Katrina - Race Card Finally Played

I've been following this tragedy quite extensively since it occurred. I had been wondering how long it would take for the various special interest groups and media to play the race card. We'll, outside the timeframe of my prediction, the race card is finally being played.

There's nothing like watching that ***hole Jessie Jackson shooting off at the mouth. It simply amazes me that considering 75%-80% of the folks affected are black, he/they are claiming all the white folks have received special treatment. Give me a break. When asked about the black folks walking out of the stores with stolen TV sets, blenders and microwaves, Jessie immediately switched to the topic of slavery from over 200-years ago. What a friggin' moron he is. When it was mentioned to Jessie that the leaders of those communities were black (and should share in the responsibility of unreadiness for an event like this), he claimed ingornance and couldn't think of anything to say. Imagine that............. Jesse Jackson speechless.

Unfortunately, "the race card" has been played since the very begining by "both sides". Unfortunately is is an easy target because of the predominant "race" in New Orleans.

It angers me to see it too, because the color of the people's skin is not the problem, nor it the reason for the apparent delay in a major rescue operation.

It is the welfare culture at the root of the societal problems there, and that goes beyond Black and White.

The attitude of waiting on the state or federal government to provide the ride, provide the shelter, provide the water and food, provide the relief check, and to tell them what to do is just as bad as the storm damage itself.

Silviron said:

...snip... nor it the reason for the apparent delay in a major rescue operation.
...snip...

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OK - this "delay" stuff is REALLY REALLY staring to **** me off (NOT you in particular Silviron - mostly the media)

Go to the FEMA web site - Or the Red Cross, Or Salvation Army - or almost every "Volunteer Organization Active in Disasters" (VOADS)

They will ALL tell you the same thing - After a storm figure 72 hours on your own as a MINIMUM. Note - that is NOT from the start of the storm, but from the END, and the worse the storm, the LONGER it will take, just because of logistics

Katrina's eye came ashore Monday at 6:15am - in reality, the storm ended around noon. If you remember, at first, everyone though that NO "dodged a bullet" and no major response was needed. The breach in the Levees was first reported around 2:00am TUESDAY

Now, I saw the first pictures of blackhawk choppers dropping off food/water yesterday afternoon (Thursday) and the first convoy rolled into NO around Noon today

Now, depending on which you call your starting point (Noon Monday - or Tuesday 2:00am), the Blackhawks were dropping food 72 hours after the storm (60 hrs after the breach), and the convoy rolled in 84 hrs after the storm, and 72 hrs after the breach - IN JUST ABOUT THE EXPECTED TIMEFRAME that the pros expect

It SEEMS like a LONG time, but that is our "expectations" - but NOT what the pros will tell you to expect

BTW this time frame is why you always hear about "72 hour kits" - because that's how long you can expect to wait - give or take a bit - in a major disaster

That's why I used the term "apparent"

I know what it takes to survive on your own, and how long it takes to mount an effective, massive rescue mission, even when the equipment and supplies are available "in theater".

But most people don't have a clue.

I understand this, however I fail to comprehend how a city that is 20 feet below the level of the lake, which is held back by a levee that was engineered over a century ago, isn't able to get quicker response. Most people can live without food for a week or so, but that can't live without water (or insulin, in some cases) for more than a few days at best.

The images coming out of there are worse than anything I've seen come out of Bangladesh. Our initial response was absolutely abysmal, and even Bush finally admitted tonight that it was "unacceptable." How can we allow people to die in the streets of dehydration in the USA?

I say ignore those that use unfortunate circumstances like these to divide us. They are always waiting for any chance to do so.

Let us instead focus on those who unite in a time of crisis and always overcome it long before the "Talking Heads" will predict.

I agree with all the posts.


I think that 72 hours can be improved on for furture events. Someone needs to rethink and realize that water and medicine is needed before 72 hours.

Is it possible to immediately launch helicopters with water and some basics supplies and dropped them with parachutes? Plus having helicopters flying around making announcements, within the first day, of what is going on, what to do, would have stopped a lot of panic. Knowledge is priceless in a crisis (could not think how to reword it to stop the rhyme). I actually realized this after seeing the response. I hope they did also.

I want it to be clear that I do not blame them for how they reacted to this emergency. There is no way I could because I was not there. They did the best they could. It is bad that people died. I assume that they have learned a lot and that they will improve upon how to respond to a real disaster now that they have this experience.

I also do not blame people for playing the race card. I assume that their intensions are good. I would try / say anything (within reason) to get help for someone. Like yell fire when someone is being attacked. I assume that they were just trying to get attention. Seems to have worked.

rob

Jesse Jackson is a moron. He sticks his nose into events that only embrass himself. It is sad that black people of American doesn't have a better leadership than him. who appointed him as spokesman anyway? Does anyone know a little bit about the law??

