Our nation has struck an iceberg and the question now is, did the captain ignore the obvious dangers in order to bring himself prestige by setting a new speed record?
Our nation, the once golden beacon of light to the rest of the world has now succumbed to long history of ill conceived practices and policies that for the first time has even the flag wavers wondering how we ended up on this shore. Policies enacted to fill the pockets of corporate machines and people of influence, policies that have all but abandoned any thoughts of the average American. For the fifth straight year the poverty level in the United States has increased, a first since they began tracking such things. Yet we are told the economy is good and strong, and if you are poor you should have invested your unemployment check in more diverse funds instead of trying to eat. Much like Marie Antoinette said: "If the people have no bread, let them eat cake", is how our government views its people.
Criticized for failing to put in place a meaningful energy policy, our President decided to release some of the strategic oil reserves, a move which Wall Street and the people knew was merely a political gesture that did nothing to help ease the recent price spike. Europe has offered to release some of its reserves to help the United States in the wake of hurricane Katrina and this only brings to light the failed policies of this Presidency despite its growing rhetoric to the contrary. The US has not built a new refinery in nearly 20 years despite the fact that for the past four years we have been at 95% of capacity and now with several refineries damaged from the hurricane, we are faced with a real dilemma. Any sane and rational person would ask why didn’t we learn anything from the gas crisis in the 1970’s that ground the nation to a halt and why did we so ignore the obvious?
In New Orleans, a modern contemporary city in the south, chaos reigns as the city and surrounding areas fall into utter anarchy as governmental officials attempt to come up with a means of dealing with the problem. However, there was one person who was not worried or even moved by the horrific human suffering taking place, and that would be President Bush who decided to go on a bike ride and as he himself put it, “Get on with my life.” Always good to know the President is such a strong man that something like a little hurricane would even bother him, after all there are important things to do like search for weapons of mass deception. The complete and total disconnection from the people that our president has shown should be an indicator of where his future concerns will lay and I am willing to bet it isn’t with you or me.
If this seems to be a bit of a scathing and vicious article designed to attack the President and his policies it is because that is what it is. I am sickened to the core watching the scenes of devastation while those who are meant to protect us are halfway around the world in a war that was based on utter lies and deceit. I am sickened to watch a woman’s baby die on national television as many of our helicopters that could be used to bring food and water to people in the middle of town are instead being used to try and stop a civil war in a nation on the other side of the globe. I am sickened because it was known days ahead of time that the worse possible scenario was about to take place and yet here it is days later and the people continue to die. I am sickened because funding that was supposed to shore up levies, add and maintain pumps, and become better prepared was cut because it was instead used in a war that is a lie. I am sickened because there are airboats from Florida with private individuals who want to help but are not being allowed to. I am sickened because despite all this devastation and human suffering on a scale that is beyond imagination our President wants to “get on with his life” and go for a bike ride. I am sickened most of all because George W Bush is still the captain of this ship and no one seems to care that there are more people than lifeboats.
Flip
6 comments:
Great post Flip. Theres the angry young man I used to know....
I so enjoy your perspective and wholeheartedly agree with you on this issue.
I tend to concur with you on this one. This has been the worst response to the worst disaster this country has ever seen. The fingers of blame can be pointed in a hell of a lot directions beginning with the mayor of N.O. and ending with the President and heads should roll !
I'm not normally a fan of Geraldo Rivera, but if his antics were to anger people to the point of action, he succeeded with me. I was in tears and livid after watching his and Shepard Smith's reports from New Orleans. I spent most of the night emailing congress, the President and every one else who's email address I could find.
We have some of these folks down here in San Antonio staying at Kelly Air Force base, hotels and some will be at Alamo Dome. The most important thing right now is helping these people, there will be plenty of time and energy to kick some asses later.
As Lee Iacoca used to say
"Lead, Follow or Get Out Of The Way!"
