Hurricane relief

Gary Drescher wrote:
"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:_1sSe.4062$aG.3295@trndny01...
Blanche wrote:

You are insensitive and arrogant.

and probably too stupid to listen to you. Thanks for trying.

Yes. It's important--and, often, ultimately effective--to speak out against
evil, even if the direct targets of your speech are unlikely to be
persuaded.

I've never had any illusion about what lurks just beneath the
public-relations veneer of "compassionate conservatism", so I'm not
surprised to see the giddy orgy of self-righteous disparagement here (and
elsewhere) that's being directed against the black underclass in the wake of
the hurricane's devastation; the right wing's ascendancy has led to some
unusually unguarded commentary.

I do hope and expect, though, that as the inhumane victim-blaming cruelty of
the right-wing agenda makes itself more boldly visible, their "let them eat
cake" sentiment toward compatriots in a dire emergency will prove
sufficiently shocking and revolting to most people to create a political
turning point.


Personally, I find it just as offensive to suggest a secret 'agenda' by
a "compassionate conservative" conspiracy as it is to suggest an
opposite 'agenda' by a "liberal media." There are conservative racists,
and there are liberal racists. I don't like and don't agree with either
kind. I don't think you can assume that someone who is a "conservative"
on some issues is a racist, any more than you can assume that someone
who is a "liberal" on some issues is not. Most people are far more
complex than that.

While I see much of the media being intent on stirring up controversy
in order to increase viewership, I do not think that it is entirely
because of liberal bias. Rather, playing the race card is worth big
money, and the news media love getting people to kill each other for
fun and profit (the fun and profit of the news media, of course). In
this regard, CNN Asia has been downright evenhanded compared to BBC
World, which has been sickening. To be honest, the most balanced
reporting around here has been coming from the communist Chinese....

I really don't get the bit about the media showing only black people on
rooftops. Even BBC has been showing people of all types on rooftops,
getting rescued, looting, etc.

I also don't get the media complaints of the slowness of the response.
The first camera crews on the scene showed Coast Guard helicopters
rescuing people, National Guardsmen, police, and fire crews in the
center of New Orleans, etc. Obviously all of these emergency workers
managed to get there before the news media did.

If I was sitting in a pool of filthy water without food, fresh water,
or medical aid, no contact with the outside world and dead bodies
floating around me, completely unaware of conditions in the rest of the
city and the rescue efforts being made there, and some reporter came up
and said no one was coming to help and then turned on the camera and
asked me if I was satisfied with the speed of relief, I probably would
give the reporter just the answer he was looking for. Surprise,
surprise.