I Guess You Folks Don't Read
This is a response to the two people who posted after my last entry. I found it somewhat rude that you would use my blog to post fairly long excerpts from articles. You could simply have linked to them, and made your points. But, in reality, your points didn’t address anything I said in my post, nor did the articles you quoted so extensively from have anything to say that might sway my thinking, or refute my points.
To reiterate my points from my previous post, that you can read right below this one, should you feel like taking the time to:
1) Orin Hatch and the rest of the Republican hatchet men (no pun intended) being used as pawns by this administration have some pair to go around “talking from both sides of their mouths”. They stonewall the media telling them they won’t play “The Blame Game”, yet they immediately lay as much blame as possible on State and Local authorities. I never made any comment about State or Local accountability. I don’t know enough about Louisiana and/or New Orleans politics to have an opinion one way or the other. I’m not saying we shouldn’t blame State and Local officials, or hold them accountable. I’m saying that we should ALSO blame Federal officials and hold them accountable, because …
2) After the Hurricane their response was woefully slow and inadequate. There’s very little argument here. As they like to say about Iraq, however we got there, we’re there now and we’ve got to make sure it’s a success. Whatever went in to the failures of the levees, they failed, and the ONLY agencies that had the capability to respond were the Feds. And their response was slow to come, and sucked when it did arrive. And they DID cut funding to the levees. The very article “Anonymous” quotes at length, unless there are some quotation marks missing, states “In recent years, funding has dropped precipitously, which some officials attributed in part to the escalating costs of the Iraq war.” Unless this is a quote that you meant to attribute to someone, and not a direct quote of the article, it seems like you contradict yourself, or the article does.
Even if you want to take funding for the levees out of the equation, the day after the hurricane passed, would it have been too much to ask for the Feds to send the Army Corps of Engineers in to have a look, assess the situation and see if they thought there was any remnant of danger to the levees?
And “Marty said…”, when you say that “The Washington Post reports the Bush administration has granted the corps more funding than the previous administration over a similar period”, where has that money gone? Not to the levees, it would seem. And when you go on to say “that Louisiana has received far more money for civil works projects than any other state. The paper says much of the funding has been spent not on flood control, but on lawmakers' pet construction projects”, you make a good argument for strong Federal controls on spending, rather than giving out money to the States in Reagan-like block grants, that are then subject to local corruption (assuming, and I most certainly DO NOT make this assumption about our current administration) that the Federal Gov’t is less inclined to corruption than local governments.
As to blaming the Sierra Club – puh-lease! What far-Right wacko is putting that one out? The Sierra Club has long fought to help stabilize the wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Without the erosion of the wetlands, NO wouldn’t be in as much danger from flooding, because the wetlands provide a natural barrier that would ease the burden on the levees.
If you want to blame the Mayor (I’m aware the neither of the posts really point blame anywhere, aside from the Sierra Club, but rather do their best to deflect blame from Shrub and his minions) for not getting people on those buses that they keep showing us that are underwater (and there may be blame there), then I guess it would be fair to blame the President for not taking action when he was handed a “Presidential Daily Briefing” titled “Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S.” on AUGUST 6th 2001 for what happened on Sept. 11? And just today, there’s an update to the 9/11 commission report that reveals that the FAA were warned as long ago as 1998 (!?!?!?) that “Al Qaeda could ‘seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark,’”. Condi, do you want to re-think your testimony that no one could have imagined terrorists using planes to fly into buildings? Mr. President, do you want to re-think your statement that no one could have imagined the levees breaking?
Maybe you folks should start watching “Barney and Friends”, and learn to use your imagination.
Further scary reading:
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/
http://www.hurricane.lsu.edu/_in_the_news/houston.htm
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372455,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/14/politics/14terror.html
And, Wynton Marsalis is quickly becoming my new hero.
http://www.wyntonmarsalis.com/ - see statement at the bottom of the page
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/04/lkl.01.html - Wynton’s segment is at the bottom
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1103569-1,00.html
posted by vm @ 7:08 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
I don't know Uncle Victor; I have to agree that Kanye's statements were outrageous.