Well I could sit and spend a full day of pointing out this and that, but some many other people are already doing this. I am trying to stand back and take this in from a much broader perspective, and it isn't any less sickening. It is now clear to me that all the money spent, all the lives wasted have not made America safer, either abroad or at home. What could have been our finest hour has turned into the most poignant lessons of the day, and sadly the cost of this lesson is immense. I have lost the little faith in my government that I had left, as the pile of lies are the only thing exceeding the piles of dead Americans. Be it on the streets of Baghdad or the streets of New Orleans. We have an unemotional, unmoved President who could give a shit about those Americans who wash his shirts, we have a Congress bought and paid for by lobbiest and foreign governments, and all we have left is each other as they have utterly failed in their duty to serve the nations people. I am so sickened by this most recent display that it pains me to even write, but if nothing else it has motivated me like nothing before.
Flip
For the dead, there is no hope. For the survivors who have lived in poverty, living in "projects", living from hand to mouth this could be a turning point in their lives.
I'm praying that with all the attention, the outpouring of financial support, not from the government but from regular folks like us, people will be able to get maybe an opportunity to get job training, a home, a fresh start. We cannot and should not rely on the government to take care of everyone. We have to take care of ourselves and each other.
This is no time to allow these folks to sit in shock, feeling powerless. I know it's only been a week and their lives have been turned upside down, but the longer they sit, the harder it will be for them to start over.
We need to move fast to get them on that road to a new life. A life of hope.
Within hours of the WTC attack, the following comments appeared in Microsoft's News community website (US Eastern time)
11Sep01 18:10 - 'This attack against America and the civilised world should not be left to memories. It was a cowardice attack on innocent civilians.
What really makes me sick is seeing the Arabs and Jews dancing in the street with joy at the death and destruction. They are happy to see this catastrophe go down at the greatest terrorist attack in history.'
11Sep01 - 18:19 'Everyone (myself included) immediately assumed it was some Islamic fundamentalist group. Bin Laden has denied it, Hammas have denied it & some other Palestinian organisation has denied it.'
11Sep01- 19:29
'Actually Bin Laden has not denied it. The Taleban Authority has said that it wasn't him, and we all know how those dirty goat fucking arabs act.'
At about the same time, cartoons of Bin Laden started appearing on the Internet - programs that would have taken quite a while to develop.
Osama Bin Laden was therefore chosen as the culprit long before the towers came down.
In the days, weeks and months that followed, articles appeared in all the newspapers detailing Bin Laden's life until even 8 year old children knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was the guilty one.
In those days, anyone even remotely suggesting that oil and euro-dollar conflict might have anything to do with current events in the Middle East were laughed at and ridiculed. I remember Tony Blair telling the world in Parliament during the debate that sealed Iraq's fate - this conflict is not about oil. If so, why did Cheney need all those maps of the Iraqi oil fields?
Why do George W Bush and his associates wear that bloody stupid badge on their lapels? It would be like Elvis Presley wearing a badge that says 'My name is Elvis Presley I am a pop singer'
The WTC collapse was the biggest crime of my lifetime. I can still see George W Bush sitting in that classroom after being told the second plane has just gone into the World Trade Centre.
THe Powers-that-be who organised the event of course they knew George would be on tv at the time. And they knew it would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that George W Bush is a dim witted imbecile; yet it would make no difference - people would still vote for him again.
But no way could they have him in the White House on that day cos cool heads were needed to do all the things that needed to be done.
The people who occupy the WHite House. Are they human beings or are the gentically modified mutants who look like humans?
When Mankind first appeared in Tanzania a couple of million years ago to eventually become Home Sapiens, no one told us that a similar bunch was also being developed somewhere else, George W Bush being the latest in the line. Rumour has it that the Queen of England is quite possibly a distant blood relation of George, so it's not quite clear who's calling the kettle black i.e. it's not necessarily the case that Tony is pandering to George's desires.
I am working on the assumption that there are two kinds of human beings on this planet - the ones that you and I belong to; and this other breed.
Has anyone thought about getting a strand of George Bush's DNA and publishing the results?
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