What's Going On?

There have been disturbing racist comments coming from the members of the Republican party that frankly many have tried to ignore but they keep making them. The first person to open up the can of worms was Mrs. Bush who when referring to the flood victims made the comment she did not want those type of people coming to Texas. My point of view when she said this was, well she's just an old woman. Well last week a republican legislature from Alabama stated that the floods in New Orleans and Mississippi were Gods punishment. Finally the former Secretary of Education under Reagan has stated that if every black baby were aborted crime would be reduced. All of this could still be ignored but to those who know about the history of the Bush's, beyond Mother Bush's obvious racism, are the ties that the Bush family had with the Nazis during WWII. As I listen to all of these individuals stand up for their racist beliefs I am very afraid as an African American, not just for myself but for my children also. I think there is some sort of right wing conspiracy going on with the emphasis on judicial activism and legislative law making. I am thinking we are headed straight back to Plessy versus Ferguson and a worst case scenario are concentration camps. I might be just a teensy bit hysterical here but I don't think so.

Hip Hop means!?

You know there are a few who question the listening to Hip Hop and Hip Hop artists and whether it’d very existence is bad for society.  There are huge questions on whether the lyrics cause the exploitation of women and a whole host of ills.  The response from the Hip Hop community is that their music reflects reality and all that they do is sing and write about reality.  
     As for these two above schools of thought, the one thing  I can claim to be is an impartial participant in the process.  I know listen to Hip Hop but am a late bloomer to it,  through my early years I listened to Jazz all kinds from classical to smooth to Modern and I loved it but as I  lived my life and grew older and had various relationships I soon learned that if I had listened to Hip Hop and their lyrics a lot earlier I could have avoided a lot of bad things that happened to me, because for me Hip Hop did not imitate the way I thought, but it allowed me to know how others who I came in contact with actually thought and behaved.

The major dichotomy form me was and is that many of the people that I came and come in contact with were and are not hip hop listeners and while showing to the world a veneer of sophistication and compassion and love.  The bottom line is that in their hearts some of these people were and are hard core thugs that sometimes hip hop could and can  not describe.  So what Hip Hop became and has become for me is a cheat sheet for what people are really about, the may pretend that they are not but they are.  I suppose Bill Cosby and  his family the Huxtables would be an example, so many people pretend to be the Huxtables but their hearts and their actions are hard core hip hop and Mr Bill is a personal example of that.  Finally Hip Hop to me is the veneer taken off.  It is the real thing.   “For Real”  

Live at Lincoln Center - Katrina

Words can not convey the emotions and the feelings last night that I felt while watching the Live at Lincoln center Katrina telethon on PBS.  As I watched the program I felt emotions within me that I thought were long dormant, long gone.  I felt the passion and the pride I had felt was long gone.  I felt a connection with a group that I never thought would be possible to feel again for as an adult I had exposed myself to individuals within African America who caused me to feel an intense dislike for my color. Ultimately I may have to realize it is not the culture or the people that make me skeptical it may be the place, be it a factor of my neighborhood and environment or the whole state I don’t know.  I just know that I want to feel trust towards people of color again that I know longer feel.  

Lift Every Voice and Sing Hurricane Relief at Lincoln Center

Last night PBS had a televised telethon for Katrina Relief.  It was a telethon that said only one thing. The real New Orleans is in the house!, early in the evening I know longer had to wonder why the older generation of New Orleans were clinging on to their heritage so tenaciously for after the night was over it was clear that if Black Culture had a capital in the United States it might possibly be New Orleans.  Up to last night I had never thought of a cultural center for Black America.  I had thought of Black Colleges as Institutions that held the fires of Black culture, for who can enter the top floor of the administration building of Fisk University and see the Aaron Douglass Murals  or  while in Atlanta walk on the Campus of Clark Atlanta University on the portion that used to be Atlanta University and not think Dubois, or visit Lincoln University and not think of Thurgood Marshall, and Langston Hughes, and finally who can not meet a Morehouse man “Molding the Man”  and not think of Martin Luther King, the Goliath of Civil Rights.  However last night revealed to me that outside of Harlem, New York, New Orleans may well be the only place in the World where classical black culture, in the least musical, however for me they all come together classical jazz, African American Art Work, and Classical African American authors to call upon the culture of African Americans . I call upon the writers names for they have made me all that I am Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, now who can forget his Harlem Dancer ,and Lorraine Hansberry an The Raison in the Sun.