He is like Jerry springer, as black person, on the road.

fleegs said:

I think that 72 hours can be improved on for furture events. Someone needs to rethink and realize that water and medicine is needed before 72 hours.
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The REAL sad part in thi is some of the news that is breaking right now that is making the Mayor look REALLY bad

There is a school bus yard less than 2 miles from the superdome, which did NOT flood until about the time the superdome did - aka Late Tuseday/Wednesday

There are over 200 buses parked in that yard - NONE of them were used to evacuate people either before the storm or after! That part is pure FACT It also seems that none of the city buses were used to get folks out of town! The RUMOR is that the Feds offered to send in school bus drivers - and the mayor turned them down, saying that for a long trip, the people NEEDED Greyhound buses because of the bathrooms (remember - there were NO working bathrooms in the superdome)

There WAS one guy, who "Borrowed" a city bus or school bus - not sure which - he loaded 60+ people onto the bus, and was actually the FIRST bus to make it to the Astrodome - The NO police had him arrested. His comment was "There were people who needed saving, so I DID IT" A lot of people are saying that maybe HE should be the mayor - he saw what needed to be done, saw the tools to do it, and DID IT

If that happened to me; If I was dying of thirst while surrounded by water.....

I'd "loot" a destroyed building of some copper tubing, Get a pressure cooker or some kind of sealable metal container and a container to catch it in; "loot" a couple bags of charcoal, some scrap wood, or a propane tank and rig a simple burner. Then I'd start distilling water.

And If I were a leader amongst men, I'd set up to do it on a large scale, in several places.

I could find the scraps necessary to do this in any small town or city and get a small one running within two hours, enough to produce enough drinking water for myself and a few others.

Not like they are abandoned in a desert without tools and material.

A large one could be put together by a small group of people to provide distilled drinking water to dozens if not hundreds of people in an afternoon. Fuel to keep a big one running for long would be somewhat of a problem, but with thousands of buildings halfway destroyed with tons of wood to salvage from them, you just get a group of scavengers to trade fuel for water, and it is quite doable.

I would NOT be just sitting around waiting for someone to rescue me or deliver me the barest necessities for survival. Even if the busses showed up ten minutes after I finished producing my first drop of water, it wouldn't have been a wasted effort, because it would have given me something to do besides dwelling on my problems and feeling helpless and abandoned by the government and society.

Or if I didn't have the knowledge and skills necessary to build a still (and you can't tell me that there aren't a BUNCH of people there that have experience in building and operating stills) I'd "loot" some bleach, iodine or water purification tablets, filter the cleanest lake water I could find through a "looted" coffee filter or dust mask and hope I got the majority of the nasties out of it.

Of course once the lawless "takers" would hear about my fresh water, and come to try to steal it rather than learn how to provide for themselves.... But that's a whole different story.

Good post Tin. I heard Rev. Jackson on CNN earlier today as well. I flinch everytime some hapless news organization gives him some air time.

It is true that most of the people affected were black. This is likely a result of the fact that New Orleans has such a high black population (over 50%) and they make up a disportionate amount of the poor in that area. No surprises there. We still need to help them all we can. "We will always have the poor".

I agree also with the other posters who said that the response occured at about the speed you would expect considering the size of the operation and the terrain. Trent Lott (LA senator) in an interview said some good things about how people just have a different perspective when they are in the midst of a trial.

Now granted, it does seem like there was a higher than normal death rate during the wait. I have a theory why there may be a difference in the fatalities for a given situation between US and third world enviroments.

Due to our increased wealth and public services, more people who would be considered quite ill (or dead) in a third world country are able to live more normal lives in the US. They have the ability to self administer needed treatments in home using sophisticated drugs and health care machines. But this care depends on the availability of electric power, the nearby drug store, etc.

If these people were in a third world, they would already be dead. But the availability of our technology, etc supports their life. If they are suddenly moved into a third world situation, even for a brief period, death is more likely. Just a theory.

To a lesser extent, this "technology shock" may also have contributed to everyone's stress level during this ordeal. Generally, technology is a great thing of course, we just need to understand what happens when things drastically change.

What I am curious about is why funding was cut to the US Army corps of engineers for levy upgrades. Those upgrades were a lot cheaper than what we must pay now.

Peter

Gransee said:

.............What I am curious about is why funding was cut to the US Army corps of engineers for levy upgrades. Those upgrades were a lot cheaper than what we must pay now.

Peter

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I hear that the reason that the money was cut was because the Federal Bill which would have funded it required a 80% Federal /20% City of New Orleans split, and the people of New Orleans refused to raise their taxes or issue bonds to pay for their share.

(I don't know this for an absolute fact myself... I just heard it through a couple of independant sources who are usually pretty reliable and knowledgable.)

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