I don't need to point out the suffering and fear people from New Orleans have gone through these last few days. I think most everyone in the world knows about it by now. How is it that a government that has troops across the world in less than 24 hours cannot act to save their own?
You know what? Al Gore would have been there because he was not worried about looking messianic and ending up looking like a wimp. Figures it would have to be the self-proclaimed reincarnation of God, George Bush, who would still be in "power" to prove how helpless he STILL is against a crisis in his own doormat.
Anne Rice, NY Times OP-ED...
Now nature has done what the Civil War couldn't do. Nature has done what the labor riots of the 1920's couldn't do. Nature had done what "modern life" with its relentless pursuit of efficiency couldn't do. It has done what racism couldn't do, and what segregation couldn't do either. Nature has laid the city waste - with a scope that brings to mind the end of Pompeii.
[...]
But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.
Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.
I have seen and lived through Natural Disasters. Granted, I was just a kid back then. But, to those that accuse Mexico of being a third-world country with oh, so many faults, I'll say this: we are one of many, but we never, ever, fail to help each other out in a crisis like this.
My sincere hopes for the restoration of New Orleans and of their lives go to that nigh-magical city which I was only able to see through its literature and poems. And I know, it will be back, stronger... because magic isn't destroyed that easily.
-*-
And Bush says:
"We've got a lot of rebuilding to do ... The good news is — and it's hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house — he's lost his entire house — there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter) —President Bush, touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005-*-
And what was the President doing while all those people suffered? Wanna know?
CHECK IT OUT