Last night, I was told, I heard, and saw that New Orleans was the birthplace of  Jazz. As I listened to McCoy Tyner play I paused in appreciation at his skill and put a face to the name that I had heard about for years as a cohort of John Coltrane. Why for years I had been a devoted fan of John Coltrane he was first in my heart but eventually Miles took my heart.  Miles can literally make me scream, My Funny Valentine is simply sumptuous.  In any case the telethon was wonderful and I look forward to its official release to the public.  As for New Orleans, while I knew New Orleans, I never knew New Orleans like this, I knew with my mind but I never comprehended with my spirit until last night.   Finally to echo the griot Harry Belafonte the people must be returned to New Orleans they are what make New Orleans, New Orleans.  They have the culture of classical African America embedded deep within them.  
     Finally the one downer for me of the night was the presence of Bill Cosby.  The hypocrisy that he has displayed in all aspects are just not acceptable for me as I continue to say I hold higher standards for African American men and Mr. Bill does not meet those standards not because of his actions, but primarily for the fact that he would criticize the poor and struggling and then continue on with his shady lifestyle.  Furthermore as a single mother with two children who’s fathers do not participate in their lives.  I am especially sensitive to comments related to anyone’s children’s and mothers. From my position as a single mother my children come home daily with comments about their mother –“me” that they have picked up from their classmates who I have never seen before and don’t know the name of  one parent there and I do attend school meeting.   My children have come up with every stereotype in the book that my son claims the children have said about me.  The comments he brings my way are I’m no good.  I won’t work.  I stink.  I’m lazy. Etc. I’m a whore, and one year there eas even a rumor that I had not purchased my children school supplies and I had, unfortunately I had not labeled my Childs possessions and when I went to change my child to another school and pick uyp his supplies I was handed one box of crayons which was a whole lot less then what I had provided.  My children are both ambitious high achieving individuals and if anything is holding them back know it is the ugly comments of other children towards their mother .  These attitudes are facilitated by adults and if anything and a big if is holdingmy children it would be these ugly attitudes, and ultimately why are these attitudes perpetuated towards the poor among us.  It is because of the deep insecurity of blackx as a collective race.  This is a another essay but I believe that whenever you see a man espousing the frailties of others you see a human being who is deeply insecure and disturbed.  I do not know why Bill Cosby was there last night but he has expressed a deep animus for the poor that I find disturbing and considering the circumstances of Katrina his presence was very inappropriate for I know the consequences of the things he said.  I have begun to live it everyday in the misery if my children and I know the single mothers and the poor families of New Orleans suffered the backlash for his comments.  For his negative words at the celebration marking Brown v Board of Education was highly inappropriate and I’m surprised he did not launch into a treatise of the poor last night.  For the simple fact is that Bill Cosby began his career by pimping the poor and revealing the lifestyle he thought they were about.  In closing let us not forget there are some very famous icons of American culture that died in poverty, two that come to mind are Zora Neale Hurston who was placed in an unmarked grave and her novels make profits every year since Alice Walker brought her novels out of obscurity.   Let us no forget, Paul Robeson who died poor and ignored due to Hoover’s accusations.  I will never ignore the wrongs that have been done to innocents, and Bill Cosby has planted such a seed of negativity that even now it could be questioned if his seeds could have condoned the tragic treatment and inconsideration given out to the citizens without resources in New Orleans.  