C'mon, you know that Bush loves black people. I mean, I heard he almost shed a tear when he tipped the wing of Air Force One at 2500 feet to survey the damage. It’s true that it could have been his eyes watering from something (like when you choke on pretzels), but I think it was because he genuinely cares about “coloreds”.
That's enough sarcasm for this comment.
I'd like to offer up this link, as it pretty much sums up everything and anything I could say about the events. And it was written by a 22 year old! See, we're not all slackers.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=8720
The only thing I would change is the sole linkage to the Red Cross. While it is hard for me to talk bad about organizations that do great work around the world, I feel that the Red Cross has tremendous bureaucratic issues that need to be dealt with, especially their handling of the millions of donation dollars they receive when tragedy strikes. Unfortunately, I can’t find the links, I have read several articles (Washington Post, NY Times, etc) that heavily criticized the organization for their poor handling of donation dollars over the past few years, especially the September 11th and the Tsunami donations.
I am also a little irked by the Red Cross’ refusal to except donations of food, clothes, medical supplies, diapers, etc. and have decided to only collect money. I have an office full of donations from people who couldn’t afford sending even $20 (I mean, what does that get you, about a quarter tank of gas?) but are able to donate other goods that these people desperately need. I think an additional link would be to the Veterans for Peace (www.veteransforpeace.org) who have been collecting and shipping goods down South. And for Staten Islanders I’d suggest checking out www.where-to-turn.org and www.siyoungdems.org (shameless plug) for additional options.
(Ne)Phew over and out.
According to this website President Bush has increased spending on poverty relief. Since a large percentage of blacks are below the poverty line, Why would he increase the spending ?
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm663.cfm
The Heritage Institute? You're quoting a right wing think tank to support right wing positions. Use independent sources. Or at least official ones. Like this:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/002484.html
Poverty up. Whatever that money's being spent on, it ain't helpin'. I'm sure there are more recent numbers than those, but I'd bet the trend is the same.
Plus, there are plenty of whites, hispanics, Native Americans, etc. below the poverty line, as well. Perhaps he doesn't like poor people, not just black people.
The main point is not whether or not he "likes black people" but rather that there are still serious racial inequalities in our society that need to be dealt with. And this tragedy opened up a wound that had been ignored for far too long.
I will have to look for other sources (All sources showing President Bush's increased Poverty Spending are conservative sites. Senator Chuck Schumer (D) did agree however with Bill O'Reilly last night that this is true). I did look at the new Federal Budget, but it will take time to figure out what is being spent on what.
Let assume for now that there is more spending on poverty relief. If this is true, how can President Bush not care about the poor? The Poverty level fell 1% during his administration to about 12%.
Racial inequalities? Affirmative action has helped minorities greatly (Sometimes at the expense of non-minorities). I believe a educated minorty person can get a good job in this country. It is true that there are more minorities under the poverty line then whites, but only the minorities, not the government, can pull them self out by getting themselves educated etc. No one is going to get a good job or go to college if he or she cannot read/write or add. The Culture in minority communities has to change. What would you propose the government to do? Spend MORE money? Billions have been thrown at the problem since 1965 and the poverty level remains the same. By the way, what does poverty mean in the US? The U.N. Children's Fund says that the United States and Mexico had the worst rates of child poverty in the world. Poverty in Mexico or other 3rd world countries mean starvation. In the US it means living in a paid 2 bedroom apartment with food stamps, $100 sneakers and a $200 Ipod.
The poverty level has not fallen, it has risen. Look at the census link. The headline of the Governments own report on the census findings says "Poverty up".
The answer is not simply to spend more money, it's to spend money more wisely. Invest in education. Invest, specifically, in inner city education. Offer some sort of incentive to get good teachers to teach in impoverished public schools. Improve those schools.
I don't think those people in the Super/Astrodome had closets full of $100 sneakers and $200 iPods. Paid for by food stamps? I won't even go there.
