Blame

“We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.”

~ Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) of Baton Rouge overheard talking to lobbyists

So now we are told that the people caught in the flood waters of New Orleans deserved what they got.  We hear that most of those who stayed behind did so in order to pillage and loot.  

Regarding the sort of Southern-GOP anti-black screed, let me say that the political bias sticks out like a blonde in Botswana.  

Still, I have learned from working the news that one must read widely.   And some of the u201Cthey deserved to dieu201D commentators make points of history and engineering which need to be further disseminated.  Other u201Clet them drink sewageu201D commentators have made remarks about the local political talent which might not be far off the mark.

As these u201Cjudgmentalu201D commentators hit their seductive stride, they offer intelligent and reasoned arguments for an appalling and monstrous program.

It is called Final Solution thinking.   

It is not OK sit on our hands and let the floods waters take a group of people because “all of them” are violent and bad.

Problem with that “reasoning” is that it isn’t true: not all of the people trapped in NO were bad and violent.  The other problem with that reasoning is that it smacks of ethnic cleansing.

All right, New Orleans was one fat, wicked city.  But, by the same standard, Washington DC must rank lower than New Orleans…and if something bad happened to DC, would I sit back and say, oh well, lots of bad people there…ho hum.  Tempting, to be sure, but immoral all the same.    

By the distrustful and judgmental line of reasoning, we ought to be plenty nervous when Congress cancels its recess to stay in Tron to pass more laws legalizing government looting.  

Fact is:  Unlike Washington DC when Congress is in session, New Orleans was peopled by ordinary folks who did not stay in order to loot, rape and do worse.  There were a whole bunch of black and elderly folks stuck in that town because they were poor, had no way to get out.

As we analyze the causes of Katrina, what emerges is a “he said, she said” script.  Democrats are eager to show how Republicans are insensitive, racist and OTD [Old-Testament-Driven]; and Republicans are shrill in their denunciation of the welfare state African-Americans and the poor quality [read Democratic Party] leadership in the Katrina ravaged states. 

As well, there's a whole gang of folks who are eager to weave conspiracy and pure, wicked cussedness into the mix.

I look at the devastation of Katrina as a natural disaster the effects of which were exacerbated by poverty, human error, concentration of money & power in DC and the US Army Corps of Engineers.  Yes, indeed, the well-meaning, tax payer-funded and property developer-serving Corps….

I do not “blame” George W. Bush as he is a hapless fool.

Bush may not be “blamable.”  But, sure as heck, Bush is the one who must be held accountable.   He has lost the connection between high office and honor.

Bush has been, and willingly remains the pawn of dark forces which forces may be the undoing of us all.  Bush is a user who got used.

A wise pundit might say that Bush is “inconsequential,” and in this crisis he certainly has been: what a wuss.   Bush has no power.  Whirl is King now.

September 10, 2005