Sweetkittie's Cat Myths and Cat Truths

An unspayed queen who is not allowed to mate will develop physical problems due to her constant heats. She can develop uterine cancer or breast cancer.

John G. Roberts Dossier

John G. Roberts Dossier

John G. Roberts Dossier

Now that's Truly Ludacris

I’m sitting here listening to Ludacris on the Hip Hop channel on yahoo launchcast.  Luda is sitting here talking about traveling the world with caviar and champagne.  Boy I suppose he was too broke to put up the Hurricane victims in decent housing.  A whole apartment building with free rent for three months, boy I’m sure his boy is thinking that after three months he’s going to make a return from paying residents, I think they are trying to profit. That’s interesting but there are some people you could not pay to live there. Honestly there are places close to Buckhead that will give anyone free rent for a month and might be persuaded to give Hurricane victims free rent for three.  Now that is one extremely positive thing that I can say about Atlanta it’s not about bad housing for anyone. If that building that Luda found is vacant it’s because nobody would live there.  Luda you could do better.  Maybe you should have just given the RED Cross a cool million like the rest of them.    

Things that make you hmmm

You know I just saw a link to an article that said Jesse Jackson is leading a march in Atlanta for the the continuation of the voting right acts for blacks.  It made me smile for it was on the same page that said the City of Atlanta is holding back on a controversial plan to evict all public houing residents who were not in school or working which I  can not argue the merits of the proposal.  Unfortunately the fact is that once Shirley finishes her Nigger Clearance policy there may not be another black mayor of Atlanta to follow in her wake.  I suppose her legacy will be eradicating the black out of Atlanta.  Which begs the question why vote if the people you vote for are not representing your interests?  I suppose Shirley mayor of Atlanta’s attitude towards the poor is why some black city in Southern California now or formerly had a while mayor I believe it was Compton California. I am not absolutely sure.  This is a sad but unfortunate fact that many poor blacks would rather see any white person coming to help them rather then a more privileged blacks.  They have a deep distrust of their motives and their concern for struggling blacks.  This is also why many colleges are looking for people certified as poor and underprivileged because they are aware that the same people following Jesse Jackson in the streets for equal voting rights and jobs are the same people who don’t believe in trickle down economics as it applies to the poor and underprivileged.  They are working the system for their own greed and gain.  My case with Webgrrls and Marjorie Singley Hall is a perfect case in point on how these people operate. They hoop and holler for equal rights and try to cut off someone off of their own race who wants equal rights, how unfortunate.

Finally, while in college I had a side hobby of reading books on the holocaust, why it happened how it happened etc.   This was started while looking through an antiapartheid publication I came upon a saying or quote concerning the holocaust.  It built upon what several have written on and that was that the tragedy of the holocaust was that many affluent Jewish individuals who were actually producing for the economy of Germany thought they were immune to being sent to concentration camps and they justifiably should have thought that for they were producing scientist such as Einstein in their upper echelons, who would be crazy enough to exterminate Einstein?  Why Hitler my dear if he could have found him and gotten to him.  How this applies to blacks is this they can spread anti poor and anti black platitudes but the bottom line is this they are only hurting themselves and if they continue to do it, it most definitely will backfire and those actions being advocated towards poor blacks will boomerang straight back to them.

And They Ask Should New Orleans Be Rebuilt? Hell Yes!!!

It is really amazing to me that the question should New Orleans be rebuilt is being asked. Though I have quoted on engineer on a previous post who stated unless there was enough money to build New Orleans, it should not be rebuilt. However to actually question whether this city should be rebuilt to me is frankly Ludicrous. According to the gentleman from the Army Corp of Engineers there was a .05 percent chance of a Category Five hurricane hitting the Gulf coast. It hit. Houses that had stood for CENTURIES were demolished all across the gulf from Alabama to Louisiana. Katrina was no ordinary Hurricane. This is a question that absolutely should not be asked. Maybe if the federal government had given Louisiana the money to fortify their structures part of this tragedy could have been mitigated.

