Posted on 07/06/2008 6:02:34 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Is it really true that the people of Iowa and Wisconsin are morally superior to the residents of New Orleans?
That certainly seems to be the attitude of some Wisconsin State Journal readers who send me e-mails on a daily basis crowing about how victims of the floods of Cedar Rapids aren't whining or asking for hand-outs, unlike the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
The messages take the same perspective: When floodwaters drowned downtown Cedar Rapids, people got to work filling sandbags and helping one another. When the residents of New Orleans were drowned in the floodwaters unleashed by Katrina and a failing levee, all they did was to go on television and bash President Bush.
We can all admire the spirit of the people of Cedar Rapids, just as we admire the spirit of residents in Jefferson, Fort Atkinson, Pardeeville and the other Wisconsin communities that faced flooding earlier this month. They worked hard. They faced catastrophe with aplomb. They helped one another. They are good people.
But to compare their plight with that faced by the residents of New Orleans in 2005 is bizarre and does a disservice both to the people of New Orleans and to the residents of those communities closer to home.
The floodwaters of New Orleans covered 80 percent of one of America's major cities. More than 1 million area residents left for higher ground before the hurricane struck. Those who remained tended to be poor, elderly and confused.
In Cedar Rapids, the flood may have ruined 4,000 homes and the floods caused more than 20,000 residents to evacuate the area. That's about equal to the number of New Orleans residents who fled to the sports dome, only to find themselves trapped in a concrete island, surrounded by flood waters and lacking food and sanitation. Not only was New Orleans flooded, but most of southern Louisiana was under water, as was a good part of nearby Mississippi. It was a huge catastrophe.
I could go on, but you get the picture. The magnitudes of the disasters in New Orleans and in Cedar Rapids were in no way equivalent. To equate them is to minimize the trauma of the hurricane.
There is one other difference, too. By every account I've read, the response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Wisconsin and in Iowa has been superb. In New Orleans, we may recall, FEMA did a "heck of a job." This time, our local residents are asking for government assistance and, unlike their neighbors in New Orleans, they are getting it promptly.
In the end, our best bet is to stop trying to feel superior to those who suffered in Louisiana and, instead, be respectful for what our neighbors in Wisconsin and Iowa are going through and the grace with which they are doing so. There's enough grief to go around. We don't need to find artificial ways of feeling superior to others who have suffered.
actually this is a good comparison between a welfare state (NO) and a non-welfare state as well as people who can’t take care of themselves (welfare state) versus those who can (non-welfare state)...
It's just an observation.
“Is it really true that the people of Iowa and Wisconsin are morally superior to the residents of New Orleans?”
To be blunt about the racial divide in this country: Yes.
This line made me laugh. Liberalism is entirely about feeling morally superior to those toothless fundies.
Ah, but many Mississippi residents got hammered just as hard as NOLA residents. ...and they behaved quite differently. No surprise the author conveniently omits that point.
Dey's po'!
I love the euphemism "confused" that the story used.
I knew a guy once who said there was something about salt air...
“I could go on, but you get the picture. The magnitudes of the disasters in New Orleans and in Cedar Rapids were in no way equivalent. To equate them is to minimize the trauma of the hurricane.”
Ahh but Cedar Rapids wasn’t the only place flooded. Hundreds of towns were flooded.
The comparison is quite good and demonstrates how the liberal mentality gets people killed.
Yes. Next question.
Do the people of Iowa and Wisconsin have better mayors and governors than NO and LA?
Yes. They actually have neurons still firing.
Bill Wineke is a moron. When you know FIVE DAYS AHEAD OF TIME that a catagory 5 hurricane has drawn a bead on your @$$ and you just stand there and wait for it to hit, well, the Wisconsin “flood victims” might not be “better” than those in N’awlins but they sure are a hell of a lot SMARTER.
To answer this question: You damned right they are! No looting, no mayors running off to the high ground and neighbors actually helping eachother to save what they could!
New Orleans could learn a lesson or two from our midwestern neighbors, but the fact is they are too damned lazy and stupid to get the message.
The Oshkosh flood victims were all over the news bashing Bush and the government.
I miss seeing Looter Guy. He needs to be on nearly EVERY post around here, don’t you think?
His reaction to a crisis (Steal what you can from others!) and way of life (I got mine, thanks to Taxpayers who actually WORK for a living!) clearly capture the Libtard Mindset. :)
Where are all the telethons for “fly over country”?
I doubt there is anything artificial about it.
“Where are all the telethons for ‘fly over country’?”
There won’t be any. All of the great bands are busy touring the State and County Fairs this time of year, LOL!
(Cheap Trick, Three Dog Night, Blondie, Poison, Kansas, ‘John Mellon Cougarcamp,’ et al.)
