First off I’d like to thank Chris for his truly funny entry on vampires of the world, and apologize for posting something after it so soon. But I think the circumstances dictate.
For the past two months, Romania has been inundated by some of the worst flooding in the country’s history. The flooding here disproportionately affected poor rural communities. For the past two months, every day on TV there have been images of streets turned waterways, weeping families, and a general sense of helplessness. Now, Romania is a very poor country that is underdeveloped. Nonetheless, with every broadcast there were shown numbers through which people could donate money to help the victims of the floods. The response was overwhelming and a great outpouring of private funds – from people who have very little to give – has been assisting the unfortunate victims here.
Now, I am an American. Despite the absolutely disgraceful “leadership” we have had to endure during these dark days of Bush, I am still proud to be an American. In fact, as I prepare for my classes here in Romania, I have been reading and listening to the great speeches of leaders such as: Lincoln, Kennedy, Jessie Jackson, Barak Obama and many others. I believe that the American way has been the best that any nation on earth has ever offered.
But, here I am in Romania, surfing around the internet to find information on the Hurricane, and what do I find? Some of the most awful domestic pictures I have every seen. It’s simple what I see. I see poor black people not receiving the care that they so critically need, and I see a government more concerned with protecting TVs than distributing safe drinking water. And it makes me mad. When a few thousand people want to get on a few buses, I can understand why pushing and fights would break out. What to do? Call in the SWAT team. Send tanks down the streets and dress up our human robots in fatigues and give them machine guns. Negro steps out of line and we show them how much they hate us for our freedoms. While the living and the dead share awful conditions, we send in more armed troops to keep the peace.
From the Washington Post:
An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.
What the fuck is wrong with our country?
Why is force – guns and tanks – seen as the primary solution for all troubles?
Why can’t the richest nation on earth take care of some of our most needy?
…and why are these people so desperate to begin with?
Of course, to answer these questions properly would require a through review of American History with a specific focus on the Republican party and the systematic acts of disenfranchisement which they have committed upon the underprivileged. These images sicken me and make me feel like shit. This is not what I represent here.
I had wanted to do a posting on Camp Casey and Iraq in general, but I figure I will let this video speak for itself. These are the people we are up against – these slime are our fellow Americans:
Windows Media: High Bandwidth – Low Bandwidth
Quick Time: High Bandwidth – Low Bandwidth
Although videos such as these and the images I’m seeing all over the American news media begin to make me doubt this a bit, I do think that most Americans are good. I know 49% of us were for change, and I know that the other 50% of us were lead by fear – of terrorists, blacks, gays, you name it – to sustain the powers bent on bringing about our self destruction. We have got to get things back from this cruel 1%. Just as many in our parents’ generation rebelled against the mindless conformist wasteland of the 1950’s, it is time for us to stand up to this new threat of neo-con domination. First we must take care of our own and then we must stop creating Iraqs. We are breeding terrorists, homegrown and foreign born. We have strayed, and we are not invincible.
I received a $25.00 check from my grandmother for my birthday. I’m sending it back and I want it to go here:
American Red Cross
We can not count on our commander in thief to right this or any other wrong, inherited or created. It is time to act.
Why troops?
Quote from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4207202.stm
or this: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.impact/index.html
Or this: http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050901/ts_alt_afp/usweathergangs_050901014812
Oh, and they had to cancel an evacuation of the Superdome yesterday because of shots being fired at army helicopters. People are injured, starving, and dying, and they are being deprived the attention they need because of the irrational actions of a couple of criminals.
And you’re treating this like Tiananmen Square? Criticizing the military for entering the city? Calling them “human robots”?
I bet if you asked most of the poor black people in New Orleans right now, they’d tell you they were angry because the military and police didn’t get there fast enough. Because if you’ve been reading the news the way you say you have, you know that the unrest in New Orleans right now goes horrifically beyond pushing and shoving at the bus station.
Recognize the situation for what it is, Matt. This isn’t a civil rights protest being crushed by The Man – it’s not civil and it’s not a protest. It’s the same poor black people you’re defending being victimized by vicious criminals who want to get as much as they can get while the getting is good.
And you’re taking the side of the vicious criminals?
These images sicken me too. I’ve been avoiding the news for the past few days because I’m hearing reports of incidents that I’d normally associate with Baghdad or Darfur.
But seriously, what do you think would happen if the troops weren’t there? Because I think it’s pretty clear that it wouldn’t be the rich and the poor linking arms in loving unity and putting things back together again. It wouldn’t be the underprivileged blacks coming together in time of need.