Furthermore it seems to me that their is an element of prejudice towards people living in the south to even question this issue. New Orleans and the people of the Gulf paid federal taxes just like the rest of the country. They should get the money to rebuild their states and cities. Let's not forget that Southern Blacks and Whites and Urban Blacks all over the country are the ones over in Iraq Fighting for out country. Louisiana sent 2200 men from the National Guard to fight over in Iraq and only God knows how many of the men from the Gulf are fighting in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Navy. Should New Orleans be rebuilt? Are we funding billions to build and rebuild Iraq. Hell Yes!!

Finally, I am so surprised that the question is seriously being considered when we have hundreds of millions of people living on the coast of California with greater odds than .05 percent of being earthquakes into the ocean. We have folks in Florida we watch every year who say after every Hurricane, "Oh we'll rebuild" and the government comes through every year with the money and even back to California wild fires ravage southern California every year and folks say rebuild and do rebuild. This is a National Tragedy let's not make it worst. Everyone gets to rebuild except the deep south.

As for New Orleans I have questioned why the Levy was not fortified to a category five Levy but their is a lot that can be questioned. If New Orleans is not rebuilt or given he funds. I hope that the good citizens living on the coast and the San Andreas Fault and in the Natural wild Fire Zones are given orders to evacuate. I hope that when the citizens of the state where the president brother is governer have their houses knocked down year after year that they are told not this time after the 100th year of hurricane relief that they can no longer build in these zones.

Finally the way that this New Orleans incident has gone down is being quietly questioned by many. They are questioning why the evacuation automatically included relocation plans, in other words a bus ticket out but don't return. Some are even questioning whether the Levy could have been exploded by someone. In order to get all of those black poor people out of there. For I know that New Orleans is being rebuilt right now. The lights are on and the rich and the upper middle class have plan on returning but the largely black population of New Orleans is gone. Not just the poor and destitute and hopeless but the black people who actually liked living in New Orleans living in black neighborhoods. While living in San Francisco I was told by someone that San Francisco was offering anyone who wanted to leave a free bus ticket out of the city, evidently this was being done to try to get rid of portions of the underclass. Unfortunately there were not many takers, I suppose if the city of New Orleans had made the same offer not many would not have accepted the offer. Unfortunately if the blacks choose not to return they will be knocking out a large part of the culture of New Orleans which has it roots as Creole African French and and???? Unfortunately the people who just left New Orleans were not just deep in residents but had been there for generations, this is their heritage which I personally hope that they don't abandon. For as many who have relocated to other parts of the country know their is nothing like a heritage and having a family to mind the homefires of your heritage no matter how dysfunctinal it helps to always have a place and know that place is where you are from and your heritage lies.


#### As usual not checked for spelling and grammar or grammar. Sorry!!!!!

Mariah Carey

As I sit here listening to the radio, I am marveling at the changes in Mariah Carey's style. In previous albums which were hits I would sit there and think what a lovely voice Mariah had, but it lacked feeling and emotion. I honestly could not get into her music until now. I was so impressed I kept asking myself who produced this album. As I did my research I found out that the producer is Jermaine Dupri. I remember as an undergraduate over several years ago, a friend I had would only talk about two people Shaquille Oneil and Jermaine Dupri, with Elton John splattered through the conversation. I can remember wondering if those were the only people she could talk about. Well I know Shaquilles accomplishments and Elton, but I'm a little late with Jermaine Dupri. Mariah's album is awesome. Now that I think about it I am familiar with Jermaines Dupri's having produced Janet Jackson and I think that's her boyfriend so it's coming to me know. However Janet changed a little but Mariah has changed totally for the best and it shows in the ratings, Is it two hits at number one and two. Awesome!!

