Who Are “Those People”? 0

They are us.

Kim Cavanaugh made the point eloquently.

I tuned in to a national conservative talk show the other day while out driving about. Amazingly, a caller to the show was talking about “those people” down in New Orleans.

I’m angered and saddened by the reaction I’m seeing from some quarters. To attack the victims of the storm, and to then lump them into the blatantly racist category of “those” people is a shameful but revelatory indictment of our American culture and national attitude.

At a time when we should, as a nation, be pulling together, the fingers of blame are already moving the separate us, and, most sadly, exonerate those who are, by virtue of being in charge of the government, charged to

form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity

but who are deserting their posts.

It gets screwier. According to Reuters,

FEMA is distributing $2,000 per household but has scrapped a plan to issue debit cards, deciding instead to provide funding directly to bank accounts or by mail. Bush directed hurricane survivors to register for aid on a government Web site, www.fema.gov, or by phone.

So there you are–in the AstroDome, without anything except the clothes on your back and the things given to you by the rescue workers. Now, fire up your laptop, hop on Wi-Fi, and go to the FEMA site.

Assuming you get through (according to NPR’s All Things Considered this evening, the best time to try to call or connect is after midnight), you can have them mail your check to—where?

Your home? Wait a minute, it’s still under water. And there won’t be postal service till Heaven knows when.

Your P. O. box? Oh, but you need ID to get a P. O. box.

General Delivery? I don’t know that that even exists any more and, if it does, dollars to doughnuts the guvmint ain’t mailing a check there.

I think the debit card idea was a good one. Why was it discontinued?

It was too inconvenient for FEMA.

Natalie Rule, spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was quoted as saying:

”We tried it as an innovative way to get aid to evacuee populations in Texas. We decided it would be more expeditious with direct deposits,” she said, citing the large staffing operation that would be required to replicate the Texas operation in other states.

So, if you are sitting there in clothes still wet from the flood, be sure to have your laptop or your cell phone or your calling card ready so you can get help from those who swore to promote the General Welfare. Oh, yeah, maybe you never had a bank account (many of the victims of the flooding did not–never had enough money to need one) or maybe your bank is still under water.

Oh well, guess that’s your fault. FEMA’s ready to give you the money just as soon as the city is rebuilt and services are restored.

Sheesh.

Think I’ll go watch some of my Three Stooges collection. Somehow, they always managed to get it right in the end.