I sent this to Gerard Baker of the London Daily Telegraph in response to his article on Katrina
"The tragedy has been visited disproportionately, indeed almost exclusively, on the city’s African-Americans" Opinion - Gerard Baker US Editor Times Online
Dear Mr. Baker,
You make some excellent points in your piece about Hurrican Katrina. I have one point of disagreement, however. Yes, most of the victims of the tragedy in New Orleans are black, but then 70% of the population of that extremely corrupt, 100% Democrat-run city are black. Most of the local politicians are also black. Under our federal system of government, it is the job of those local and state politicians ( Louisiana's Governor is also a Democrat) to request federal aid. It can't be imposed by fiat. As far as I know, every state and local request for aid from the U.S. government has been granted. My own husband got the call from the U.S. Navy early on Saturday last, 2+ days before Katrina hit, and is away working on the relief effort now. It did take a couple of days before they knew exactly where to send him, however, because we're talking about an area of destruction that covers thousands of debris-strewn square miles.
Having once been mugged in the French Quarter 20 yards away from from a New Orleans police cruiser, I know that NOLA is a crime-ridden cesspool on a good day, never mind during a disaster. The local culture of racial victimhood and left-wing indulgence of crime ( most of it black-on-black, by the way) perpetuates the poverty and lawlessness. Other areas with high black populations, like Mississippi, are not experiencing this level of ugliness, despite enormous destruction and death. But then, Mississippi is not a place where law-breaking is routinely winked at. The mayor of NOLA ordered an evacuation, but the monopolistic Democrat Party machine that has always been so efficient at getting the aged and infirm, non-citizens, felons, dead people and house pets to the polls on election day, was apparently well on its way to Baton Rouge when the storm hit. Patients in state-funded hopitals were left high and dry...or do I mean low and wet?
Left-wing politicians, most recently the Congressional Black Caucus, and local Louisiana officials are preemptively lashing out at the President because they know who is really at fault for this mess. They are. I'll be fascinated to learn how much federal aid has disappeared down the local political rathole over the years...aid that might have helped poor New Orleanians to get out of Dodge. I also wonder how many locals stayed behind on purpose in hope of rich pickings. They got a little more than they bargained for, I'll guess.
