Racist Finger Pointers Play The Katrina Blame Game

9-07-2005

Lee P. Butler

"I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!"

That was the despicable, irresponsible, impromptu hate-filled rant from rapper Kanye West during the nationally televised one-hour fundraising celebrity studded event presented by NBC for the national disaster on the Gulf coast created by the category 4 hurricane Katrina.

That statement was bad enough, but West wasn't through with his off-the-cuff, vitriolic racist remarks. He ended his diatribe by saying; "George Bush doesn't care about black people!"

Many pundits have dismissed his comments as being borne of frustration and though 'inappropriate' should be accepted as 'understandable'. Yet, there was nothing acceptable about that racist rant in the face of the tragedy that continues to unfold and the unfortunate belief that he was simply voicing an opinion he held about the President regardless of the intensity of the catastrophe.

That belief is only exemplified when West's words are echoed by liberal extremist Michael Moore on his website; "It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands has no transportation to get out of town," Moore wrote. "C'mon, they're black! ... Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days?"

The tragedy opened the door for racist hate-mongers to use the sorrowful pain and suffering of those who were trapped in the aftermath of the disaster to politicize their plight and attack President Bush and his administration with the same rhetorical denigration used by Democrats during election seasons.

But if you go back, following the timeline of events and plot the facts as they played out, a much different picture is portrayed than the one being force fed to the American public by media elitists with an obvious political agenda that plainly coincides with their own political biases.

On Sunday, August 28th, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) gave a press conference during which they officially called for the immediate, mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. Mayor Nagin then heeded his own advice and spent the better part of the week following the storm in Baton Rouge castigating everybody but himself.

What the liberal media continues to not fully report and in most cases blatantly ignores is that on Friday, before the storm, the President was constantly on the phone with the Louisiana Governor. The Governor admitted President Bush tried to get her to call for the evacuation of the city and documentation shows he wanted her to officially request federal assistance, which is required by law to happen before the federal government can take action.

By early Saturday, the Governor had received 'a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans'. But state level officials rejected that proposal, because they were 'concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law'.

The whole time President Bush was at his ranch in Crawford, as liberals keep chanting, 'on vacation' leading up to and during part of the aftermath, he was trying to get control of the situation and gathering all the information that was available to assist in the decision making process. All the while, Governor Blanco was ignoring his requests and advice. Even the Director of the Hurricane Center called on her and Mayor Nagin to evacuate.

As reported by the Washington Post: 'Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.' She was finally admitting, "We did not have enough resources here to do it all. . . . The magnitude is overwhelming."

Even though it wasn't until Sunday that Blanco and Nagin officially announced the mandatory evacuation, President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, which brought FEMA into action. They stationed troops and supplies in strategic areas in preparation of the storm. Less than 24 hours before the storm eventually hit, the Mayor and Governor announced the mandatory evacuation.

Police and firefighters patrolled the city telling people to evacuate. Many chose to use the Superdome for protection, "We're not evacuating," said Julie Paul, 57. "None of us have any place to go. We're counting on the Superdome. That's our lifesaver." It would become Hell on Earth.

Left behind in the wake of Katrina, was total chaos and destruction. The enormity of the disaster was vividly displayed on national television. Within 24 hours, 7200 National Guard troops from four states were ready to go into Louisiana, but couldn't until their assistance was officiated by the Mayor and Governor.

Cries of racism sprang out from the usual hate-mongering suspects and fingers started being pointed, led by Mayor Nagin who eagerly chastised the President for lack of help with evacuating stranded residents. Residents who should have been evacuated before the storm if Nagin had followed Louisiana's own evacuation plan.

The plan, adopted in 01/00 clearly states on page 13, paragraph 5, 'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'.

Yet hundreds of school buses and municipal buses stand flooded, having never been used to evacuate those not fortunate enough to be able to leave of their on volition or thought the Superdome, as Mayor Nagin suggested, would protect them, if they had blankets and food for several days.

It wasn't until late in the week that Louisiana asked for a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance and opened the channel for federal assistance, at which time President Bush acted swiftly to bring in more troops and rescuers from across the country.

By that time, in contrast to the severe conditions in New Orleans, Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi; which were just as devastated, were well under way in their rescue and clean up efforts with help from the federal government. The authorities there quickly requested federal aid once the devastation was assessed.

"The federal government's job is big and it's massive, and we're going to do it," President Bush said on Friday. "Where it's not working right, we're going to make it right. Where it is working right, we're going to duplicate it elsewhere."

Racist hate-mongers will always see a racial component in everything and the Bush haters will never forfeit an opportunity to attack him or his administration and the two are often coordinated dance partners. Sometimes a guilty conscience speaks louder than the words they are using to divert attention away from the failed actions of the speakers.

The survivors of the United States greatest natural disaster deserve better than having the tragedy of their lives exploited for political posturing.