[Rhodes22-list] Evolution in Action?

[brad haslett]

Rik,Robert,Saroj,

The questions you raise are common among many, if not
most of us. What sane and rational person who lives in
a hurricane prone area would not make at least minimal
preparation?  The question that the MSM will not ask
or address is this one: did the fact that monthly
government checks were due to arrive around September
1st have anything to do with the reluctance of NO
residents to evacuate?  It is hardly insensitive to
speculate that this may have been a factor. 
Unfortunately the issue of poverty has become so race
sensitive and loaded with PC dynomite that it is
considered impolite dinner conversation.  The
following three predictive factors are race neutral:
if you do any one of the following you almost
certainly will live in poverty (1) get pregnant as a
teenager, (2) get married before age 21, (3) don’t
graduate from high school.  If you do more than one,
you increase your odds of living in poverty even more.
Patrick Moynihan, hardly a conservative, compassionate
or otherwise, predicted the likely outcome of the “War
on Poverty” programs in 1965.  I encourage everyone to
read it, here is the link:

http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/webid-meynihan.htm

What we saw in NOLA was the dark underside of America
that no one wants to talk about, 40 years of welfare
hasn’t decreased poverty.  As Abraham Lincoln said,
“God must love the poor, he sure made a lot of them.” 
What we have created is several generations of
individuals that know of no life without government
support, and have no knowledge of how to live without
it.  If we say they are too stupid to take care of
themselves, that is racist and insensitive.  The truth
is, they behaved exactly as we trained them.  The
“they” in that sentence includes those who appear most
sensitive to their plight, the residents of places
like Greenwich, Hyannisport, and 90210 who are
insulated by income and property prices from ever
having to actually deal with these issues on a day to
day basis.  Asking hard questions about what we
witnessed on our TV screens is neither racist,
insensitive, nor non-PC.  Few of us would want to be
so poor in spirit and means that we should find
ourselves so helpless.  If what we’ve been doing for
the last 40 years has lead to this, perhaps we should
examine more than the inadequacy of our levees.

Brad


--- Saroj Gilbert <saroj at pathfind.net> wrote:

> very nicely put, Robert...  It puts the whole issue
> into a context from 
> which one can better understand the whole scene...
> the complex and 
> long-lived dynamics that have created the broader
> situation.
> 
> Saroj
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Robert Skinner" <robert at squirrelhaven.com>
> To: "Rhodes 22 mail list"
> <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 10:41 AM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Evolution in Action?
> 
> 
> > The New Colossus
> >
> > Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
> > With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
> > Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
> > A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
> > Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
> > Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
> > Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
> > The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
> > "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
> > With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
> > Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
> > The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
> > Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
> > I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
> >
> > /Emma Lazarus
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------
> >
> > Yes, many of the poor were unprepared.
> >
> > They were also unmotivated, uneducated,
> > and the cultural descendants of two
> > populations who were forcibly transported
> > from their native lands (Acadia and Africa)
> > where they were doing quite well, thank you.
> >
> > So are we now going to say that their personal
> > and immediate failings are sufficient to
> > justify a social Darwinism? -- one where we are
> > observers of evolution in action as these
> > humans, for all their faults, are allowed
> > to sink further into the social, political,
> > and economic mire that is the aftermath of
> > Katrina?
> >
> > Or do we view the events from a higher
> > altitude and see the current situation as the
> > continuation of trends that began a couple
> > of hundred years ago?
> >
> > We can conclude that we have set up systems
> > that support and reward sloth and short-
> > sighted thinking, but that does not absolve
> > us from a requirement to do what we can to
> > alleviate the suffering of our fellow man.
> >
> > Instead, it fixes the responsibility on us
> > to re-invent the social support mechanisms
> > so that they reward personal initiative while
> > providing at least the bare minimums of
> > life, health, and education support.
> >
> > Let's get on with the social and political
> > repairs, and worry less about who screwed
> > up.  As a perceptive denizen of the swamp
> > observed, "We have met the enemy, and he is
> > us."*  Not you, not me, but "us".
> >
> > To make physical repairs without concurrent
> > social, political, and economic repairs is to
> > perpetuate the real suffering that resulted
> > from Katrina.
> >
> > It's time to think outside the levee.
> >
> > -- 
> > Robert Skinner
> >
> > * http://www.igopogo.com/we_have_met.htm
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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> www.rhodes22.org/list 
> 
> __________________________________________________
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