Refusing Rescueby
Becky Akers
Should a hurricane pummel New York City as it did New Orleans, we need not fear. Our Masters will rescue us whether we want them to or not. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced this week that he not only has an evacuation scheme, he'll enforce it. "Officials...would knock on doors," The New York Sun reported, and, in Bloomberg's words, "'get a court order, if we have to.'" "Court order" is Mike's euphemism for SWAT teams' dragging little old ladies out of their rent-controlled apartments and interning them at Madison Square Garden. And that's what it'll require, too, after the examples we had of Leviathan's hospitality last week. Then again, maybe not. In Katrina's path were Americans who had seen children gassed at Waco and mothers murdered at Ruby Ridge, yet they nevertheless entrusted themselves to Leviathan's tender mercies. They expected politicians to protect them from the storm, then feed and shelter them, too. There is an enormous, resilient, and utterly unfathomable faith in government out there. Diane Sylvester is typical. One of the thousands imprisoned at New Orleans' convention center, she starved as the state's guest for several days. Then the US Army arrived and set up a chow line. Diane enthused, "I feel great to see the military here. I know I'm saved." Not a fast learner, are you, Diane? Nor is Aaron Broussard, chief cheese of Jefferson Parish. On CBS' "Early Show," he said, "Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot." Thanks, but you can keep your idiots. I'll look after myself in an emergency. The last thing I'd do is trust the cops, FEMA, or the National Guard to care for me. Jesse Jackson and Calvin Butts aside, I doubt they'd do any better by this white girl than they did with their black victims last week in New Orleans. It's estimated that about 10,000 folks in New Orleans agree. These are the hardy, self-reliant souls who know the person most concerned with their welfare and best able to judge it is the one they see in the mirror each morning. They rode out the hurricane and, even more impressively, survived everything the state unleashed on them afterwards. Mere survival isn't their only ambition, however. "You've got to protect your property, that's the main thing," 69-year-old John Ebanks told AP. He declined to be rescued – ha! – , figuring his cache of food is a whole lot more substantial than Leviathan's promises. "[My house] is all I've got. I'm pretty damn old to start over." Then there's Jack Jones, a retiree resourceful enough to boil his clothes in vinegar and bathe with water from his neighbors' pools. "They may have to shoot me to get me out of here,'' he said. "I'm much better off here than anyplace they might take me.'' If there's one thing Our Masters hate, it's self-reliance. They suspect, and rightly, that such independent types don't need them. Don't even much like them, in fact. It nips at their bureaucratic butts, this weird, rare, heady desire to fend for oneself. New Orleans' politicians were too busy at first to fret over such cusses. They had all they could do, and more, to cope with the adults they've turned into children. Folks like the ones outside the Convention Center whining, "We want help!" Men like Raymond Cooper who lamented that the 3000 people inside the Center "don't have any food. We was told two-and-a-half days ago to make our way to the Superdome or the Convention Center by our mayor. And which when we got here, was no one to tell us what to do, no one to direct us, no authority figure." That plea for an "authority figure" brought a grin to Leviathan's reptilian lips. The billions lavished on public schools and housing are paying dividends after all! Turning Americans into passive babies is the state's fondest ambition. But now that it's ruined the lives of these infants, it's searching for more fodder. That brings it to the recalcitrant few, like Dennis Rizzuto, 38. Informed that the city's profane and pathetic mayor, Ray Nagin, has now "authorized law enforcement officers and the U.S. military to force the evacuation of all residents...," Rizzuto told AP, "They're going to have to drag me." He's got a generator, water, and enough food to feed his family for a month. He reckons he'll provide for them far better than any bureaucrat can. Naggin' Nagin disagreed. "This is not a safe environment," he said. Then he tried to prove he's a real person. "I understand the spirit that's basically, 'I don't want to abandon my city.'" Actually, Ray, you don't. No one said anything about staying with his city. It's their homes and their property folks don't want to leave because they have zilch confidence you and your thugs can secure them in their absence. But the city? Heck, that's just a geographical designation that allows you to pick a guy’s pocket if he happens to work or live there. Ray bumbled on. "Leave for a little while. Let us get you to a better place." Oh, right. Like the Superdome? "Let us clean the city up." Alas, that'll take more rectitude and understanding of political philosophy than has ever graced poor Ray. Or that human equivalent of a leaky faucet, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn). With breathtaking ignorance of the Constitution and equally breathtaking megalomania, Joe announced, "We need to rebuild the confidence of the American people ... in our government's ability to protect them from attack, whether it comes from nature or from terrorists." Wanna bet the poor dimwit truly believes Big Daddy Government not only should but can protect us from Mother Nature? September 8, 2005 Becky Akers [send her mail] writes primarily about the American Revolution. Copyright © 2005 LewRockwell.com |