AOL News - Federal Government Seeks to Block Photos of Dead

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050907100009990016&ncid=NWS00010000000001

R. Kelly on video -- awards show, that is - The Boston Globe

R. Kelly on video -- awards show, that is - The Boston Globe
The Chicgao case has yet to be heard according to this article. Personally I hope the book is thrown at him. We have often heard the stories that he had to hastily marry Aaliyah to avoid charges by her father of exploting a minor. What I have heard far lessand what I personally believe is that she was murdered by R. Kelley so she a person who had nothing to gain could not testify against him We shall never know, but what we do know is that He does have sex with minors. He is a great artist, I just love his music, however his actions are putting our children at risks from his other admirers. It is not okay to rape a nine year old or a thirteen year old. Our society has determined that girl/women at this age are not psychologically ready for sexual intercourse with adult men and most especially they are not psychologically ready to be urinated on by a famouss male figure who probably willnot repay them with making them a famous star. He has a Chicago trial coming up. Though I scoured the internet concerning this upcoming court date that has not been set, the most I could fins was the following article about his upcoming appearance at an MTV awards ceromony which sends a bad message. I have never understood why white society treats black men like animals and expects them to do the wrong thing and literally condones it. I personally hold black men to much higher standards. Black men are suppossed to respect young women and girls. It is not OK for a thirty-five year old man to have with a twelve or thirtten year. Below is the whisper that the trial with R. Kelley has not even been given a court date.

R. Kelly on video -- awards show, that is
August 24, 2005
The MTV Video Music Awards have been defined by stirring performances, shocking surprises, and sexual shenanigans. Now the network has booked an act that might provide all three elements in one performance: R. Kelly. The chart-topping R&B singer was named yesterday as one of the performers at Sunday's awards show in Miami. Kelly, whose latest album, ''TP.3 Reloaded," has sold more than 1 million copies, created buzz this summer with his five-part song, ''Trapped in the Closet," a mini soap opera about infidelity. The 38-year-old singer, known for his sexually charged material, also faces multiple child pornography charges in his native Chicago stemming from a three-year-old case that allegedly involves a teenage girl. The case, which has yet to go to trial, hasn't hurt Kelly's recording career: In the interim, he has released four albums that have sold more than 1 million copies each and charted several hits.

TalkLeft: Florida Drops Charges Against R. Kelly

I suppose I don't have to wonder why the main story for one news channel is Explosion of Cults where 25 year old men have sex with nine year old girls, I suppose according to a judge it's not against the law anymore See Story below:

Wednesday :: March 17, 2004
Florida Drops Charges Against R. Kelly
by TChris

All twelve counts accusing recording artist R. Kelly of possessing child pornography in Florida have been dismissed.

The case began when Polk County sheriff's detectives found marijuana in a home Kelly rented for his business associates. The detectives obtained a warrant to search the nearby house where Kelly was staying. During that search, detective Robert Mateo found what he considered to be an "unusual" amount of adult pornography in a cabinet. (It is unclear what constitutes an "unusual" amount of porn -- perhaps more than Mateo kept in his own home?)

Relying on his discovery of adult porn, Mateo requested a second warrant to search for child porn. Why Mateo thought he had probable cause to believe that a consumer of adult porn would also have child porn is again unclear, although the affidavit supporting the warrant apparently made reference to "unspecified information from Chicago authorities." Kelly is also charged with possession of child porn in Chicago, although some of those charges were recently dismissed.

Armed with the second warrant, Mateo returned to Kelly's home and seized a video camera, on which he discovered "several pictures of two women performing sex acts and other photos of Kelly in a sex act." Mateo apparently judged the women in question to be minors -- hence the child porn charges.

Circuit Judge Dennis Maloney suppressed the pictures as evidence after concluding that Mateo did not present sufficient evidence to justify issuance of the second warrant. Judge Maloney ruled that Mateo failed to demonstrate that a possessor of adult porn, marijuana, and video cameras would probably also be in possession of child porn. No pictures, no case, so the prosecution dropped the charges after deciding it had no grounds for appeal.