BTW, which recent administration oversaw the most sweeping welfare reform? Clinton. And, honestly, there's even debate about whether that has helped or hurt the situation, but something had to be done.
If there are no racial inequalities in this society, I must be living in some alternative universe.
Also,
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050916/NEWS0110/509160369/1260
Give that a read. Should shed some light in the Sierra Club slime.
If you'll forgive me for doing what I complained about, here's an extended quote:
Whoever is behind the e-mail may have spotted the Sept. 8 issue of National Review Online that chastised the Sierra Club and other environmental groups for suing to halt the corps' 1996 plan to raise and fortify 303 miles of Mississippi River levees in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
The corps settled the litigation in 1997, agreeing to hold off on some work until an environmental impact could be completed. The National Review article concluded: "Whether this delay directly affected the levees that broke in New Orleans is difficult to ascertain."
The problem with that conclusion?
The levees that broke causing New Orleans to flood weren't Mississippi River levees. They were levees that protected the city from Lake Pontchartrain levees on the other side of the city.
Bookbinder said the purpose of the litigation by the Sierra Club and others in 1996 was where the corps got the dirt for the project. "We had no objections to levees," he said. "We said, 'Just don't dig film materials out of the wetlands. Get the dirt from somewhere else.' "
And besides, I'm not speaking only of economic inequality between races. I'm talking about an underlying racism that is still prevalent in this country, and that has been ignored at least, fostered and openly encouraged at worst. That, more than any economic conditions, have been exposed by this. People still see skin color first.
Wow, I don’t think I can resist commenting on what Marty has just written and now will use my entire lunch break to write a little ditty about Jack and Jamal.
THERE ARE NO PEOPLE STARVING IN AMERICA?!?!?!?!?!
It is quite possible that you have let American media convolute your conception of starving as being totally without food. I am not a doctor, but I am pretty sure there are thousands and thousands of Americans starving to death from a severe lack of a comprehensive nutritious diet. Actually, I believe the numbers are something along the lines of 33 million people on the verge of going hungry and around 9 million Americans who are considered hungry of which about 2/3 are households with children. (This information is from the US Census).
Funding programs that “throw money” at the problem of hunger is the sort of reactionary policies that have been implemented over the past 40 years that completely disregard the 400+ years of socio-political and economic systems, institutions, and policies that continue to be the 2-ton weight on minority’s shoulders.
You make it sound so easy: black people should just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and take care of themselves. But what are you supposed to do when you don’t have boots? Bill Cosby does not have it right. He, like our government, is disregarding the fact that everything from industry to education to government has been owned and operated by white men since the day pilgrims set up camp on this continent. This most certainly has shaped the policy and mindset of this country and has created a culture where white people always have the competitive edge. These systematic and cultural inequities can be seen in everything from language to the way our country deals with disaster in minority communities (you are a fool to think that if the hurricane hit Kennebunkport, Maine that it would have taken weeks for the president to send aid).
The problem is not black culture as you say, it is American culture. We live in a society where everyone needs to step on the weaker person below them to get ahead. It just so happens that white people, especially white men, have been the ones at the top of ladder for centuries enabling them to set policy and control industry that has, up until the past 25 years, oppressed all minorities (women included). There is always a level of personal responsibility to be had, but there remains a vicious cycle in this country that has never been dealt with. The problem isn’t lazy minorities, it is that the good teachers refuse to work in the poor schools without adequate teaching materials because the cops can’t guarantee their safety because they can’t prevent crimes committed by members these communities who are committing said crimes because they have not had an equal quality education and this is all they know. This of course leads to the perception (especially in the white-male owned media) that these communities are a lost cause which in turn further perpetuates the cycle. I can go more into disparity of government funding of education programs, schools, infrastructure, etc. in poor minority areas and rich white ones, but I won’t in the hopes that you already know that.
