[Vision2020] Foot in mouth disease (was federal response toKatrina, etc.)

Tue Sep 13 13:31:33 PDT 2005

I don't know squat about what it's like going through a hurricane.  I 
consider it a tragedy when a stiff Moscow breeze drops a chunk of Palouse 
topsoil under my contact lens.  I don't know the first thing about hurricane 
preparation, or coordinating the massive relief efforts currently underway.  
I do know that, according to the Pew Center for the People and the Press, 
only 26% of whites said the government response would have been faster if 
most of the victims had been white, while 66% of blacks believe it would 
have been.  I think that says we have a problem.                             

                Carl Westberg Jr.

>From: "Pat Kraut" <pkraut at moscow.com>
>To: "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Foot in mouth disease (was federal response 
>toKatrina, etc.)
>Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 12:39:10 -0700
>
>Ah but silly me! I thought we were pouring money into a welfare system and 
>a war on poverty that was supposed to 'fix' some of these issues. So, I 
>guess you are saying to me that all those billions of dollars are not being 
>spent on actually helping people!? On making the changes that we would all 
>hope for them? I am aware of all the problems I just would like to see them 
>actually get some real changes in their lives and stop throwing money at 
>them. One of the things that Katrina points out is how futile some of the 
>'good' work has been!
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Joan Opyr
>   To: Vision2020 Moscow
>   Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 11:07 PM
>   Subject: [Vision2020] Foot in mouth disease (was federal response to 
>Katrina, etc.)
>
>
>   Pat Kraut writes:
>
>
>     I too have wondered if any of the squawkers are aware of the massive
>     problem. It wasn't perfect but it wasn't as bad as some would like us 
>to
>     believe. The black leadership is only accusing Bush of racism because 
>they
>     have failed their people so badly.Why were all those people, of any 
>color,
>     some of the poorest in the city, living so close to the problem? The 
>whole
>     area is run by democrats so the black leadership is desperately trying 
>to
>     blame anyone but them.
>
>
>   Woman, if you keep your foot in your mouth much longer, you're going to 
>have to have your tongue re-soled. Why were poor black people living so 
>close to the problem? I don't know . . . because they were poor? Because 
>they were black? Because they were poor and black? I understand that you 
>are from Idaho, one of the whitest states in America, and, what's more, 
>that you are from rural Northern Idaho. I know this, and I make allowances 
>for your lack of first-hand knowledge about urban demographics, but surely 
>-- surely -- even you must know that the poor always live on the wrong side 
>of the tracks, or, in this case, the wrong side of the levees. The poor 
>never occupy the high ground ANYWHERE. And who are the poor? In New 
>Orleans, as in the rest of the South, the poor are predominantly black. 
>Further, New Orleans, like most Southern cities, is still segregated. The 
>South is no longer legally segregated, but it is an unfortunate political 
>and economic reality that black people and white people do not live in the 
>same neighborhoods. There are a few token African-Americans in a few 
>upscale white neighborhoods, but I can assure you, there's a tipping point. 
>When a neighborhood gets "too black," house prices drop and white flight 
>begins.
>
>   It's also the case that rich black people and poor black people don't 
>live in the same neighborhoods, anymore than rich white people and poor 
>white people do. Poor people of all colors live in the worst locations and 
>in the greatest danger, always. Think back to when Paradise Creek here in 
>Moscow flooded some years ago. Whose living rooms were drowned, the folks 
>up in the $300,000 houses in Fort Russell and Indian Hills, or those in the 
>more modest homes down on Blaine and Maybelle?
>
>   As for your criticizing the black leadership of New Orleans and 
>determining that "those people" have failed "their people" and thus are 
>just hunting around now for scapegoats, do you really want to go there, 
>Pat? I might argue (with some justification) that you yourself are 
>desperately seeking some black Democrats to blame so that you can protect 
>your white Republican idol, George Bush. A whole hell of a lot went wrong 
>in New Orleans, things that didn't go wrong in North Carolina and South 
>Carolina when hurricanes Hugo and Andrew hit. FEMA was run back then by a 
>highly competent Clinton appointee; Hugo and Andrew came far inland and hit 
>the economically prosperous, not just the coastal or river-dwelling poor; 
>white people suffered in those hurricanes, not just poor black people -- 
>white people with a sense of entitlement and the privileged expectation 
>that their needs would be met. If you don't think that any of that might 
>have accounted for the faster, more satisfactory federal response, then you 
>don't live in the same world I do.
>
>   I suggested yesterday that Donovan board a bus for Kansas. Might I offer 
>you a trip to Biloxi? No, wait -- no need to go quite that far. Why don't I 
>just drop you off on Sprague Avenue in Spokane? I'll come back and pick you 
>up -- just as soon as I've sold enough plasma to pay for the gas.
>
>   Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
>   www.auntie-establishment.com
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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>_____________________________________________________
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