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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
September 11, 2005
Blame and suffering
both on the rise |
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As horrible as the Hurricane
Katrina disaster is becoming, there is something worse going on that
is further damaging this country. The blame, blame, blame game will
cause more damage than all of the water that is currently covering
New Orleans.
It is still very painful even to think about what the Gulf
Coast citizens have been going through. From a distance there
is no way to comprehend the physical, emotional, psychological, and
financial damage.
It’s just as troubling to see and hear all the various levels
of government blame each other. From the local parishes of New
Orleans to the mayor of New Orleans to the Louisiana governor to the
president, the blame buck is being passed back and forth.
While people suffer and die, the biggest priority seems to be
who is ultimately responsible. The mayor of New Orleans and the
governor of Louisiana blame the federal government for a slow
response. The federal government blames the mayor and governor for
not implementing the city’s and state’s own disaster plans and for
not requesting federal help in a timely manner.
The mayor of New Orleans has publicly chastised the president
for not sending buses to his city to help evacuate residents. The
federal government pointed out that the mayor allowed over 200 buses
to be flooded because they were left in low-lying areas. The
governor took issue with the president for not doing enough soon
enough. The president accused the governor of waiting too long
before requesting federal assistance as required by law, thus
preventing the federal agency to act quickly.
Meanwhile, thousands and thousands of people suffer. How many
have died yet remains to be determined.
In the non-political arena, more blame game was being played.
Add racism to the blame fold. Since almost 70 percent of New
Orleans’ population is black, more blacks appeared to have suffered
the most. At least most of the victims shown on television are
black. According to some, race was a deciding factor in the degree
of suffering. If the majority of the victims had been white, one
influential rapper inferred, a faster response from the government,
the president in particular, would have occurred.
Meanwhile, thousands and thousands of people suffered. The
blame doesn’t stop there.
According to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the reason
for the disaster is because God was punishing the United States for
the wickedness of its people and government. He also said because
of our invasion of Iraq, God would inflict more divine punishment
upon other cities if we didn’t change our ways.
Meanwhile, thousands and thousands of people suffer.
While thousands of concerned citizens and several other state
and local governments unleash unprecedented compassion to help the
victims of Hurricane Katrina sort out their lives, I am trying to
understand and sort out the blame game.
Let’s see. The federal, state, and local governments blame
each other. The environmentalists blame global warming. Some
black celebrities blame the white man, and Louis Farrakhan blames
God.
In a system with checks and balances, governments will
naturally conflict, even during a catastrophe. It’s become too
common for someone to make any issue a racial issue, even though the
eye of the storm is colorblind; and the majority of rescue workers
are white. Environmentalists blame everything on everybody. And one
person always finds a way to speak for God.
To top it all off, someone is calling for a congressional
commission to sort this out.
Meanwhile, thousands and thousands of people suffer. |
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