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June 24, 2008
A Comparison of Two Floods and Two Kinds of Americans
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 are no wide spread reports of lawlessness to require excuses).
Re: 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?
Posted by Post Scripts at June 24, 2008 11:20 AM
Comments
Well, first there's the issue of density, and then there is the issue of means. If Cedar Rapids (which has about half the population of New Orleans) had a densely populated section of town full of people with no car, no boat (I am mightily impressed by how many Midwestern River dwellers own a little boat!), and no relatives out of town, they'd be bad off right now. But the citizens of Cedar Rapids seem to be pretty well fixed. And that is all there is to that, sir.
Then there is the fact that these folk were all flooded out a mere 15 years back, so they all know the drill ... and I do think I have heard a little grumbling about how this country chooses to spend its resources. Other countries prone to flooding build their levees to 1,000 year standards, not 100 years.
Posted by: Libby at June 24, 2008 12:25 PM
One report I heard said that FEMA is doing a terrific job. Could be that the governor, mayors and other officials all did what was required of them so that FEMA could respond. You're right Jack, the difference is quite amazing.
Posted by: Tina at June 24, 2008 01:58 PM
To this day I am stunned that the New Orleans local government, County government,State government get a 100% pass by liberals and the liberal media. They don't even bother to defend it they just ignore it.
Posted by: Toby Stahler at June 25, 2008 01:06 PM
Take Libby for instance...
Posted by: Nick Freitas at June 25, 2008 02:23 PM
Libby the issue of density might be a fair comparison if that were the only problem but it wasn't.
The biggest difference is that too many of the people in those "dense" areas of one city have been "sujugated" under government programs to the point where they no longer know how to fend for themselves.
I saw one young boy...an entrepreneur, who finally said to heck with waiting on government. He commandeered one of those unused buses and managed to drive one bus load of people out of the city even though he was not yet old enough to have a license. Too bad there weren't more like him...
It is sad and pathetic that people stayed home when they were told to leave, that the governor didn't follow the necessary procedures for asking the feds for help, that the mayor was of like mind (both democrats)and that the tax money for levee repair was diverted for "other purposes' (or stolen). There were a million other sad things including false reports from the footbal stadium and a million other things.
The most outrageous outcome of all was that the whole mess was blamed on the president. Typical of progressives, however, they never hold themselves or their own people accountable for anything.
Posted by: Tina at June 25, 2008 04:06 PM