I know that the ****** living in New Orleans are still living in virtual poverty after the hurricane. I also know the whites are profiting by selling bus tours at $47 per person to travel round to see the ****** like animals in a zoo.
I live in N'Awlins. You are OBVIOUSLY one of the way too many folks who take the mentally lazy approach to the specials shown on TV. You believe what you see. How many times must we tell you that even a "straight" news report or special report is heavily biased by their choice of what they show? Do you EVER listen? Ever? These shows emphasize negatives to sell air time. They have to show the sensationalist crap or they lose sponsors. What part of "doing it for money" (i.e. journalistic prostitution) don't you understand?
The poverty-stricken people to whom you refer are not the norm for N'Awlins. This environment you describe is limited to a very small neighborhood. These people were in virtual poverty BEFORE the hurricane and therefore I cannot get overly worked up about them being in poverty after the storm. They are the ne'er-do-wells who would be poor two days after they won a lottery ticket because they cannot imagine themselves as breaking out of the cycle of poverty. Victims - yes. But not really of poverty. Instead, they are victims of their own self-fulfilling prophecy of poverty.
The tour bus shows the tourists the harsh reality of homes destroyed by government incompetence. Believe it or not, this is to our advantage because all too many folks think we had "just a little bit of water" in the city and that we are mostly rebuilt. Well, 'tain't so, McGee.
When the tourists see water lines two inches under the eaves of the house, or when they see houses swept off their foundations, they realize that the U.S. Government is so busy looking overseas that they have neglected their own. When they see whole blocks overgrown with weeds, dirt, and debris, they realize that a lot more damage was done than they could ever comprehend. When they see whole camps full of FEMA trailers, they begin to grasp the magnitude of a disaster that damaged or destroyed 200,000 homes in a single state.
My stepdaughter bought one of the affected houses and is renovating. I have seen it. Within walking distance I could show you houses overgrown with creeping vines, weeds, mold, and other forms of decay. I've seen ghost towns that were cleaner.
Contemplate, if you will, a region with a population of 840,000+ (that's 200K times husband, wife, and 2.2 kids) wiped out by flooding. Contemplate, if you will, a city with a sudden 25% drop in population through relocation. Now contemplate chaos. 'bout the same, arent' they?
I don't fault GWB for the war in Iraq. That needed to happen, for reasons I have discussed elsewhere. But where I fault him mightily is that he allowed partisan politics to interfere with the rebuilding initiatives. Mississippi, our neighboring state to the East, had a Republican governor. We have a Democratic governor who chastized GWB for his weak-assed response post-Katrina. When comparing the numbers of damaged homes, Mississippi had less than 20% of Louisiana's total, but got more money initially. And they still get more in proportion to the damage than we do.
Your "******" comment is so outrageous and uncalled-for that it shows your total and complete ignorance. It is racist to even bring it up. I'm offended by it and I'm not even one of the "******" to whom you refer. This isn't my forum, but I can assure you that you deserve any chastisement you might get for making such racist comments.