It would be the atrocity it is now, only a hell of a lot worse. And I’m pretty sure that if that was the case, you’d write a post about how the lack of adequate police protection was a sign of the racist nation not giving a damn about a city that’s 90% black.
I’m well aware of your feelings toward authority in uniform. Given the recent events in Uzbekistan, I can’t say I’m surprised, although we’ve had discussions like this for years. But the situation in New Orleans is not even close to Uzbekistan’s, and they need all the armed authority down there that they can get.
No problem about the vampires post. I’m keeping an eye out for other interesting things to write about.
Chris,
I can always count on you to counter me and I am thankful for the challenge. But, I think the gist of my outrage at this incident is regarding why things had become so bad. That is, why are these people reduced to being criminals, desperate to get what they can. Now of course I don’t condone their actions, but in a situation like this, if you have inadequate help coming in, you have got to take things in to your own hand. What if your city was cut off from the world for a week and you needed food. The only place to get the food is at the supermarket. Either you loot and take the food or you go hungry – I’d be busting down the door, no?
What troubles me further is the fact that these people you cite, these bandits, are indeed in the minority of the people in this situation. There will be criminals everywhere – Uzbekistan – Romania – Hartford – Poughkeepsie – you name it. It is the method of the crime which we fail to understand most fully. Now I think that both black and white people want to have a good life, free from undue worry. But through a variety of circumstances (some indeed self inflicted,) the black people of our country have been left behind. When a disaster hits, and there is nothing left to lose, both the best and the worst will come out in people.
But this is just a reaction – ugly at times – to a feeling of being relegated to the margins of society and forgotten in a time of need. No Chris, when there is no hope, no faith in the system for a fair deal, then one can not expect much more. I stand by my question, “and why are these people so desperate to begin with?” What has gone wrong in our country is not just the stuff for a fun evening at the multiplex – though Mr. Moore does a brilliant job as delivering them – but a meaningful critique of what our society has become.
How about this:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/620901.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4214516.stm
And in comparison with 9/11, Frank Rich comments:
So, no, Chris. This isn’t a debate on law on order. To think such is akin to viewing 9/11 in terms of the structural design of the Twin Towers… The neglect, systematic disenfranchisement, lies, hubris, are to question – this is the effect, we must address the cause.
p.s. Here is a great radio interview with the major of New Oreleans. CLICK HERE Make sure to listen to the very end…
Bravo Matt.
Having spent the last year abroad as well, I can certainly relate to the surprise, disgust, and embarrassment that you express about the way the US has dealt with both the situation in Iraq and the tragedy in the south. I must say I agree with Chris that troops are necessary in order to prevent the sort of mindless attacking of rescue vehicles and people and also feel its important to remember that some of those in uniform are victims as well – today I read an article about some 200 New Orleans PD quitting their jobs, and two even committing suicide in frustration with the situation down there. But truly the question is not who is at fault for the violence but rather as you put it, why are they so desperate?
The situation in New Orleans has underscored two points to me in addition to the many you’ve already made. One, that the helplessness and vulnerability in which lower income people in the US (who are disproportionately black) live is a condition that exists in every major (or even sub-major) community in the country. If a natural disaster, forseen as this one was or not, occurred in any other city, I think we would see the same division of who lives and dies and who gets help first and last. Furthermore, as Kanye West chokingly pointed out on NBC live television (check video here: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2678975?htv=12), the portrayal in the major media of how people have reacted has continued in the tradition of racist shows like “COPS” and “America’s Most Wanted” as damning black people to violent thieves.
Two, the Office of Homeland security was created with the express purpose of defending the country against both terrorist attack AND preparing for the outcome of such a large scale attack as 9/11, including natural disasters. While we’ve endured an ongoing abrogation of our civil rights (which one could argue existed only in theory for black people anyway) it is clear that truly none of the efforts since 9/11 have actually been effective in creating a system to deal with large scale catastrophe. What’s especially maddening is that this wasn’t a freak tsunami, this wasn’t a nuclear bomb. People “knew” Katrina was coming and nothing was done. It was really a matter of time before something like this happened. And while it is surely easy to condemn those with “nothing left to lose” for attacking the authorities and looting to survive in the chaos, we must not forget that Wal-Mart, McDonalds and other large employers (who make hundreds of millions in profits each year) in the south have stopped paying the wages of the employees displaced by the hurricane.
