Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Midwest compared to New Orleans

Here are a couple of e-mails I have seen floating around in the wake of the flooding in the Midwest. It thoroughly baffles me how much the same disaster brings about such different reactions from different sections of the United States. My opinion all along is that New Orleans embodies all that is wrong with this country. Even in the wake of Katrina (which BTW, wiped out much of the Gulf Coast) New Orleans was the only area that couldn't seem to cope with anything. Mississippi quietly went about rebuilding while New Orleans wallowed in squalor and screamed that the government didn't do enough. Now Iowa and Missouri are for the most part under water and the residents of those areas quietly go about sandbagging and waiting for the waters to recede so they can rebuild and go on with their lives, while residents of New Orleans continue to live in squalor waiting for the federal government to rebuild for them. Again, I am amazed that this sort of helplessness can exist in our great country.

Just a personal observation...as I watched the news coverage of the massive flooding in the Midwest with over 100 blocks of the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa under water, levees breaking, and the attention now turned downstream for when this massive amount of water hits the Mississippi, what amazed me is not what we saw, but what we didn't see...

1. We don't see looting.
2. We don't see street violence.
3. We don't see people sitting on their rooftops waiting for the government to come and save them.
4. We don't see people waiting on the government to do anything.
5. We don't see Hollywood organizing benefits to raise money for people to rebuild.
6. We don't see people blaming President Bush.
7. We don't see people ignoring evacuation orders.
8. We don't see people blaming a government conspiracy to blow up the levees as the reason some have not held.
9. We don't see the US Senators or the Governor of Iowa crying on TV.
10. We don't see the Mayors of any of these cities complaining about the lack of state or federal response.
11. We don't see or hear reports of the police going around confiscating personal firearms so only the criminal will be armed.
12. We don't see gangs of people going around and randomly shooting at the rescue workers.
13. You don't see some leaders in this country blaming the bad behavior of the Iowa flood victims on "society" (of course there is no wide spread reports of lawlessness to require excuses).

Iowa vs. Louisiana:

Where are all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for
help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?

Where is all the media asking the tough questions about why the federal
government hasn't solved the problem? Asking where the FEMA trucks (and
trailers) are?

Why isn't the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels
in Chicago?

When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees
that failed in Des Moines?

Where are Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks?

Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen
television sets?

When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a
"vanilla" Iowa, because that's the way God wants it?

Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of
cannibalism?

Where are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural
people?

How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever
again?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsn2mADGmUo

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