LOL @ Bush talking about gas in that first Rose Garden speech. Oh I am so comforted now, hearing about the oil situation. OIL IS SAFE, EVERYBODY! OK OMG. Sometimes when I get worried about oil I repeat those words over and over!!!!
Heh. And yet, in a lot of places in the US, especially the South, especially when people are driven from their homes, they need gas to live- as much as they need pretty much anything. And then there's the whole, crash the economy, millions starve aspect...
Those are the choices you have when you live in a place like Toronto. And, if you can afford it, you can get a car just for those things. I only ever had a car for a couple years, when I lived in California, and once I had it I used in constantly. In NYC, it's pretty crazy to keep a car, but I would like to have one about once every 2 weeks.
FEMA and the associated services were cut in the name os 'Homeland security'. So all that money went to largely ineffective screening machines, the FBI and CIA. Natural emergencies, like flooding, earthquakes and storms have taken a back seat.
Of course, the governor of Mississippi and Lousiana are standing there, shocked and dumb and denoucing desperate angry people when their own support of Bush adminstartion has put their own people in this bind.
I continue to have trouble going from the small-scale to the big-picture badness. The Times website this morning had the tale of 14 people who stole a catering truck to get out of N.O. who were refused entrance to the shelter at the Astrodome, when they got there, because they had LOOTED. The para's conclusion went something like this:
Mrs. [I forget the name], one of the people in the bread truck, said "we knew it was wrong, but we just had no other options," as she held her six month old baby on her hip." Officials at the shelter said that they had given the fourteen breakfast before turning them away.
I can't get that story out of my head. Just randomly bringing a fork to Washington, there to poke every suit-wearing white guy I see, is not a real solution to anything. But what is to be done?
Some time in my 30s, I had a conversation of childhood ideas about stealing with a couple old friends, one of those conversations where you realize you aren't just like everyone else and didn't form your impressions by means of the same stories. they (sisters, kids of left wingnut parents) both thought (when they were kids) that if they stole, the police would come and take them to jail. I don't remember what I thought would happen to me, but I do remember that my model of "stealing" was of someone taking bread to feed themselves or their families, so I didn't really think of it as an offense
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Well I guess I'm exagerrating- or rather, that's what it sounds like to me, but that doesn't mean it's literally what people say. But what I hear all the time (very much in fandom in recent months) is very much like what you're quoting on sexism. And in any *given* case, I find that almost every white person will say, oh *that's* not about race, that's got nothing to do with race. Or people say all discrimination is the same, or how they suffer discrimination as white people, or etc etc. Race brings out the stupid and obnoxious like nothing else, in my experience.
When I squint really hard it looks like a call to conserve energy, as it is, in context, it's callous and stupid, almost as if he's telling people to suck it up wimps.
I've been watching coverage on Katrina, and one of the things I noticed immediately is that almost all of the victims trapped in the Gulf are black, the people who escaped--the Tulane baseball players, guy who lost a million-dollar beachfront property, the family trying to find rooms at motels, mom in an SUV with granny and videogame playing kid in tow--all white. I thought it might be kneejerk reaction to less than scientific eyeball polling on my part until I read this.
Did you hear about the controversy concerning the captions on pictures of the victims? Going by the captions, white people "find" things, black people "loot".
Of course, whether to evacuate is only a choice for people who have the resources to make it an option.I wondered if attempts were made by the government to help people who wanted to but couldn't due to
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I was being kneejerky with the pics though. According to the photographer who took the picture of the black kid, he saw him go into a store and took stuff from it. And the photographer who took the other pic said the two people took the stuff that was floating in the water.
That's good to know about the photographers, but I still think the editors fucked up. And anyway, it doesn't come down to individual racist decisions, but to overall impressions and attitudes. I am glad people are talking about it, at least.
And of course there are many poor white victims as well.
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None of which excuse the himbo
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Then sometimes I want to go to IKEA and I want that car! OMG I AM THE WORST COMMIE PINKO EVER, I FEEL SO GUILTY.
Then I remember gas prices. I AM SO S-M-R-T NOT PLAYING THE 'CAR' GAME!
But then I think how nice it would be to drive to the beach. DAMN THAT COTTAGE WEEKEND WOULD BE GOOD RIGHT ABOUT NOW.
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Of course, the governor of Mississippi and Lousiana are standing there, shocked and dumb and denoucing desperate angry people when their own support of Bush adminstartion has put their own people in this bind.
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Mrs. [I forget the name], one of the people in the bread truck, said "we knew it was wrong, but we just had no other options," as she held her six month old baby on her hip." Officials at the shelter said that they had given the fourteen breakfast before turning them away.
I can't get that story out of my head. Just randomly bringing a fork to Washington, there to poke every suit-wearing white guy I see, is not a real solution to anything. But what is to be done?
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Your post said everything I have been thinking and saying. THis whole mess makes me sick on so many, many different levels.
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Yeah, this was the first time I really watched tv since...
Next time someone tries to tell me what a non issue race is etc etc, I am going to fill my mouth with nails and spit them at them.
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When I squint really hard it looks like a call to conserve energy, as it is, in context, it's callous and stupid, almost as if he's telling people to suck it up wimps.
I've been watching coverage on Katrina, and one of the things I noticed immediately is that almost all of the victims trapped in the Gulf are black, the people who escaped--the Tulane baseball players, guy who lost a million-dollar beachfront property, the family trying to find rooms at motels, mom in an SUV with granny and videogame playing kid in tow--all white. I thought it might be kneejerk reaction to less than scientific eyeball polling on my part until I read this.
Did you hear about the controversy concerning the captions on pictures of the victims? Going by the captions, white people "find" things, black people "loot".
Of course, whether to evacuate is only a choice for people who have the resources to make it an option.I wondered if attempts were made by the government to help people who wanted to but couldn't due to ( ... )
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And of course there are many poor white victims as well.
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