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September 24, 2005

Progressives and Conservatives: Face to Face With Poverty

The reaction to and politicizing of hurricane Katrina and its tragic aftermath will forever change the way many of us view the media in this country. For some, this tragedy has also been an education in the dangers posed us by the misdirected activists of this country. While the shock of the storm and the subsequent inundation of New Orleans were the focus of our attention, we were quickly distracted from the task at hand by these misguided fanatics. It is from these activists we first heard grossly exaggerated death tolls. The day that Katrina hit, they were blanketing the internet with duplicate messages declaring that Bush had cut levee funding. Later, they desecrated victims by using images of dead bodies as ammunition in their attacks on America. Claims of government indifference and negligence were aimed at a system they feel unjust, and they obviously hoped that the chaos and turmoil would foster some support for their socialist views. Through mass distribution of pamphlets, web sites, blogs, and emails, they sought to perpetuate the mistrust of our government, even suggesting intentional harm aimed at those in poverty. For them, this natural disaster supported their conspiracy theories regarding the haves versus the have nots. They lay blame for post-hurricane events on our entire social system and government. Hurricane Katrina exposed issues of poverty that most of us previously felt more comfortable just to ignore. This is perhaps the one area where we might find some measure of agreement, but when we broach the subject of causes and solutions all reason disintegrates.

“Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.”

~Martin Luther King, Jr., The Measures of Man, 1959

Today we have come to a crossroads, where those in positions of influence (our leaders and the media) must either stand up and speak the truth or accept the consequences of denial. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of the low road of degeneracy, and in this hurricane's aftermath we witnessed the results of that road being traveled. When it comes to poverty, in black communities in particular, it seems everyone is afraid to address many of the causes. We have issues of teenage pregnancy, fatherless children, illiteracy, high school dropout rates, and all the illegal activities that inherently accompany these: violence, crime, drugs, guns, prostitution, etc. This is not to say that any of these are unique to a particular race, but in recognizing poverty as an unequally black issue, these are problems that must be acknowledged. For fear of being called racist, there are few who venture into this territory. The few that dare to speak out, whether they are themselves minorities or not, are quickly demonized by a press looking to feel good about themselves for defending those they view as incapable, or by those who seek to continue in the current system and its failings.

Some of the remarks showing the greatest courage, honesty and understanding after this disaster have come from Linda Chavez, the President of the Center for Equal Opportunity in Virginia. I will not lapse into my media bias thoughts here, but this is a fine example. Rather than correctly describing her as head of an Equal Opportunity organization, the media makes the point to label her as “a former Bush nominee for secretary of labor.” The quote she has most been criticized for in the media is the one many of us wished to say but dared not. Chavez characterized many of Katrina’s victims as people “for whom sitting and waiting is a way of life.” I wish I could find where and when this quote was made, but I could not find any references to its source. I must admit that since reading this comment, I admire Linda Chavez more than any commentator on this issue. Her article today was especially eye opening, as she questioned what happened to the 200,000 plus Hispanics who were living in or around New Orleans before the storm:

“The city's Hispanics didn't need the cavalry to come to the rescue, even though many of them are very poor. They did what immigrants always do: They relied on informal networks of family, friends and fellow countrymen, and pooled their resources to get out while they could. Fear of being deported was no doubt a big motivator for some not to stick around, but the loss of work probably played an even bigger role in their decision.”

Linda Chavez offers thoughtful and obvious analysis of the crisis of poverty we are witnessing here in this country. Here on Cape Cod, I have had only one direct contact with a young married man who was with the New Orleans evacuees here at Camp Edwards. He was attempting to get a used truck he had purchased repaired so he could safely travel back to New Orleans and his job as a waiter. Taking his wife to see some of the country and getting back to work were this fellow's only concerns. My sister spent fifteen hours cramped in a vehicle trying to get out of Louisiana after fleeing New Orleans. Her final destination a day after this journey was Washington D.C. - to try and get her old job back and look for an apartment. I am sure there are many more like her that traveled off to find new work. There have been stories in local papers across the country of incidents with another sort of evacuee. I will call them the “uninterested in working” type. We had complaints that there were no decent gun shops, complaints that the camp ground's pool had not been cleaned, complaints that bars and liquor stores were not open twenty four hours, complaints about drinking restrictions at their housing, and complaints that living quarters were cramped. These are but a few of the examples (I am sure there are many more). What is the issue of a woman who arrived here on Cape Cod carrying her thirteenth child, and what of men so dependent on drugs and alcohol they could not function? Evacuee's frequent trips to the local Wal Mart have included public drinking binges at the storefront and lots of merchandise being purchased. We can not blame them for replacing lost goods, but in times like this, responsible people have priorities like the young man I met. Countless thousands work to rebuild their lives and their home states along the gulf coast, while these users of the system waste away their meager allowances and complain about their conditions, their location and their situations.

On Tuesday I received a comment to one of my posts that I found worthy of repeating: tired of the negativity wrote: “The goal for society should be FORWARD THINKING, not restrictions, not "witch" (liberal) hunts, not casting aspersions, etc...” In premise, I would have to agree that our primary aim should be forward thinking- a quality I feel we all sorely lack. However, when forward thinking must be based solely on your beliefs, that is actually limited or restricted thinking. When contrary opinions are considered “casting aspersions,” and seeking to see fair and unbiased reporting is considered a “witch hunt,” we have gone back to the dark ages have we not? True progress will only come when contrary opinions aren't equated with attacks and we are honest in dealing with very real issues we face in this nation. This country shows its true colors in responding to tragedies of this magnitude. Could we maintain half of that effort in addressing the real problems underlying the wounds that have been opened, we might begin the healing process. Personal attacks accomplish nothing but alienating us from each other. Love of country and concern for people of all races spans both sides of the aisle. Are we ready to confront the truth?

Posted by capecodcyclist at September 24, 2005 08:54 PM

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