The Facts About Katrina (this should make the libs scream)

The lesson of Hurricane Katrina is not about a failure to help. It’s not about a lack of desire to be compassionate, to save lives. It is not about the speed of response. The lesson is about an American culture that has forgotten how to think for itself, to act with personal authority and responsibility.

The lesson, is about the deadly legacy of dependence. Too many Americans, used to soft living and the asinine wisdom that taking care of one’s self is politically incorrect, think that government is an all-seeing Santa who will care for their needs from cradle to grave. They forget that the first responder is ALWAYS the individual, a concept that makes the feckless tremble and shake. You would think that the horror of New Orleans would convince otherwise, however liberal media and politicians have so ingrained a hatred and terror of rugged individualism within the popular culture that the citizenry seems beyond convincing.

There’s a reason I’ve taken so long to write about Katrina. Mostly, I found it in very bad taste to start pointing fingers and assigning blame - as the networks, politicians, pundits, pseudo-religious leaders and major newspapers did - while people were still drowning. Partly, I found it impossible to intelligently comment before there were least a couple of reliable facts on the table (though such didn’t stop Katie Couric and her fellow celebrity news-readers). Within 48 hours of this natural disaster, rapper Kanye West, with the assistance of an ever–so–accommodating media, was proclaiming to the world that George Bush hated black people. Jesse Jackson, hitting a new low of racist manipulation even for him, immediately turned the tragedy into a battle between white and black, rich and poor.

California Democrat Nancy Pelosi informed us that the President was dangerous and deranged. Hillary Clinton called for investigations. Louisiana Senator Mary Landreaux threatened to punch the Commander in Chief if he in any way implied that state and local authorities had exhibited a dereliction of duty. In true hysterical fashion, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blamed everyone but himself for a slow response, cursing and fuming and sputtering that there were at least 10,000 deaths. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco seemed lost, wringing her hands and - a politician to the end - offering both veiled and not so veiled allusions to the slowness of the federal response.

Environmental nuts rushed to blame the hurricane itself on Bush, claiming his lack of attention to the fiction of global warming, and his refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol, led the hurricane to increase in strength. At the Senate confirmation hearings of Judge John Roberts, noted lush Teddy Kennedy adopted the Jesse Jackson gambit in an attempt to divide the nation via color.

“The powerful winds and flood waters of Katrina tore away the mask that has hidden from public view the many Americans who are left out and left behind,” said Teddy. “As one nation under God, we cannot continue to ignore the injustice, the inequality, and the gross disparities that exist in our society.”

Right Senator, and please keep in mind that your invocation of a deity on public property is a violation of the separation of church and state you often espouse.

Quite frankly, the behavior of people in the aftermath of the storm - political leaders, the media and the rampaging criminals of New Orleans - was more disturbing to me than the hurricane and the flood itself. The latter was and is horrible beyond words, the death, destruction and sadness reaching a level of Biblical proportions. But the former showed a side of human nature that is beyond reprehensible.

But there ARE facts, and though they are little reported, their import is abundantly clear.

It’s a fact that the media constantly commented on the preponderance of poor, black residents who either refused, or were unable, to evacuate. If you were to believe the scenes captured by network cameras, every single victim of Katrina was poor and black. Those of other colors, we were left to assume, either departed via private jet or were evacuated in stretch limos. Media over and over told us their coverage was proof positive of conservative America’s callous attitude toward the poor and non-Caucasian.

The metropolitan New Orleans area is home to approximately 1.5 million people, of which 70% (or 1,050,000) are African American. Since nearly 80 percent of the city evacuated, calculations at a constant rate equate to roughly 210,000 black and 90,000 white refugees. Constants are rarely constant, however, and most inner city footage provided by the networks concentrated on the very worst, most dangerous sections of New Orleans. By filming specifically in the downtrodden, ghetto areas (where blacks vastly outnumber whites) the resulting picture was both predictable and obvious. The media saw an opportunity to distort an image, to further foster the left’s desire to portray their political opponents as heartless bigots. It’s not that the media engage in wholesale lies, they simple refused to tell the entire story (or even most of it).

