Friday, September 2
They shoot looters, don't they? (Please)
UPDATE: A regular US reader writes:
***
I can't watch the footage any longer.
I've seen one poor woman who just arrived at the Astrodome look into the camera and say, "God bless you all for helping us." Everyone else looks like a selfish savage with delusions of entitlement.
We hear that the poor didn't "escape in time" because they don't have cars. I don't doubt this is true for many. New Orleans is, like Toronto, a city where cars just aren't a necessity for many, at least from what I hear. My mother and I couldn't afford a car either, and most of my friends growing up didn't have one in their family. Never thought much of it. I still don't know the brake from the gas and doubt I'll ever have reason to learn.
However: one of the reasons poor people are poor is because they can't or won't plan further ahead than tomorrow, next week, or next month (when the cheque comes in) at the most. Those stuck in New Orleans are, according to reports I've heard, most likely lifelong recipients of public assistance. The government is "supposed" to help them, and do so immediately and immaculately. Resourcefulness, self-restraint, a sense of their own and other people's inherent dignity -- these things have been eroded as surely as the coastline.
This isn't true of everyone, obviously. Fats Domino is [CORRECTION: was] missing; he insisted on riding out the storm. Can Fats Domino not afford bus or even cab fare all the way to Texas? Please. No, this is a cultural thing: the prevailing attitude in the city has always been one of casualness to the point of passivity. "Whatever. Let's stick around and party" -- I don't doubt those were the last words of hundreds.
And of course municipal and state level corruption is a Louisana tradition, one that is joked about and accepted as "just the way things are." Part of what makes the state so "colourful".
The National Guard didn't react quickly enough? Gee, I dunno, I guess most of us figured that normal people could control their impulses adequately, could do simple things like stay calm, line up and so forth, until help arrived. Maybe they'd, oh, I dunno, help each other as best they could.
When really poor people win the lottery, 99% of the time the money is gone in a year. A stupid person with money is a stupid rich person. The cheque doesn't include a brain transplant or induce a magical change of habits lived and learned over a lifetime.
Likewise: the murder rate in New Orleans is 10 times the national average, at least according to the Wall Street Journal yesterday. So basically what we're seeing on tv right now is what you'd see on an average week if you added cameras and water. The mayor of Detroit says he'll welcome all the "brothers and sisters" who want to move there. Good place for them.
I predict that Katrina donations will be much lower than those to the tsunami victims, because, let's be candid, many would-be donors won't want people like that getting their money.
If the cops had shot looters to begin with, we'd be seeing much different pictures on tv. And our enemies abroad wouldn't be gloating. Looters do more than steal and destroy property; they give aid and comfort to the enemy. They are traitors. I have no sympathy for any person who puts "ownership" of a flat screen tv he won't be able to sell, let alone watch, over and above his nation's image and security.
UPDATE: Kate has a "read it all" post -- and I'm not kidding. This is just a small sample:
Isn't it odd how so many female writers -- from Kate and I to Peggy Noonan and Mona Charon -- are the ones calling for law and order? No, not when you consider that we females have way more to lose under the circumstances.
Remember that the people that settled in "Nawlins" came from Napoleanic prisons... kind of a Marial boatlift of the day. Lawlessness is a cultural right and rite.
***
I can't watch the footage any longer.
I've seen one poor woman who just arrived at the Astrodome look into the camera and say, "God bless you all for helping us." Everyone else looks like a selfish savage with delusions of entitlement.
We hear that the poor didn't "escape in time" because they don't have cars. I don't doubt this is true for many. New Orleans is, like Toronto, a city where cars just aren't a necessity for many, at least from what I hear. My mother and I couldn't afford a car either, and most of my friends growing up didn't have one in their family. Never thought much of it. I still don't know the brake from the gas and doubt I'll ever have reason to learn.
However: one of the reasons poor people are poor is because they can't or won't plan further ahead than tomorrow, next week, or next month (when the cheque comes in) at the most. Those stuck in New Orleans are, according to reports I've heard, most likely lifelong recipients of public assistance. The government is "supposed" to help them, and do so immediately and immaculately. Resourcefulness, self-restraint, a sense of their own and other people's inherent dignity -- these things have been eroded as surely as the coastline.
This isn't true of everyone, obviously. Fats Domino is [CORRECTION: was] missing; he insisted on riding out the storm. Can Fats Domino not afford bus or even cab fare all the way to Texas? Please. No, this is a cultural thing: the prevailing attitude in the city has always been one of casualness to the point of passivity. "Whatever. Let's stick around and party" -- I don't doubt those were the last words of hundreds.
And of course municipal and state level corruption is a Louisana tradition, one that is joked about and accepted as "just the way things are." Part of what makes the state so "colourful".
The National Guard didn't react quickly enough? Gee, I dunno, I guess most of us figured that normal people could control their impulses adequately, could do simple things like stay calm, line up and so forth, until help arrived. Maybe they'd, oh, I dunno, help each other as best they could.
When really poor people win the lottery, 99% of the time the money is gone in a year. A stupid person with money is a stupid rich person. The cheque doesn't include a brain transplant or induce a magical change of habits lived and learned over a lifetime.
Likewise: the murder rate in New Orleans is 10 times the national average, at least according to the Wall Street Journal yesterday. So basically what we're seeing on tv right now is what you'd see on an average week if you added cameras and water. The mayor of Detroit says he'll welcome all the "brothers and sisters" who want to move there. Good place for them.
I predict that Katrina donations will be much lower than those to the tsunami victims, because, let's be candid, many would-be donors won't want people like that getting their money.
If the cops had shot looters to begin with, we'd be seeing much different pictures on tv. And our enemies abroad wouldn't be gloating. Looters do more than steal and destroy property; they give aid and comfort to the enemy. They are traitors. I have no sympathy for any person who puts "ownership" of a flat screen tv he won't be able to sell, let alone watch, over and above his nation's image and security.
UPDATE: Kate has a "read it all" post -- and I'm not kidding. This is just a small sample:
"The doors to the largest facility available that may withstand the storm are opened in hopes that those who had no way of escaping, or somehow learned of them too late, can find refuge.Go call her a "racist" if you like. She's the one with comments.
"And tens of thousands ignore them and remain in their homes.
"Many of have cars parked in their driveways. Many who don't, are able bodied and capable of walking. Many ignore the warning and remain, though they have children and elderly in their care.
"With the storm has passed, the waters rising faster than the heat, electricity failed and supplies running out, when the truth begins to dawn on the survivors -- that the state is not all-powerful, that the mere human beings charged with coming to their aid, are in fact, mere human beings who cannot come sweeping to their rescue like the cavalry over a Hollywood hill, that there are so many to rescue, because like they, so many have ignored the warnings - do they pool their resources?
"Do they find strength in human dignity and sanctity of life? Do the strong come to the aid of the weak? Do they summon patience and resolve in the knowledge that help is on the way, if only they can find the courage to help themselves a little longer?
"What is their response to this consequence that has befallen them, a consequence largely of their own making?
"'You owe us.'
Isn't it odd how so many female writers -- from Kate and I to Peggy Noonan and Mona Charon -- are the ones calling for law and order? No, not when you consider that we females have way more to lose under the circumstances.