Posted Wednesday :: March 17, 2004| Crimes in the News


Comments


Posted by wool at March 17, 2004 05:42 PM
guilty as hell but no charges...he'll probably sell millions more cd's. The only good thing is that he seems as stupid as Michael Jackson and will re-offend (over & over again) and hopefully the authorities will get their ducks in a row before going after him again.

Posted by William at March 17, 2004 06:17 PM
The pictures do exist.

It is a political issue now.

And, either way, the political issue has some to do with racism, some to do with sexism and also some to do with intrusive law enforcement officials.

Does anyone know of more articles on the case?

Posted by kdog at March 18, 2004 08:42 AM
How do you know wool?
Just curious if you have info the rest of us don't.

US braces for the final horror | Top stories | Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au (05-09-2005)

US braces for the final horror
From: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in New Orleans
September 05, 2005


Safe ... Victims are evacuated by the US Air Force / Reuters US troops have begun the final search for hurricane survivors in New Orleans, steeling themselves for the task of harvesting the dead from the city's streets.

Days after Hurricane Katrina triggered the worst natural calamity in US history, officials prepared the country for a heavy death toll that is expected to number in the thousands across the devastated US Gulf coast.
"It is going to be about as ugly a scene as we've witnessed in this country, with the possible exception of 9/11," said Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertof, referring to the 2001 terror attacks that killed nearly 3000.

"I think we need to prepare the country for what's coming," he said from a suburb of flooded New Orleans.

"I really want to tell people that we have got some tough days ahead of us."

An Australian Government official has been given Senior medical officials said 59 bodies had been collected in New Orleans so far, but cautioned that was just a fraction of those killed.


Advertisement:
In a freak event overnight, it has been reported that up to six contractors were shot dead by troops in New Orleans after they were mistaken for an armed gang.
Up to 20 Australians are still missing and there are serious concerns for two who were believed in New Orleans when the storm hit. One was a visitor and the other an elderly permanent resident, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.

Before the grisly hunt for the dead began in earnest, US troops scrambled to move out thousands of survivors still eager for evacuation amid the largest refugee operation ever seen in the US.

Mr Chertoff said the troops would start a house-to-house search for trapped residents who had opted to weather Katrina at home, and suggested they would have to leave whether they wanted to or not.

"We are not going to be able to have people sitting in houses in the city of New Orleans for weeks and months while we de-water and clean this city with the hope that we're going to continue to supply them with food and water.

"The flooded places, when de-watered, are not going to be sanitary, not healthy. There's not going to be a way to get food and water," he told NBC's Meet the Press program.

Even as he spoke, residents of one New Orleans suburb were thronging police checkpoints in a bid to return to their homes.

Mr Chertoff made the rounds of talk shows as part of a public-relations blitz launched by President George W. Bush's administration to counter widespread criticism of its response to Katrina.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have fanned out across stricken areas, while Mr Bush is planning his second tour in three days.

Mr Chertoff defended the administration's handling of the crisis and stressed the immediate need was to deal with recovery and the needs of hundreds of thousands of refugees rather than getting bogged down in assigning blame.

"We are basically moving the city of New Orleans to other parts of the country," he said.

Authorities have estimated it would take several months to drain the one-time bustling jazz capital and make it habitable.

"We have to shelter people, we have to feed them, we have to educate their kids, we have to get them medium-term housing and we have to give them hope," Mr Chertoff said.

Relief and rescue efforts picked up steam over the weekend, with New Orleans' two major refuges cleared of the last of tens of thousands of survivors who had spent nearly a week trapped in squalor and fear.

But authorities were still struggling to get on top of the situation after the hurricane that had left mostly poor and black residents fending for themselves for days.

At New Orleans airport, which was transformed into a holding pen for the elderly and infirm as well as a gateway for the departing, dozens of people from nursing homes and hospitals lay dying on stretchers on the floor.

"Their organs are shutting down. They are septic. They are storm victims," said chaplain Mark Reeves, 43, from the federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team.