I think that Reverend Al Sharpton had it right. Education through college should be a guaranteed right. This is where mindsets begin to change and our culture expands. The black people you know are not successful because they went to church or because they had strong family connections (which doesn’t hurt) but it’s most likely because they received a quality education from kindergarten through high school which probably led them to college. After that, all we need is universal health care and then no one will need to step on another persons head to get ahead because the bar for all Americans would be raised to a level where one’s constant worries about paying for college and working 2 jobs to pay for health insurance will disappear. This would be giving everyone the straps to pull their boots up with.
I actually can continue ranting about this subject but I have to get back to helping black people get food stamps so they can buy iPods. I suggest you read “Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind?” by Michael Eric Dyson for some further clarification.
The nephew has spewed
(sorry for the length)
Hey Keith - damn, kid, you sound pretty smart. Your Mother should be proud!
You say that "The problem isn’t lazy minorities, it is that the good teachers refuse to work in the poor schools without adequate teaching materials". I will give you 2 examples and let me know what you think.
Ex 1.
There is a public housing project in Staten Island called the Berry Houses. For years (Since 1945) it was basically occupied by white WWII vets. They were beautiful apartments (My Uncle lived there) which were very clean and very safe in an upper middle class neighborhood. Since the apartments were rent controlled (based on income), there was a long waiting list for the apartments. As the old vets died new families moved in (not very high income families). In the late 1980’s there was an uproar because the entire waiting list was made up of white people. So our wonderful NYC city decided to replaced the waiting list with a waiting list from a black neighborhood (I believe it was form the Bronx). Within the next couple of years the apartments were filled by black families from the new list. After 2 or 3 years of this these projects became horrible. There have been robberies of near by homes, gang and drug activity, drive by shooting’s (There was one last week). My question is, if the schools are the problems in black communities (not the culture and family values) why did these projects go down the drain? These kids went to the same Public Schools as the white kids in the neighborhood.
Ex 2.
New Dorp High School was in a predominantly white middle to upper middle class neighborhood. The school is new with state of the art equipment. In the 1980’s NYC city decided to Bus in minority kids from poor black neighborhoods in Staten Island and Brooklyn. Since the busing the school went downhill. Gangs, Drugs have destroyed the school. (Metal detectors had to be installed). Recently a 21 yr old student (YES 21 YEARS OLD) raped a 15 year old girl in the school.
Why is the performance of the new students in this school terrible? Why has the reading and Math scores dropped dramatically?
If the schools were the problem, the above examples would have never happened.
The last Anonymous was me.
Also;
Reverend Al Sharpton wants Education through college guaranteed right ?! Universal HEALTHCARE !!? Who is going to pay for it ?! NOT ME. I pay way too much now.
We should just be taxed for the Military and Privatize everything else. You can be sure anything the government does is half ass and costs twice as must as a private contractor.
Your examples disregard the big picture. The public housing system is designed to house people on the lowest echelon of the economic ladder. Lumping (warehousing) them all together in one community only perpetuates what has been going on for centuries. The word “ghetto” is defined as a section of a city occupied by a minority group who live there especially because of social, economic, or legal pressure. So with that in mind let’s talk about your first example. In the 40’s the poor population was extremely mixed due to that little thing called the Great Depression. For the first time in American history white people were knocked down to the same level as minorities. And due to our favoritism towards whitey and lack of fair housing laws, Anglos were accepted into public housing with a much greater level of ease and in much greater numbers than minorities. So white people got the helping hand from the government that they needed to get back on their feet after the depression. Black people got left out and were forced to fend for themselves. This created a huge economic disparity between neighborhoods carrying on the tradition of ghettos, further solidifying minorities as poor and “under privileged”.
Fast forward to the 80’s where you say there was an uproar. The uproar was because white people were sitting comfortably in their subsidized housing while minority communities were battling to survive in a city that declared a war on their neighborhoods. The economic pressure was to move the well off whites out of public housing to make room for people who needed it. AND IT WORKED! I know you remember the 90’s and the prosperity seen by us all. The underlying racism of our culture is what brought us to this point. Who is more likely to get an apartment, me, a young white professional, or a minority in the same position? Don’t fool yourself and say the minority because you know damn well I would get the apartment. That’s why we need affirmative action and fair housing laws. Not because minorities need a helping hand, but because whites need to get over their embedded racism.
