"America's Poorest"
As you know from my other post, the Tsunami does not bode well as a comparison to Katrina. While the 9/11 comparisons fail on a number of levels (namely that 9/11 was an act of war), numbers of casualties and media scrambling do compare.
High above sea level, from two towers that reached into the clouds of New York City, power brokers of commerce had their lives taken away from them. The nation mourned the tragedy, and people took vigil in front of memorial walls. Reporters dug into people’s lives and tried to help heal a nation in mourning.
Four years later, from ghettos below sea level and the poverty line, “America’s poorest” were hit hard by “nature’s fury” in New Orleans. (trademarks of MSNBC). The nation observed the tragedy, and people looted Wal-Mart’s televisions. Reporters hovered over the lowest socioeconomic strata and cast judgment on the “poorest” members of our society.
Unquestionably, the people with all of the air time in New Orleans are from a different social strata than those of New York’s 911 victims. I know this because the reporter tells me so. The similarities of comparable numbers of loss of life stop there. The wall-to-wall news coverage of 911 has now been interrupted by an increase in commercial breaks. The president’s heroic call from the rubble has been replaced with an admonishment to the federal agencies. The pleadings from families searching for lost loved ones have been dubbed with the same 30 second looting loop.
New York City fire fighters stared death in the face as they entered those buildings over and over again. When the structures began to fail, the firemen continued to go into those buildings. 24 hours a day emergency workers fought to save human life. From all around the country people drove into the war zone fighting to help save lives.
Some New Orleans precincts report 60% truancy of their own police officers, and the remaining 40% were only visible during the daylight--not to mention the lack of aid from volunteer personnel. People that were never afforded the privilege of private swim lessons were left to drown in the abandoned buildings while half of New Orleans’s finest had found refuge.
I just wonder if this whole thing would be different if the power brokers of New York’s high rise were in the buildings in New Orleans. Would they classify stealing as ingenuity? Would the coverage of a tattered-suit-executive carrying a firearm be portrayed as heroic survival strategy? Would they be made to pile into a 15,000 person sarcophagus?
High above sea level, from two towers that reached into the clouds of New York City, power brokers of commerce had their lives taken away from them. The nation mourned the tragedy, and people took vigil in front of memorial walls. Reporters dug into people’s lives and tried to help heal a nation in mourning.
Four years later, from ghettos below sea level and the poverty line, “America’s poorest” were hit hard by “nature’s fury” in New Orleans. (trademarks of MSNBC). The nation observed the tragedy, and people looted Wal-Mart’s televisions. Reporters hovered over the lowest socioeconomic strata and cast judgment on the “poorest” members of our society.
Unquestionably, the people with all of the air time in New Orleans are from a different social strata than those of New York’s 911 victims. I know this because the reporter tells me so. The similarities of comparable numbers of loss of life stop there. The wall-to-wall news coverage of 911 has now been interrupted by an increase in commercial breaks. The president’s heroic call from the rubble has been replaced with an admonishment to the federal agencies. The pleadings from families searching for lost loved ones have been dubbed with the same 30 second looting loop.
New York City fire fighters stared death in the face as they entered those buildings over and over again. When the structures began to fail, the firemen continued to go into those buildings. 24 hours a day emergency workers fought to save human life. From all around the country people drove into the war zone fighting to help save lives.
Some New Orleans precincts report 60% truancy of their own police officers, and the remaining 40% were only visible during the daylight--not to mention the lack of aid from volunteer personnel. People that were never afforded the privilege of private swim lessons were left to drown in the abandoned buildings while half of New Orleans’s finest had found refuge.
I just wonder if this whole thing would be different if the power brokers of New York’s high rise were in the buildings in New Orleans. Would they classify stealing as ingenuity? Would the coverage of a tattered-suit-executive carrying a firearm be portrayed as heroic survival strategy? Would they be made to pile into a 15,000 person sarcophagus?
posted by floyd at 1:01 PM
1 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Post a Comment
<< Home