"We've already had 25 die here."

The spectre of disease also haunted recovery efforts with doctors fearing the fetid waters and squalid conditions in shelters could breed cholera or typhoid, or spawn mosquitoes carrying malaria or West Nile Virus.

The authorities in the city of Biloxi, Mississippi had to evacuate hundreds of people from one shelter amid a suspected outbreak of dysentery.

In other developments:


US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has denied skin colour was a deciding factor of life and death in New Orleans as tensions increased over the number of African-Americans affected by the hurricane (More)

TEXAS Governor Rick Perry warned the state was reaching its capacity having taken a quarter of a million refugees since the hurricane struck (More)

VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez has promised to send a million barrells of oil to the US, while Cuban leader Fidel Castro said he would send more than 1000 doctors "with perfect English" to help the relief effort (More)

AUSTRALIAN survivor Fiona Seidel said she felt she was "abandoned" by her Government in the crisis.(More)

Mr Bush ordered 7000 active duty troops to the affected Gulf Coast region to back tens of thousands of National Guardsmen deployed. Some 3000 soldiers from the elite 82nd Airborne Division entered New Orleans at the weekend.
With AAP and Agence France-Presse

A City and State too Busy to Hate

While the attitudes of the leaders of the city of Atlanta may change, Hurricane Katrina showed to me that the attitudes of the people of Atlanta and Georgia have not.  The residents of Atlanta and the surrounding areas are still committed to the slogan Atlanta is too busy to hate.  Georgia has opened their arms tremendously to the individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina.  While as far as I know the city of Atlanta has not made a public statement saying send buses full of individuals our way.  The city and the state have prepared for them anyway as well as sent the basic needs where they  were needed.  Finally all of the network TV stations had telethons to raise money for the Hurricane survivors, the last time I heard at least nine million dollars and counting had been donated to the Red Cross.  The state of Georgia has kept the labor department open over the weekend and over the holidays to process claims and assist individuals in looking for employment.  Atlanta and the state of Georgia are truly too busy to hate and can and will absorb all of their new residents or visitors.  

The Levy Broke After the Storm

For several days I was confused regarding what happened in New Orleans regarding the hurricane The news said initially the hurricane did not hit New Orleans and then later on in the day or the next day I saw these horrible pictures of New Orleans and it was my assumption that the news had not covered the terrible condition of the hurricane because of their concern for the residents of New Orleans.  However the head of FEMA clarified it today.  He said that Katrina did miss New Orleans in terms of Major catastrophe but it weakened the levy.  The cause of all of this tragedy is the breaking of the levy.  A levy that could have been fortified to resist a category five hurricane.  Officials from New Orleans are stating that they asked the federal government for help in fortifying the levy and surrounding structures for funding several times and were denied.  A major scientific journal as well as the major newspaper in New Orleans reported on what would happen if the levy broke in 2001, they had created computer models predicting the disaster that happened this week.  Unfortunately their warnings were not heeded.  One of the authors of one of the studies stated today that if New Orleans were to continue to be a city and if they were even going to repair one window, they should commit to the multi hundreds of billion dollars necessary to making New Orleans safe for inhabitants.  As a citizen of the United States I believe that New Orleans is one historical landmark that I always want to know exists in the United States.  I think that New Orleans has given much to the character of the United States and the world in terms of architecture and engineering{for hundred of years they have existed at sea level and fought away a river and a lake, that amazing]  music, food, and individuals.   I learned today that a former Atlanta Mayor is From New Orleans, Andrew Young he is behind the saying Atlanta is a city to busy to hate, what a wonderful attitude that his home town of New Orleans gave to him and extended to us.    I look forward to seeing New Orleans recover.  

R Kelley Time Up

The incident involving a nine year old girl being raped and having her neck broken in New Orleans at the Superdome this week says only one thing to me.  R. Kelley your time is up.  The evidence is there.  Somebody needs to put your ass in jail.  You did it and we all know it.  As long as you are free all of our young daughters are at risk from predators who think that just because you did and got away with it they can too,  Why doesn’t someone hurry up and lock you up and throw away the key.  