The example of New Dorp is a moot point. As you say, the kids are being bussed in from other schools; schools that are inadequate and lack the proper infrastructure (teachers, resources, etc) to provide a proper education. Once the school begins to slip, the good teachers leave or don’t want to teach there thus perpetuating the cycle. And I most certainly fault the school, because every school on Staten Island has minority students bussed in. Why is New Dorp the only one that has failed the children? I went to Tottenville, where they bussed in hundreds of kids, and that school seems to be doing fine. And what about Curtis, where minorities out number white kids? Curtis is considered the best school on Staten Island (besides SI Tech). Once again our culture and the systems (Board of Education, NYC Council, the Mayor) created and operated by white men have failed to address the problem, opting to put a band-aid on it (bussing students).
You don’t ask WHY these kids are being bussed in. It’s because there is an idea that minorities will not receive a quality education in their own neighborhood. Everyone has given up on these areas. Can you imagine what that does to a community, to the people’s moral, to their motivation? They are basically saying that white people and white schools are better than yours. This has been going on for hundreds of years with everything. Put yourself in their shoes for a second. I think you will realize that it’s more than saying to yourself “hey, its time to get my shit together”. It’s just not that easy.
And don’t get me started on standardized testing. Until there are standardized schools, with standardized teachers, with standardized resources, with standardized supplies and materials, there should be no standardized testing. To think that a kid going to school in a converted janitor’s closet in the South Bronx is getting the same education as a kid in the lavishly refurnished classrooms of P.S. 1 in Tottenville is a ridiculous assumption.
Not to mention the change in public school curriculum to teach kids how to pass tests and not think critically. 3 periods of math and 2 periods of English in an 8 period day leaves 1 period for lunch, 1 for gym and one left. History? Music? Art? Science? Remember these classes? A child will never learn how to think critically without these classes. You are holding test scores in such high regard that you are creating a system where kids can’t think only memorize. And YOU’RE the one complaining that these kids are a drain on your wallet.
As for the Reverend comment, again, try to see the big picture. You ALREADY pay for the healthcare and education of poor people. There are tons of social service programs that would be unnecessary if we had Universal Healthcare; like Medicaid and Medicare (both of which already come out your pay check). Your hospital and doctors bills would go down, because they wouldn’t be spending millions of dollars on the uninsured who cannot pay for their own care. And say goodbye to HMO’s, yeah the ones that you pay each week out of your pay check and then they go ahead and charge you premiums, co-pays and force your to obtain referrals (more co-pays for more doctors). You are taxed for all of these things; things that would be eliminated by universal healthcare. And that is just the tip of it.
You pay for college too. CUNY, SUNY: all paid for by your taxes. They used to be free. It wouldn’t take much to make them free again. Maybe if we cut some of the money going to private schools and private corporations instead of financing the city and state’s ridiculous projects (proposed West Side Stadium for example) on the backs of students
Privatize everything else? Did you read the paper today? Front page, Tyco titans go to jail for looting $600 million. And let’s not forget about WorldCom, Enron, Adelphia, etc. I’m pretty sure things the government does costs’ “twice as much” because they aren’t robbing millions while doing it. What has privatization led us to? Outsourcing and high unemployment rates. Corporations don’t care about people or jobs, they care about the bottom line, $$$. I personally don’t like being robbed.
It’s time that people address the problems that have plagued our society for centuries instead of putting band-aids on them. The right is always complaining that these people and these programs are a “drain” but fail to see that: #1 it’s their programs that are draining our society, not the people, and #2 if they redirected funding from dumb ass programs that don’t work and cost tax payers billions and funded proactive programs and enacted proactive policies, we would be able to manage the health and well-being of every citizen and afford them all an equal opportunity to a proper education. And if you can argue that a nation of healthy, educated people wouldn’t solve many if not a majority of our problems, I’d like to hear it.
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