It’s a fact that poverty, ignorance and crime were rampant in New Orleans long before Katrina. The city has a 40% illiteracy rate. Louisiana spends less than $5,000 per year per child on education. Teacher’s salaries rank 48th in the United States. It is estimated that 30% of the New Orleans population is on welfare at any given time.

As to crime, it’s a fact that New Orleans proper (eliminating outlying suburbs) is often stated as having a population of 475,000. This allows it to not be counted in the top level surveys of crime rates in major cities, as the 500,000 population is the traditional cut-off mark. Washington DC is often cited as the murder capital of the United States, however if New Orleans had just 25,000 more people it would hold the dubious honor by leaps and bounds. New Orleans’ murder rate is actually 16 times that of DC, and 10 times the national average. In terms of enforcement, New Orleans has less than half the police of DC, and has been recognized far and wide as the most corrupt department in the country.

The facts seem to state that the rapes, murders and psychopathic behavior witnessed in the wake of Katrina arose not from something new, but from something old. Criminals enjoy chaos; their failure to evacuate can be attributed as much anything to the breakdown of an already broken social structure. It provided the ultimate opportunity to do what they do best. Why would the murderers, thieves and rapists leave? Such a situation is their idea of paradise.

The poverty stricken and those without education (usually the same) have been dependent on government for over 40 years. They do not know how to function when forced to take care of themselves. If the poverty rate of New Orleans tells us anything, it tells us that the “Great Society” project founded by Lyndon Johnson in the 1960’s was a total failure. It tells us that proponents of welfare on a national scale, the state of Louisiana and alleged civil rights leaders prefer to sustain a problem rather than fix it. How better for them, these liberals, to keep their power base than by keeping the impoverished and ignorant impoverished and ignorant?

After all, if those who the “leaders” claim to champion actually became independent and self sufficient, the “leaders” would be out of a job. Success in their stated goals, they feel, would lead to a loss of their power base. Better, for them, to throw a few scraps and bones and keep the poor dependent. Better, for them, to feed the poor with fear and anger and racial animosity. Better, for them, to keep the poor angry, bitter and hopeless. Better to keep the poor uneducated, fully reliant upon government handouts and the lies of false and uncaring saviors.

The powers that be in New Orleans pretended a disaster could never happen, though it was predicted for decades. When it did happen, the dependent class - whom liberals have taught to be utterly helpless - were at the mercy of the city’s most heinous barbarians. What did New Orleans leaders think would be the result of mixing a pack of wolves with a herd of sheep? Did they expect them to play cards, break out in a rousing rendition of “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” or hold a walk-a-thon for flood relief?

Nationally, it’s a fact that the federal response to Katrina was faster than the response seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. The difference, is that Katrina covered a vast area in several states. You did not hear about violence problems in Mississippi or Alabama, mostly because the media preferred to focus on the atrocities in New Orleans. It’s a fact, according to the transcripts of a press conference featuring Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, that George Bush pleaded with this incompetent duo to evacuate the city on August 28th. It’s a fact that the mayor failed to utilize nearly 2,000 buses to evacuate the inner cities. It’s a fact that Nagin’s estimate of 10,000 fatalities was only an attempt to cover his backside with fear and exaggeration (awful as this is, the true number of deaths will likely be less than 1,000). It’s a fact that the Red Cross had plenty of food and water in storage near the Superdome, but refused to open the cache due to fear they would be hit with too many refugees.

Brilliant...lets save that water and those MRE’s till a “real” disaster hits.

It’s a fact that, had the President over-ridden Blanco’s desire and sent in federal troops against her will, liberal Democrats would have accused him of violating the posse comitatus laws and called for his immediate impeachment. It’s a fact that Blanco felt her state could handle the problem and resisted federal help until it was too late.