Katrina

As I go through the day. I feel an almost psychic pain as I attempt to deal with the tragedy in New Orleans. As my daughter puts on her black sweater I see the pink flowered appliqué on her sweater and I think about people drowning and fighting for their lives. As I place my hand on a piece of metal a jolt runs through me and I think about the gates of New Orleans, I hear a trumpet playing when the Saints go Marching in through my head. As I am sitting in Applebee’s earlier in the week, I see Atlanta Football paraphernalia all over the wall and I think of the football team the saints and I wonder why did this have to happen. As I return home and hear on the news about the football teams, and other sporting events, I feel such shame that these games are going on in the midst of such pain. I turn the TV off. I can not escape the Katrina tragedy, it is with me everywhere I go. There is a huge psychic pain that our country must pay for the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.
From what journalists and political pundits are saying the huge human toll of loss of life in New Orleans could have been avoided if only individuals, municipalities, agencies, cities, states, and the nation had only considered the poor and underclass in their pleas to evacuate the city. Unfortunately what many don’t seem to realize is that one can not plan for a category 5 storm in a day or even a week. An Emergency preparedness plan must be in place months and years in advance. An emergency plan would include a checklist that takes into consideration the income of the residents, their ability to mobilize and what was necessary to have it done. Unfortunately a checklist of this kind did not effectively exist and should exist for every city taking into consideration the various calamities that can affect places where people live. I suppose as the news first broke considering Katrina and New Orleans and the effects of the Hurricane I thought that it was an awful freak of nature that man could not have done anything about. According to one Army Corp of Engineering official the statistical probability of a Hurricane of Katrinas size hitting New Orleans was .05. However as he said, it happened. It happened but as I continued to watch coverage of the event I learned that some residents who did not have cars had a fifteen mile walk to safety The Dome. [As I contemplate the fifteen mile walk to the dome, I can only contemplate the hurling in of Katrina and the drowned as they made the long walk to the Dome which turned into the walk to death into the opening arms of Death. Ironically in a catholic city where baptism in water indicates rebirth. ] The obvious question being regarding the walks of these residents is, Did somebody have the foresight to suspend public transportation, but not the foresight to know that residents needed help. I think that was the case.
Finally we must ask ourselves in a world where states and cities battle with the federal government for control over say so in the lives of individuals. Was this incident a federal failing. Should the federal government have been able to initialize quicker. Unfortunately the federal government could have provided the checklist but ultimately the blame rest s on state and local officials. Personally there could have been more drop offs of water but in a situation where bridges are knocked down, whole areas are flooded it takes time and I do not believe three days is such a long time to wait. As for comparing the New Orleans victims with the Tsunami victims, I believe the tsunami people probably had to wait just as long for comprehensive help or longer for a plane to fly around the world so I do not believe the U.S. has been deaf to the pleas of the Katrina victims. Personally I wish the new people would cover more people grieving, more people praying and thanking God that they are alive and less people complaining, looting , and rioting because I know personally that the media controls spin, and the spin being portrayed at this moment is that New Orleans though suffering is full of people who are not thankful to God for their lives, who are not thankful for the many people who are donating their time, their efforts, and their money to see that these refugees of a raging hurricane are treated right, can regain lives, homes, and deal with their grief. Personally I do not belie that the majority of victims are disgruntled angry individuals angry at the government. I believe the majority of hurricane refugees are overwhelmed grieving, incredulous and wondering what will happen. They are afraid and welcoming the comfort that the world wants to give them as this nation deals with the worst natural disaster this country has seen in over a century and a half or maybe ever. God Help Us. God Help Us. God Help Us. Lord Have Mercy. Please help us to heal. Please help me to heal. I can not handle the events of the past week. The Drowned and the Dead will haunt me forever.