Katrina is not a plot against black people

I am just so absolutely sickened by the fact that some people, such as Kanye West, are using the Katrina disaster to spread divisive nonsense.

I’m not a particular Bush fan, but come on.

If it’s bad, Bush must have done it
George Bush is personally intervening to slow down rescue efforts? George Bush personally put in roadblocks so that, in case a disaster like this happens, black people would not be helped as quickly as possible? George Bush hired the lawless gangs that were roaming the city, not allowing rescue workers to come in and work?

Naturally, it was George Bush who didn’t use the dozens of buses in this parking lot to get people out of the city. Perhaps George Bush even sent in the snipers that forced the choppers trying to evacuate people to leave? Maybe George Bush even set off a bomb that broke the levees?

Get a life.

This is a disaster
It’s worse than most people ever expected it would be. Systems, people, and material are not as ready as they should have been. Levees and pumps that should have been improved were not. People did not evacuate, even when told it was in their best interests to do so. And most of all, a city was built under sea level, right in the path of regular, massive storms.

It takes time to gather people. Time to send in food. Time to get trucks in place. In the real world, help on this scale doesn’t come instantly. There’s no 50,000 member-strong SWAT team on constant alert for hurricane disasters.

Idiots saying stupid things are just not helping at all:

Appearing two-thirds through the program, West claimed, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” and said America is set up “to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible.”

Yes, everything is happening too slowly. It’s called shock. It’s called lack of proper preparation. Almost certainly, it’s mostly caused by logjams in coordination at the local and national level. These are problems. They need to be fixed.

They don’t excuse crazy, divisive, libelous words.

[ update ]

I just saw this article – a little eye-opening, to say the least:

The facts are simple. The Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana are the culprits in the slow response. The President named Louisiana a Federal Disaster Area two days before the Hurricane hit opening the opportunity for the Mayor and Governor to ask for assistance. None was requested. The delay was so long – in fact – that the National Guard was not even requested until Wednesday a full two days after the hurricane. Why did the President wait – you ask. Well, we have something called the Constitution in the US and it is based on something called State’s Rights. The Governor in each state controls its own National Guard and is responsible for requesting aid. The request came very, very late.

A little corroboration on that timetable …

2 CommentsLeave a comment

  • bush may not have been smart enough to plan this by himself but the government definetly had somthing to do with it. a couple of days before katrina there were two large boats right outside of the cost that could’ve evacuated hundreds, they asked bush if any help was needed in evacuation but he told them ” no we would like to request or own equiptment”. or is it a coincedence that the most heavily black populated city in america was hit?? and no one could possibly come rescue them for four days????
    Or you could just look at the fact that they already tried it once in 1927!! you may not believe it the government is not the structure you think it is!!!!!