Subject: FW: This is a point of view held by many!
Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 09:33:35 -0500
Source-TIA Daily 9-2-2005
It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure
>> out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them,
>> because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is
going
>> on
>> there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think
>> that
>> we are confronting a natural disaster.
>>
>> If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials
>> is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send
>> transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send
>> engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure.
>> For
>> journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the
heroism
>> of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and
>> dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being
taken
>> to clean up and rebuild.
>>
>> Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have
to
>> do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if
they
>> are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself
>> included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain,
wind,
>> and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.
>>
>> But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.
>>
>> The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by
>> federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane
>> Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television
channel
>> has gotten the story wrong.
>>
>> The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not
>> happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four
decades.
>> Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.
>>
>> The man-made disaster is the welfare state.
>>
>> For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be
>> confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to
behave
>> in
>> an emergency--indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in
>> other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have
>> been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it
is
>> not even what we expect from a Third World country.
>>
>> When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion.
>> They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously
>> organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in
>> America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own
>> initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care
of
>> us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town
>> whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to
get
>> out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars
>> through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of
>> New
>> Yorkers to September 11).
>>
>> So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?
>>
>> To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a
>> description from a Washington Times story:
>>
>> "Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists,
>> knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets;
and
>> police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.
>>
>> "The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen
>> poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and
>> gunfire....
>>
>> "Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened
>> Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with
>> shoot-to-kill orders.
>>
>> "'These troops are...under my orders to restore order in the
streets,'
>> she said. 'They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These
troops
>> know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if
>> necessary and I expect they will.' "
>>
>> The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this
article
>> shows National Guard troops, with rifles and armored vests, riding on
an
>> armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of
>> squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them.
It
>> looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad.
>>
>> What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse
for
>> an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs
to
>> storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the
>> drivers to drive away, frightened for their lives? What causes people
to
>> attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Super Dome?
>>
>> Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further
>> destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help
>> them?
>>
>> My wife, Sherri, figured it out first, and she figured it out on a
>> sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage last night on Fox
News
>> Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She
>> studied
>> architecture at the Illinois Institute of Chicago, which is located
in
>> the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor
Homes,
>> one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The
>> projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime
>> and
>> irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.)
>>
>> What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a
>> whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"--the
>> informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most
news
>> channels--gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of
the
>> residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane,
and
>> of the 300,000 or so who remained, a large number were from the
city's
>> public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then gave me an additional,
>> crucial fact: early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city
had
>> no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails--so
they
>> just let many of them loose. There is no doubt a significant overlap
>> between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in
the
>> jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa.
>>
>> There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when
the
>> deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people
from
>> two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people
selected,
>> over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced
>> helplessness.
>> The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent
>> administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.
>>
>> All of this is related, incidentally, to the apparent incompetence of
>> the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of
the
>> city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. But in a
city
>> corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to
ensure
>> the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political
>> supporters--not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of
>> emergency.
>>
>> No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact,
>> some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for
>> example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New
Orleans
>> had drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an
>> execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious
>> Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the
truth
>> is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was
the
>> exact opposite of individualism.
>>
>> What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of
>> the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency
is
>> behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the
>> responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond
to
>> a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to
>> overcome
>> the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that
the
>> government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a
>> disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
>>
>> But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about
>> saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own
>> anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their
>> businesses
>> or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about
those
>> things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off
of
>> stolen wealth is a way of life for them.
>>
>> The welfare state--and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains
>> and encourages--is the man-made disaster that explains the moral
>> ugliness
>> that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is
>> reporting.
>>
>>>> Source: TIA Daily -- September 2, 2005
Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 09:33:35 -0500
Source-TIA Daily 9-2-2005
It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure
>> out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them,
>> because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is
going
>> on
>> there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think
>> that
>> we are confronting a natural disaster.
>>
>> If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials
>> is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send
>> transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send
>> engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure.
>> For
>> journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the
heroism
>> of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and
>> dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being
taken
>> to clean up and rebuild.
>>
>> Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have
to
>> do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if
they
>> are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself
>> included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain,
wind,
>> and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.
>>
>> But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.
>>
>> The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by
>> federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane
>> Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television
channel
>> has gotten the story wrong.
>>
>> The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not
>> happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four
decades.
>> Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.
>>
>> The man-made disaster is the welfare state.
>>
>> For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be
>> confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to
behave
>> in
>> an emergency--indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in
>> other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have
>> been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it
is
>> not even what we expect from a Third World country.
>>
>> When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion.
>> They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously
>> organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in
>> America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own
>> initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care
of
>> us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town
>> whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to
get
>> out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars
>> through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of
>> New
>> Yorkers to September 11).
>>
>> So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?
>>
>> To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a
>> description from a Washington Times story:
>>
>> "Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists,
>> knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets;
and
>> police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.
>>
>> "The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen
>> poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and
>> gunfire....
>>
>> "Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened
>> Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with
>> shoot-to-kill orders.
>>
>> "'These troops are...under my orders to restore order in the
streets,'
>> she said. 'They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These
troops
>> know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if
>> necessary and I expect they will.' "
>>
>> The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this
article
>> shows National Guard troops, with rifles and armored vests, riding on
an
>> armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of
>> squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them.
It
>> looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad.
>>
>> What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse
for
>> an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs
to
>> storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the
>> drivers to drive away, frightened for their lives? What causes people
to
>> attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Super Dome?
>>
>> Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further
>> destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help
>> them?
>>
>> My wife, Sherri, figured it out first, and she figured it out on a
>> sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage last night on Fox
News
>> Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She
>> studied
>> architecture at the Illinois Institute of Chicago, which is located
in
>> the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor
Homes,
>> one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The
>> projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime
>> and
>> irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.)
>>
>> What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a
>> whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"--the
>> informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most
news
>> channels--gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of
the
>> residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane,
and
>> of the 300,000 or so who remained, a large number were from the
city's
>> public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then gave me an additional,
>> crucial fact: early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city
had
>> no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails--so
they
>> just let many of them loose. There is no doubt a significant overlap
>> between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in
the
>> jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa.
>>
>> There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when
the
>> deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people
from
>> two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people
selected,
>> over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced
>> helplessness.
>> The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent
>> administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.
>>
>> All of this is related, incidentally, to the apparent incompetence of
>> the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of
the
>> city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. But in a
city
>> corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to
ensure
>> the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political
>> supporters--not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of
>> emergency.
>>
>> No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact,
>> some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for
>> example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New
Orleans
>> had drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an
>> execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious
>> Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the
truth
>> is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was
the
>> exact opposite of individualism.
>>
>> What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of
>> the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency
is
>> behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the
>> responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond
to
>> a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to
>> overcome
>> the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that
the
>> government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a
>> disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
>>
>> But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about
>> saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own
>> anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their
>> businesses
>> or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about
those
>> things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off
of
>> stolen wealth is a way of life for them.
>>
>> The welfare state--and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains
>> and encourages--is the man-made disaster that explains the moral
>> ugliness
>> that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is
>> reporting.
>>
>>>> Source: TIA Daily -- September 2, 2005
for the troll.
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