The day to day dependency of the New Orleans poor is rivaled by the dependency on mindless bureaucracy exhibited by those in charge of the response. Considering all that happened, the magnitude of the disaster, I doubt that a rescue could have taken place much faster than it did. Though a huge percentage of our population seems to think different, you cannot move 40,000 guardsman by magic. You cannot blink your eyes or wiggle your nose and suddenly manufacture food, water and shelter. You cannot wave your hand and paralyze the gangbangers who are raiding hospitals for drugs, busting into deserted police departments for weapons, or firing upon those who wish to provide aid and comfort.

When bureaucrats were forced to think on their feet, they proved woefully inadequate. Dependent in their daily lives upon cell phones, telephones, e-mail and the like, they were as effective as headless chickens when the time arrived to be creative. They can’t do it. They are used to process, red tape and confused directives. They’re afraid to go out on a limb or rock the boat.

What happened in New Orleans, the incompetence and criminality, lies just below the surface in most American cities. Not all, but most. When New Yorkers were faced with 9/11 they came together and did what needed to be done. Then again, New York is different from most locales...a crazy place that retains a fierce civic pride. In Los Angeles, the microscopic excuse of Rodney King led to an orgy of madness, riots and death. Our nation’s capitol is an insane asylum on even its best days. Take a look at Detroit on Halloween, the fires, the vandalism, the stabbings and shootings. Given a national disaster far less severe than that visited upon New Orleans by Katrina, most urban dwellers would do nothing but fall upon their knees, pray to Uncle Sam for salvation, and helplessly await the onslaught of the marauding hordes.

Long before Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco offered the following wisdom to a gathering of political supporters.

“I know that government doesn't have all the solutions, that real solutions do not come from the top down. Instead, the ways to end poverty comes from all of us. We are part of the solution.”

Unfortunately, those words were uttered with neither sincerity nor passion. When push came to shove, when the winds blew and the waters rose, Governor Blanco did an about face. She rejected her stated theology and blamed the federal government for failing to anticipate, protect and prevent. She wanted magic. She got reality.

Blanco is not even remotely a part of the solution. The bureaucrats, politicians, welfare advocates and liberal media lickspittles - those that encourage dependency of both thought and action - are hardly a part of the solution. They are part of the problem.

Very well written and I enjoyed reading the truth for a change..Thank you for this article..

But that's simply not possible. The Democrats run the city. The Democrats run the state; the governor's office and both houses of Congress.

New Orleans is a Democrat, socialist utopia.

10 posted on 09/16/2005 1:56:40 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Loon Landrieu & Co good name for a flood control business...Motto:"We got dikes!")

No way on the world did little george stup write this. this may have been written by a guy with the same name, but it cannot be Stup.

Teddy Kennedy a lush. No F-ing way would he call him that.

Im shocked more now, than I was when the levee's broke.

About 2 weeks ago I saw Nagin in an interview on (I believe it was) NBC. When asked the question, "what would you have done differently?" his reply was "Screamed louder."

Sorry George,

I see that it was Ron Marr and not the little stup that wrote it.

But you are the george but not the real george.

Yes, I saw that after I read it but not prior to me sending it. I have since made my apology to george stup, but not the real little george stup.

Yes, and they've run it for decades. But of course that's never mentioned, never referenced, and even if it were, it would be deemed irrelevant and one would be accused of "insensitivity" and "racism" for daring to bring it up. No, the Dems are pure good-hearted all-loving benefactors. Any problems that occured in NOLA are the result of Republicans in general and George Bush in particular.

Great screen name.
I would fix the final sentence:
Actually, they ARE the entire problem.

The media saw an opportunity to distort an image, to further foster the left’s desire to portray their political opponents as heartless bigots. It’s not that the media engage in wholesale lies, they simple refused to tell the entire story (or even most of it).

Exactly what I've been thinking all along. I don't care what color people are. They are people. Period. It's the media who has chosen to exploit it, not necessarily the people who are IN NO. I'd be willing to bet that 90% of those who didn't evacuate were upstanding citizens of every color, size and shape. And the 10% who weren't got all the press.

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