Everything That’s Wrong In The World

Isn’t Caused By Racism

I’m sick and tired of this well worn, predictable, yet ever present refrain.

Every single time some population of African Americans, er um Negroes, aaah Blacks…whatever the politically correct description du jour, gets their tail in a crack somewhere, the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, et. al. all jump in front of the nearest microphone and/or TV camera and start complaining that things aren’t moving fast enough or are otherwise falling short of expectations and it’s all because the people are POOR or BLACK or some combination thereof. Somehow we are to believe that the displaced well-to-do white residents of New Orleans were shuttled out of town in Gulfstream Business Jets before the storm while the Po Folks was left to sweat and die in a scene of mass hysteria.

To hear the media, the Democrats, and the so called “self-proclaimed” Black leaders tell it, President Bush is supposed to act as some sort of Nanny for delinquent city and state leaders--running around sticking diapers and pacifiers on and in everyone and everything that screams because they don’t like the situation that THEY AND THEIR ELECTED LEADERS MADE FOR THEMSELVES.

What the hell do they think that the President’s job is, any way?

The situation in Louisiana generally and New Orleans specifically didn’t develop overnight, nor did it come about in the five years that Bush has inhabited the White House.

Let’s face some facts here people. Louisiana is one of the bottom five states when it comes to income, education, employment, and quality of life in general. I don’t mean that there aren’t nice places to live and educated people in Louisiana, but the state historically has lagged behind the rest of the nation when it comes to catching up with the 21st century. States like Georgia and Florida have lead the south in modernization and improvements, with the Carolinas, Alabama, and even Trent Lott’s beloved Mississippi turning the corner in recent years.

Exasperating the situation is the fact that the state government of Louisiana has a long, long colorful history of graft and corruption dating to the jailing of a former governor in the past ten years. New Orleans has always been a political cesspool within the larger landscape of swamps and corrupt parishes run by little local dictators.

Who knows how many billions of dollars have been wasted or outright stolen/misappropriated that could have been used for things like hiring and training more police officers and equipping them with things like boats or amphibious vehicles to address just the kinds of emergencies the city is facing now?

Remember Rudy Giuliani and NY City after 9/11? Rudi and the people of NY didn’t wait for the National Guard and Federal troops; they put on their uniforms and went to work. Rudi didn’t sit around cussing about the Federal Government’s involvement or lack thereof, he took command of the situation and handled things as he saw fit.

Today the world has proof that the leaders of New Orleans, like those of Atlanta and Detroit and any number of other medium sized US cities with large populations of inner city “minority” residents, is horribly guilty of taking the tax money allocated to them--local, state, and federal--and wasting it on programs and “empowerment initiatives” that continue to yield no tangible benefits to the citizens and communities they serve.

When are we going to stop bending over backwards and start calling a spade a spade?