Outrage at this and other political hijacking of the Bush/Neo-con administration is justified. But the hardest and most important thing that we who oppose said “slime” must recognize is that this is not a debate between rival ideologies or theories, as your ongoing debate with Chris would suggest. There is no forum, no ground on which we are levelled. These people simply do not deal with rationality, or justice, or even what we think of as reality. For all the ridiculing we do in “internet news sites” and among ourselves, anti-intellectualism and objection to secular, rational thought grows stronger. As the failure of the reasoning democrats proved in the last election, and the rise in Christian Extremism has encouraged, we are looking less and less at a matter of “taking back our country”, as you suggest, by means (I assume) of participating in the sham of a democracy that currently exists. Bush was originally elected by a supreme court vote, and while he’s currently a supposed lame duck, I see nothing preventing him from claiming a technical-loophole right to run for a third term or, failing that argument, simply asking his congress to change the rules to allow it. That was nearly the situation with minority filibuster law during the supreme court battles of late and could still be now that Rhenquist kicked the bucket. So what, I ask, is the way in which we “take back our country”? Create “alternative media”? Try and take over the corporations? Secession by the blue states? Violent upheaval??
Taking what one needs to survive from a store is one thing. Rape, murder, and shooting at those responding to the disaster are something else altogether. There’s not one bit of desperation about that kind of behavior. That is the barbarism that rises in social chaos to take advantage of the situation.
I’d love to have the time to find links for everything, but what people are going to have to realize is that the planning for this was screwed up at just about every level from the mayor’s office (where primary responsibility for planning a response lies) to the federal government (where there is responsibility to ensure that states and municipalities have plans to deal with emergencies). The eagerness with which there is much gnashing of teeth, beating of breasts, and wailing about how this is another sign of the imminent realization of [insert favorite dark fantasy of what those who do not share our politics want to do to us].
I don’t know what it is. Maybe more people think the government has magical powers than I think. At the end of the day, government is made of people. People are screw ups. Yes, we should expect a lot of those we choose to lead us and they should be taken to task for their mistakes. I just find it damningly irritating how selective the left is being with its outrage. “Boys will be boys” when it’s the same team, but “They want us all to die!” when it’s the other. (I must throw in here that I’m the rarest of rare Republicans, one who like Bill Clinton a lot and was furious at the same over-the-top nitpicky, hysterical criticism of him.)
It’s time people started to take a deep breath about things, engaged their own worldviews with at least a slice of the cynicism and skepticism they heap on others’, and cut out the internecine pissing match.
And Dan, come one. Get real. Your patronizing contempt for those you disagree with aside, your “reality” is pretty fantastical if you think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell Bush will claim a “technical-loophole right to run for a third term.” You speak reality, but really, study up on the government you’re going on about. There’s a pretty short foundational document that I thought everyone took a look at in school that details how absolutely difficult (impossible by 2008) it would be to change the rules on presidential term limits.
Man, who would’ve thought that a hurricane could have sunk my attitude toward’s this country’s politics any lower?
Tanks and guns have always been the method of choice for leaders. War has been a plague that has hit humanity hard since it’s existence and you dare ask why it’s still going on today? Honestly, if there was ever a disaster like this where the people acted in such manner as the rape, shootings and shoplifting that went on here in another country, it’d be much worse than what American troops have done. In China, the bill for the bullets used to solve the ‘problems’ would have been sent to their poor families. You’re over-reacting.
I also take offense to you stereotyping me as a human robot. I am a human, and more than a soldier. Something you would know nothing about. Seriously, do you think that civilians would have gotten together in lue of the soldiers to airlift civilians out? No they would not have, or they’re would be equal the amount of civilians there now. Just food for thought. There can never be a completely peaceful nation as long as there is conflict in other places in the world. Don’t expect America to be the untopia. You said it yourself, our quality of life is one of the best.
Spc Joe Burlas
Balad, Iraq
Operation Iraqi Freedom
…
Odd…I couldn’t post last night, so sorry for repeating anyone. But this is my response to Matt’s reply:
I have no problem whatsoever with taking food and water to survive. I’d do damn near anything to stay alive, and to keep my family and friends alive, and I can’t fault those who would do the same. The behavior we’re talking about has nothing to do with survival.
Stealing TVs because you think you’ve been screwed by rich white America? No.
Killing and raping because you’re “angry”? Double no.
Don’t look now, but you’ve actually made a great case for having soldiers take charge here.
You agreed that anarchy was a given – hence, a need for an outside authority.
