This perspective on Bush is so unusual, coming from the Canadian Media,
-- also the Kipling poem at the end is very applicable in this case.
A bit more objectivity than we get from our own press and politicians.
GEORGE BUSH, THE MAN
David Warren¦The Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, September 11, 2005
There's plenty wrong with America, since you asked. I'm tempted to say that the only difference from Canada is that they have a few things right. That would be unfair, of course -- I am often pleased to discover things we still get right.
But one of them would not be disaster preparation. If something happened up here, on the scale of Katrina, we wouldn't even have the resources to arrive late. We would be waiting for the Americans to come save us, the same way the government in Louisiana just waved and pointed at Washington, D.C. The theory being that, when you're in real trouble, that's where the adults live.
And that isn't an exaggeration. Almost everything that has worked in the recovery operation along the U.S. Gulf Coast has been military and National Guard. Within a few days, under several commands, finally consolidated under the remarkable Lt.-Gen. Russell Honore, it was once again the U.S. military efficiently cobbling together a recovery operation on a scale beyond the capacity of any other earthly institution.
We hardly have a military up here. We have elected one feckless government after another that has cut corners until there is nothing substantial left. We don't have the ability even to transport and equip our few soldiers. Should disaster strike at home, on a big scale, we become a Third World country. At which point, our national smugness is of no avail.
From Democrats and the American Left -- the U.S. equivalent to the people who run Canada -- we are still hearing that the disaster in New Orleans showed that a heartless, white Republican America had abandoned its underclass.
This is garbage. The great majority of those not evacuated lived in assisted housing and receive food stamps, prescription medicine and government support through many other programs. Many have, all their lives, expected someone to lift them to safety, without input from themselves. And the demagogic mayor they elected left, quite literally, hundreds of transit and school buses that could have driven them out of town parked in rows, to be lost in the flood.
Yes, that was insensitive. But it is also the truth; and sooner or later we must acknowledge that welfare dependency creates exactly the sort of haplessness and social degeneration we saw on display, as the floodwaters rose. Many suffered terribly, and many died, and one's heart goes out. But already the survivors are being put up in new accommodations, and their various entitlements have been directed to new locations.
The scale of private charity has also been unprecedented. There are yet no statistics, but I'll wager the most generous state in the union will prove to have been arch-Republican Texas and that, nationally, contributions in cash and kind are coming disproportionately from people who vote Republican. For the world divides into "the mouths" and "the wallets."
The Bush-bashing, both down there and up here, has so far lost touch with reality, as to raise questions about the bashers' state of mind.
Consult any authoritative source on how government works in the United States and you will learn that the U.S.federal government's legal, constitutional, and institutional responsibility for first response to Katrina, as to any natural disaster, was zero.
Notwithstanding, President Bush took the prescient step of declaring a disaster, in order to begin deploying FEMA and other federal assets, two full days in advance of the storm fall. In the little time since, he has managed to co-ordinate an immense recovery operation -- the largest in human history -- without invoking martial powers. He has been sufficiently presidential to respond, not even once, to the extraordinarily mendacious and childish blame-throwing.
One thinks of Kipling's poem If, which I learned to recite as a lad, and mention now in the full knowledge that it drives postmodern leftoids and gliberals to apoplexy -- as anything that is good, beautiful, or true:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise .
Unlike his critics, Bush is a man, in the full sense presented by these verses. A fallible man, like all the rest, but a man.
Ya,ya,ya,Bush is great.Come on!We all know if democrats were in control the last 6yrs.,everything would be better!We would of taken flowers to our enemies and pleaded to them to leave us alone and all would be good,maybe even apologize for whatever pissed them off to hate us so much.With the latest natural disasters they would have just clicked their heels together and fixed everything in one day.They are so smart and above it all,why can't they be in power now!!We need these people who do no wrong and get it all right back in the lead.After all,they are perfect,no??
Many have, all their lives, expected someone to lift them to safety, without input from themselves
.
I find this approach and commentary despicable. As though the amount of government assistance one has received or is receiving determines when and if a person should be rescued in the wake of one of this nation's worst-ever natural disasters.
Quote:
... we are still hearing that the disaster in New Orleans showed that a heartless, white Republican America had abandoned its underclass.
This is garbage. The great majority of those not evacuated lived in assisted housing and receive food stamps, prescription medicine and government support through many other programs. Many have, all their lives, expected someone to lift them to safety, without input from themselves. And the demagogic mayor they elected left, quite literally, hundreds of transit and school buses that could have driven them out of town parked in rows, to be lost in the flood.
Quote:
Yes, that was insensitive. But it is also the truth; and sooner or later we must acknowledge that welfare dependency creates exactly the sort of haplessness and social degeneration we saw on display, as the floodwaters rose. Many suffered terribly, and many died, and one's heart goes out. But already the survivors are being put up in new accommodations, and their various entitlements have been directed to new locations.
The ugliest part of this disaster is not found in the death, suffering, muggings, and rapes, of those left to fend for themselves, but in the jeering and condescension of those that would purport to be among the "generous" while not-so-secretly despising and belittling those to whom they begrudgingly provide aid.
Were there idiots among the victims? Yea. So what? Ask yourself how you might behave after say, oh I don't know, maybe 5 days without food, water, sanitation, or police protection for your family including the sick, elderly, and children close to you. Nevermind that the press never misses a chance to hype the token and stereotype idiots in any tense situation.
