I agree there’s been some racism in the response to hurricane Katrina. Hell, most of New Orleans is the result of racism in its various forms. But some black Congress members got up to talk about the issue today, and one lady I saw (didn’t catch her name) went way the hell too far:
“This is America’s shame.”
No, it’s you in government’s shame. By participating, you’re a part of it, lady. This has been a government failure of massive proportions, decades in the making and made acute by current inaction. But America is not its government, and quite frankly, we responded faster than you did, lady. We were there first, and likely we’ll be there after. It’s not our shame, it’s your shame, and you should either direct your criticism at your fellow Members, or you should apologize for the continual failings of them in preventing or dealing with this crisis.
Sandy Smith 
Meh, this is small potatoes. A, like it or not we elected our government, so we’re to blame for any actual failing of our portion of the government. Admittedly, much of the New Orleans disaster preparedness plan was the responsibility of the Louisiana and local city/parish governments, so I’m conveniently off the hook for that. But I was part of the electorate that voted a second term-of-office to the jackass that started a nebulously necessary and incompetently justified war, that strained the LA, MS, and AL National Guards such that they were not at full strength when responding to this crisis. Iraq cannot have done anything but reduced our capacity to respond to Katrina, and we validated Bush’s decision by voting him a second term. I personally voted against him, but I’m just as much a part of the electorate that approved his second term as any poor bastard still treading water in New Orleans.
More offensive was the lady from an anonymous EU country who was heard at a Dallas shopping mall to say, “God did this to America for electing George Bush.” OK, Miss Omagh, if that’s so, what exactly did Thailand do to deserve the Tsunami? And what has Saudi Arabia done to get off the celestial-smiting-hook for creating Salafism and Wahabism? (Hint for historians, the nation-of-origin for the author of the above quote was neutral in WWII).
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If there had been lacklustre donations or no help from non-governmental aid groups, I’d be more sympathetic. But the point is, the majority of people in America have responded just fine; the minority who draw paychecks from taxpayers have failed miserably.
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