Posted on 12/06/2005 3:25:07 PM PST by quantim
WASHINGTON (AP) — Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust.
The comparison is inappropriate, according to Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla.
"Not a single person was marched into a gas chamber and killed," Miller told the survivors.
"They died from abject neglect," retorted community activist Leah Hodges. "We left body bags behind."
Angry evacuees described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said she was "one sunrise from being consumed by maggots and flies." Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter's forehead. Others said their families were called racial epithets by police.
"No one is going to tell me it wasn't a race issue," said New Orleans evacuee Patricia Thompson, 53, who is now living in College Station, Texas. "Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black."
Not all lawmakers seemed persuaded.
"I don't want to be offensive when you've gone though such incredible challenges," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. But referring to some of the victims' charges, like the gun pointed at the girl, Shays said: "I just don't frankly believe it."
"You believe what you want," Thompson said.
The hearing was held by a special House committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., investigating the government's preparations and response to Katrina. It was requested by Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
"Racism is something we don't like to talk about, but we have to acknowledge it," McKinney said. "And the world saw the effects of American-style racism in the drama as it was outplayed by the Katrina survivors."
The five white and two black lawmakers who attended the hearing mostly sat quietly during two and a half hours of testimony. But tempers flared when evacuees were asked by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., to not compare shelter conditions to a concentration camp.
"I'm going to call it what it is," said Hodges. "That is the only thing I could compare what we went through to."
Of five black evacuees who testified, only one said he believed the sluggish response was the product of bad government planning for poor residents — not racism.
It wouldn't hurt if she would learn the meaning of the word "outplay" (as in "the Chargers outplayed the Raiders").
I more easily believe that the story is totally made up. Our armed forces are trained better than that. Besides, to point the laser they would have to be aiming their rifle. Which, I think, would be a much better story. ie the photo of Elian Gonzalez being taken from the home.
I feel so sorry for the children that were stuck in NO because their stupid caretakers didn't get off their arses and leave. I went through the missing children photos almost daily, and most of the children missing got "separated from their caretakers" in their description of circumstances. That also made me wonder if the caretakers somehow saved themselves and not the children they were responsible for. I also wondered where the parents were.
As in, the Seahawks outplayed the living sh!t out of the Eagles . . .
I thought Frank Zappa was dead. Why is he bailing out a pirogue with a go-cup?
These people are beyond pathetic. Figures that dipstick RINO Christopher Shays would be at this hearing.
"Godwin's law
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Godwin's Law (also Godwin's Rule of Nazi analogies) is an adage in Internet culture that was originated by Mike Godwin in 1990.
The law states that:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.
Although the law does not specifically mention it, there is a tradition in many Usenet newsgroups that once such a comparison is made, the thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress.
It is considered poor form to arbitrarily raise such a comparison with the motive of ending the thread. There is a widely-recognized codicil that any such deliberate invocation of Godwin's law will be unsuccessful."
Racist Liberals Lose.
I wonder what will happen when all these dopes are sitting in their beautiful habitat homes and another hurricane comes and they are ordered to evacuate. I am betting they will once again go to the convention center and superdome, IF they leave their houses. Do I have any takers? No? I'm shocked!
These people don't believe that crap it's all democrat racist posturing. Who got their sorry asses out of there and how soon? It sure wasn't the black mayor, etc.
How many tens of thousands of cars, trucks and SUVs have the auto insurance industry estimated were destroyed,sitting in car ports and garages in the Ninth Ward and elsewhere? Every photo of the scenes of devastation shows vehicles that should have been GONE. If these apathetic people had driven them out of NO, they wouldn't have had to go to the Dome or the overpasses. But this group will always find someone other than themselves to blame for their lazy, ignorant choices.
This moon bat actually said this? McKinney talks about racism like crack heads talk about crack
To be fair, it was reported that there were instances of Rescue workers demanding that all babies and little ones be passed overhead to be the first on rescue vehicles.
I wondered at the time how any breathing, thinking, parent would allow a child out of their grasp like that.
I suspect that there was mass hysteria and I suspect that many of those hysterical folks were on the lower end of the educational scale. That is a recipe for disaster.
None of this makes the situation any less sad.
That also made me wonder if the caretakers somehow saved themselves and not the children they were responsible for.
It would appear that many tried to save neither themselves nor the children in their care. Unfathomable.
It's the only arrow in her quiver.
I saw Nagin on TV saying 'git your ass out of town.' He didn't say, 'white people git your ass out of town.' I think we have an IQ issue here, not race.
Like him or not he is about the only one up there to call those idiots on what they were saying. I'm no Shays fan but on this one he was right on.
"Why couldn't these people at least take what they could carry and leave as quickly as possible?"
Because they do not act until being told what to do by their government masters, to be blunt. It is really hard to blame some of them, because self reliance has not been required of them for such a long time.When I refer to "some of them" I'm speaking exclusively of the people left behind in New Orleans. I know I stand to be accused of racism for statements like that, but that is not the case. It is really hard to be honest when it comes to race issues.
FNC just played a clip from the hearing, scary. In a way it is hard to blame these 'victims' since it was government that created this mentality in the first place. They (we) get the government they deserve.
Liberals and dems seem to do rather well in making messes that get people killed.
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