Absolutely. I've been ranting about that FEMA guy ever since I read that lame set of comments that he decided to give out about the blame. I think they are under a lot of pressure because the rescue isn't being handled well, but blaming the people who got stuck there? What the hell?
And what people don't seem to understand about NO is the poverty there to begin with. When we visited it was amazing to see just how much poverty there was. I actually found it to be a very depressing city...you could see that a huge number of people only survived on the tourist trade...which means little job stability, lots of minimum wage hourly jobs, and little opportunity to find jobs with benefits or any hope of advancement.
You are making minimum wage, or close to it, 2 kids, and barely making ends meet. But you have been able to keep your kids fed, buy basic needs like furniture and clothes. A hurricane is coming, and you are told to leave all of the wealth you have managed to aquire over your life
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I think that peoples inability to leave was an issue of class. The lack of adequate response from the government at this moment is an issue of race and class. Do you think for one second that if most of the people left behind were middle-class and/or white that they would be receiving this kind of lack of treatment? Or blame? Or journalistic reporting which invokes images of crime? This is precisely why it needs to be discussed, openly, and now. Some peoples responses might be, well we can talk about the race stuff after all is said and done and people are taken care of. But the problem is the situation is not being addressed properly and it is because of class and race. So I guess my feeling is, if it is talked about openly it can be used as a way to put political pressure on the system and get people to acknowledge the inherent, some of it perhaps "latent" racism that is present.
The time for bringing up the issues is never _after_ the problem is solved. People will stop paying attention. So you are 100% correct, talk about it now, or not at all.
Yeah, exactly. I loved it when that guy said, ""I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans."
What kills me is that the implication is that New Orleans was evaculated. No, Tulane students were evacuated. Tulane arranged for buses, organized its students, and drove them somewhere they could stay until further notice. New Orleans, on the other hand, was not evacuated. An evactuation order was issued. Easy. But I've been reading and I didn't hear that the mayor provided buses to the poor people, didn't hear that they actually tried to set up transportation and housing outside the area. Nope, New Orleans was NOT evacuated.
I don't think they had an evacuation plan and the government definately had a piss poor ability to respond to the crisis with real relief. It shouldn't have taken that long to get buses, food and water! Thats crazy
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Yeah, isn't it? Veg likes to say "most of us are 2 paychecks from being homeless". Maybe it's really one disaster from being animals. Or maybe we just are working on an animal level, but we aren't quiet aware that for 99% of our lives we have an alpha wolf around to keep us in line.
And honestly, you won't see some trust fund baby who got trapped in that region raiding the gun shop and shooting people. I mean, _maybe_ you might, but the chances are it is the people who have been hard up for most of there life and just snapped. Or, maybe like the Mayor said, it's all a bunch of drug addicts freakin out. I kind of hope that isn't it, sure is a strong arguement against addictive drugs ;)
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And what people don't seem to understand about NO is the poverty there to begin with. When we visited it was amazing to see just how much poverty there was. I actually found it to be a very depressing city...you could see that a huge number of people only survived on the tourist trade...which means little job stability, lots of minimum wage hourly jobs, and little opportunity to find jobs with benefits or any hope of advancement.
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I think that peoples inability to leave was an issue of class. The lack of adequate response from the government at this moment is an issue of race and class. Do you think for one second that if most of the people left behind were middle-class and/or white that they would be receiving this kind of lack of treatment? Or blame? Or journalistic reporting which invokes images of crime? This is precisely why it needs to be discussed, openly, and now. Some peoples responses might be, well we can talk about the race stuff after all is said and done and people are taken care of. But the problem is the situation is not being addressed properly and it is because of class and race. So I guess my feeling is, if it is talked about openly it can be used as a way to put political pressure on the system and get people to acknowledge the inherent, some of it perhaps "latent" racism that is present.
Its sort of like using a weapon as a tool.
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The time for bringing up the issues is never _after_ the problem is solved. People will stop paying attention. So you are 100% correct, talk about it now, or not at all.
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What kills me is that the implication is that New Orleans was evaculated. No, Tulane students were evacuated. Tulane arranged for buses, organized its students, and drove them somewhere they could stay until further notice. New Orleans, on the other hand, was not evacuated. An evactuation order was issued. Easy. But I've been reading and I didn't hear that the mayor provided buses to the poor people, didn't hear that they actually tried to set up transportation and housing outside the area. Nope, New Orleans was NOT evacuated.
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Yeah, isn't it? Veg likes to say "most of us are 2 paychecks from being homeless". Maybe it's really one disaster from being animals. Or maybe we just are working on an animal level, but we aren't quiet aware that for 99% of our lives we have an alpha wolf around to keep us in line.
And honestly, you won't see some trust fund baby who got trapped in that region raiding the gun shop and shooting people. I mean, _maybe_ you might, but the chances are it is the people who have been hard up for most of there life and just snapped. Or, maybe like the Mayor said, it's all a bunch of drug addicts freakin out. I kind of hope that isn't it, sure is a strong arguement against addictive drugs ;)
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