to do so. So when desperate people are left with no choice but to commandeer the supplies they need, they call it 'looting.' Give these folks a break. When the business owners come back, everything in their stores will be written off as a loss, and they'll get big checks from their insurance companies. If the food stays on the shelf, is it going to be any good by the time the city is resettled? When people are starving and gathering food that they so desperately need, you can't call it "looting." There are many other outragous tales coming out of New Orleans. Amtrak offered to evacuate people by the trainload, but they were turned down. The Red Cross was being denied access to New Orleans. We heard of other countries from all over the world lining up to offer help in the rescue and recovery efforts, and being turned away. FEMA even sent out a communication, urging first responders not to respond! Some nursing home operators in St. Bernard Parish were charged with negligent homicide for allowing their patients to die. It seems to me that the same charges would be appropriate for the authorities at FEMA who neglected the starving and dying citizens of New Orleans while preventing other American citizens from helping them.
|
Respond to this story
A Different Reality home page
purplearth home