You essentially said, although I’m sure you didn’t intend it this way, that those who are poor and black are so unstable and emotionally primitive as to be incapable of controlling their basest instincts. So primitive, in fact, that we shouldn’t be surprised at all when they become monsters. And quite a few of them did, hence this discussion. In a situation where innocent people are being victimized by complete lawlessness, what else is there to do but call in the law?
Mayor Nagin, himself a black man and the leader of New Orleans, fervently emphasized the need for an outside authority.
From the radio interview you recommended, I quote Mayor Nagin, who, it seems, doesn’t share the view of the troops as racist robots bent on keeping the black man down.
When asked if he had requested Bush to send in the military:
When asked if he had called for martial law:
His opinion on the undertrodden striking back at the evil oppressive rich and taking what’s due them:
I rest my case. And I would be genuinely interested to hear how you would go about putting New Orleans back together without the military and police, Matt. Let’s assume that this has to be done without rewriting history, rebuilding the System, and bringing liberty and justice to all in the space of a week.
Are there problems in America? Sure there are. I never disagreed with that. I don’t have many answers toward solving them, but I know one sure thing: they aren’t going to be solved as long as savagery is fatalistically sympathized with, rather than condemned on all sides.
Let’s be realistic: poor black America didn’t gain any public relations points in New Orleans last week.
If anything, it simply reinforced the bigoted stereotypes held by the greedy white folks you speak against: “Well, look at them, we knew they’d act like animals.” Which is basically what you yourself said, albeit in a different spirit:
And where does this get us? If we refuse to hold people to higher standards, why should they hold themselves to higher standards? If they continue to act like criminals, why shouldn’t they be treated as such?
There is so much to be lost by “not expecting much more”.
I’m fairly confident that if Martin Luther King was observing these proceedings, he wouldn’t be nodding in approval as the people who he strove to present as civilized human beings deserving of rights acted like monsters. He’d be shaking his head in disgust as the poor black savages that white racist America loves to revile behaved just like the poor black savages that white racist America expected them to be.
You need to be able to recognize the source of awful behavior, while still being able to condemn it. There will be those who will indeed, in times like this, let their basest instincts take over. But the fact that those base instincts have taken over is not in the least a justification for letting them run wild. If anything, it’s going to ensure that the cycle of repression continues.
Say what you will about racism and inept politicians. If you seriously believe that the poor and the undertrodden are going to gain public sympathy and privilege by shooting at doctors and raping children in front of the whole world, you’ve got another big think coming.
And now, maybe Matt can stitch my response into one comment…good grief.
Wow – perhaps I should set up a special forum for Chris… I’m sure it would be good reading. Now, let me say this. In my original post I asked why tanks and guns were the primary solution to all our problems. I do beleive in law and order, and that it must be upheld. For that we have police and national guard troops – good! The comments you took from the Mayor’s interview, heard in context, show that these knuckleheads were in the minority. Criminals (meatheads) what have you, neeed to be stopped regardless of their color, and that is why we have law enforcement.
However, as Dan pointed out, the media coverage of this event has just furthered the stereotype of blacks as the worst of their lot. A few knuckleheads ruining t for the rest of them? Sound familiar, Chris? I’m just so angry that this tragedy becomes a debate about desperate addicts and criminals rather than the systematic disenfranchisement that made this disaster so ugly.
And to Mr. Burlas, thanks for reading – I’m not sure how you make your way here, but glad you commented. I will firstly admit that my “human robots” comment was made in a moment of pique and I don’t really mean it. But, I’m a little worried about your logic re the China comparison. Of course China would have handled it differently – it is a Communist dictatorship! This is the USA! I was listening to a story on the BBC about how civilian doctors organized to go help but were turned away by the government for not having the paperwork settled correctly! No, I don’t know the military, but as a Peace Corps volunteer, I do know that massive beauracratic nighmare of paper and stamps that the government imposes upon us. I think you underestimate the true compassion that civilians show. Good luck there and get out.
~Matt
Thankfully, as it turns out, most of the horror stories of New Orleans were pure bullshit. You know that saying “Question Authority”? You should do as I do and make it “Question Everything.”
And don’t forget the theme of New Orleans is “the Big Easy.” It is the most corrupt city in America and few people are accustomed to working hard on a day-to-day basis. You do know that half of the money allocated to building up the levees was diverted “elsewhere.”
There is more than enough blame to share among the federal, state. local and individuals.
John
estielmo(at)yahoo(dot)com