In the meantime, the public school buses were submerged in their parking lots, and roughly 1,400 residents of New Orleans drowned in their homes. Was any elected official in Iowa this incompetent, and deadly?
And, do you think the voters of Iowa would be stupid enough to reelect a "leader" that stupid. Now, that's a valid difference, don't you think?
Congressman Billybob
Latest article, "A Walk in the Park -- for a Century or More"
Have not seen them on TV crying for help from DC? They also did not loot!!!!Anybody see a congressman getting the Nation Guard to drive him to his house to get his frozen money outa the fridge!!!
The people of New Orleans had days, literally DAYS, to get out of town. They sat around on their butts knowing that “the gubmint” will take care of everything. People in MS got hit harder than NOLA and they didn’t complain.
Yep. And that would be the Democrat party "base" of welfare staters.
My neighbor (here in Pennsylvania) is from Biloxi and has lots of family still there. Two days after the hurricane she loaded up a trailer full of food and large tanks of gasoline and drove south to help her family. The people there did not wring their hands waiting for the landlord (AKA, the government) to come rescue them, take them to a posh hotel and give them $2,200 debit cards.
It is, of course, no surprise that the Democrat "mainstream" newsrooms never gave Haley Barbour the credit he deserved for his terrific management of the crisis in Mississippi, concentrating instead on reporting about the poor, worthless, welfare-staters of New Orleans because, well, they are their party's most important base constituency.
Having been to both areas, before and after Katrina, I can attest to that. Biloxi got wiped freaking out. It's the greatest untold story.
That said.. there are important differences between New Orleans and Mississippi... with regards to the response of FEMA
1) In Mississippi, when the storm was over, the water was GONE. Relief trucks could drive right up and set up shop... helping the locals. In NO, the people were cut off by the flood waters, that stayed around for weeks. It was MUCH harder to physically get relief to where the needy people actually were.
2) In Mississippi, you didn't have a "deer-in-headlights" Govenor who was more concerned about not making W look good than in helping the State's people. There was instant cooperation between the State and the Feds. That way works... better anyway.
New Orleans reaped what it has sown for decades.
Police looting Walmart.
It is one thing for this simple mouse Wineke to write from the template that government is God and therefore is responsible for curing anything "unfair" befalls people, but it's another thing for him to perpetrate the lie that FEMA is somehow a "first responder" to natural calamities.
But then, Wineke is just doing what liberal Democrats do - - he's lying.
Just a pair of N’awlins finest at work.
Reparations.
Already WELL underway for decades...
And wasn’t that dome below sea level?
True. I can’t find any pics of “their finest” looting the cadillac dealership. I heard they took a much needed “vacation” to Las Vegas immediately after that if memory serves correctly.
It’s because small towns / cities in Iowa and Wisconsin have functioning local Governments.
People in NO had corrupt, incompetent leaders in their City and State who could’t find their way out of paper bag.
It’s the essence of democracy - accountability and responsibility at the LOCAL level.
Two case studies:
NO - poor, black, dependent, lib dominated, got a boatload of help and money, still waiting for others to fix their worthless city and still whining.
Mississippi - poor, black, independent (lots of military families), conservative, got some help and money, pretty much done rebuilding.
Gee. Why the different results? Hint: It’s got nothing to do with race and poverty.
Rural WI is more like Mississippi in attitude. Race doesn’t matter, attitude does. So of course WI is going to take care of biz...
if it wasn't before it sure was after.
I’ll tell you the difference
“people got to work filling sandbags and helping one another”
Not looting, fighting or bitchin about the “man”
This is what the midwest is all about - hard work.
Note: For those of you who missed it, Milwaukee did have its problems with emergency food assistance. Word got out that anyone was eligible - as you can imagine this provoked quite a sceen at the local welfare office. Sad part is, those that really did need help were afraid to go anywhere near the area.
Just think. Without this lefty we'd have no idea that it was perfectly OK for the cops to join in the looting because the magnitude of the disaster was so much bigger in New Orleans.
“as well as people who can’t take care of themselves (welfare state)”
People who won’t not can’t.
It's about dependence vs. self-sufficiency, whining vs. action, self-entitlement vs. responsibility. ....in short, liberal vs. conservative.
That seem a mite bit harsh...
I wonder if looter guy is aware of his fame?
I just can't add a lot to that.
Do you have a link or a source from anywhere or anyone that says a category 5 hurricane was going to hit New Orleans 5 days before it hit?
yeah, and they need to host the SuperBowl in Wisconsin and make a TV show about life on the streets of Cedar Rapids!
The author clearly feels the NO residents were justified in riot-like behavior, looting, violence, and general poor behavior (not to mention the anti-Bush hate spouted and scrams of racism) all because of the magnitude of the disaster.
Ask those who lost everything in Wisconsin, Iowa, or the other states with serious flooding if their loss was a “disaster”...
Attitude is everything.
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