The main thing is that the victims were left to fend for themselves for a variety of reasons. Mistakes were made, communications were down, and rumors, tension, and justified, bona fide fears were rampant.
It was a time to pull together, to help other Americans, to help piece together shattered lives. Thankfully, that is was most Americans did.
Many have, all their lives, expected someone to lift them to safety, without input from themselves
.
I find this approach and commentary despicable. As though the amount of government assistance one has received or is receiving determines when and if a person should be rescued in the wake of one of this nation's worst-ever natural disasters.
Quote:
... we are still hearing that the disaster in New Orleans showed that a heartless, white Republican America had abandoned its underclass.
This is garbage. The great majority of those not evacuated lived in assisted housing and receive food stamps, prescription medicine and government support through many other programs. Many have, all their lives, expected someone to lift them to safety, without input from themselves. And the demagogic mayor they elected left, quite literally, hundreds of transit and school buses that could have driven them out of town parked in rows, to be lost in the flood.
Quote:
Yes, that was insensitive. But it is also the truth; and sooner or later we must acknowledge that welfare dependency creates exactly the sort of haplessness and social degeneration we saw on display, as the floodwaters rose. Many suffered terribly, and many died, and one's heart goes out. But already the survivors are being put up in new accommodations, and their various entitlements have been directed to new locations.
The ugliest part of this disaster is not found in the death, suffering, muggings, and rapes, of those left to fend for themselves, but in the jeering and condescension of those that would purport to be among the "generous" while not-so-secretly despising and belittling those to whom they begrudgingly provide aid.
Were there idiots among the victims? Yea. So what? Ask yourself how you might behave after say, oh I don't know, maybe 5 days without food, water, sanitation, or police protection for your family including the sick, elderly, and children close to you. Nevermind that the press never misses a chance to hype the token and stereotype idiots in any tense situation.
The main thing is that the victims were left to fend for themselves for a variety of reasons. Mistakes were made, communications were down, and rumors, tension, and justified, bona fide fears were rampant.
It was a time to pull together, to help other Americans, to help piece together shattered lives. Thankfully, that is was most Americans did.
VC1111:
I agree that we should pull together. But I respectfully disagree with the rest of your statement. We shouldn't ignore the realities of the situation.
There were/are thousands of people who ARE being helped by the generosity of millions of Americans (and the gov't) who aren't doing a thing for themselves. Some people just demand to be cared for without their own assistance. There are millions just like that across our country. I have read accounts of people in food lines and shelters complaining that the food wasn't good enough or that their clothes weren't to their liking.
There are tens of thousands of good, hard working people who have lost everything. We should help everyone who needs it. But turning a blind eye to the reality that some people are full on "takers" is a mistake.
You ask us to think of how we would behave if left for days without food and water, etc and I've tried to image myself in that situation. The truth is, I don't know. But the question is, could you image yourself demanding that others put your entire life back in order without lifting a finger?
VC, I'm especially glad to see you posting again. I agree that we should help all of the victim's, regardless of their social status or governmental dependence. I also agree, however, that "some" victims" do have a handout mentality and do not appear to actively seek to better themselves other than attemptinmg to receive more handouts. I may be getting a different perception of this topic but I'm not seeing people "begrudgingly" providing aid. I do see people addressing some victims who have a crappy attitude. Should all victims be judged by this smaller group of people? Of course not! But it is within anybody's right to note and comment about the people who have such a crappy attitude. Doing so doesn't make you heartless, begrudging or somehow less human. It just means that you have expressed your point of view about certain behavior that you disagree with.
Now I know this could start a really good argument, so play ball buddy. Batter up.
__________________
Jesus Christ--The reason for the season!
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.
If you're certain you know everything, there's little opportunity to learn anything.
Cal, and NC...it depends on the time being referenced...
I heard comments on this board and the Off Season board by individuals that clearly swung the broadbrush on this subject almost immediately after the story broke.
It is those to whom I refer. The waters were still rising and the victims were being condemned by idiots carping "they're all on welfare!!!!"
As to those complaining now: I try to ask myself how I or anyone might act with your entire life turned inside out; no home left, no job because the building it was in is gone; no money, living from hour to hour being shifted here and there and asked to hurry up and wait. Most of all not having a way to fend for oneself or one's family. I try to account for the irritability and hopelessness that would set in and cause the obviously poor behavior and attitudes.
It is easy to remain rationale and level-headed when you are not the living the nightmare of having your family torn from its roots. Maybe you (meaning any one of us) would complain a bit too after a few weeks of horrible uncertainties.
Those people are at the very least completely and utterly stressed out. Cut them some slack and thank God you aren't among them.
Part of my take on this subject comes from my experience in watching the "charity" of others. Charity can be a vulgar malicious thing when it is not pure. If you're going to give something to a man, give it to him and shut up. Giving does not provide you with title to the man's life from that day forward. If you feel that your "giving" means that he now "owes" you, then you weren't really being charitable at all, were you?
I hear what you are saying, VC and agree. I may be one ofthose you speak about carping on welfare, maybe not. So here's my stance either way: I have been around people on welfare, have lived in the poorest county in MI, have been around inner city welfare rats plenty enough to be familiar with the mentality that has stricken them to a life-long line of handouts. I'm not in any way saying that the degree of help offered should be based on one's overall contributions to society, but rather that the welfare mentality in what it does to a person can clearly be seen beyond the scope of this disaster.
__________________
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a civilization, it expects what never was and what never will be.
Canadian Press on Bush
