"I blame the victims"...critiques please

[rangermonroe]

Dear sir,

I have been following the news regarding the "victims" of the two horrific hurricanes over the past month, and am baffled.

I have listened to several "victims" blame the local, state and federal govenments for failing to rescue them from the weather that devastated their lives.

Helicopters "saved" these folks from their roofs, ferried them to "safety" over dirty water some 5-10 feet deep. Deposited them in a "safe haven" and fed them. Then they are lauded by the media as "survivors".

I call them idiots.

Why would you stay in a place like N.O. La when a flood was coming? Why are you hungry and thirsty when you are rescued? Where is "your " food and water? Is it the city's job to provide a place for you at supper just in case you refuse to buy groceries?
If your are a brave soul, independent, stubborn, or stupid, then stay and live or die at your own hand. But when the experts are proved right, and the worst case scenerio plays with you at center stage...you made your choice. What nerve you have sitting on the roof begging for a ride. Were you to proud to ask for one two days ago?

"But what of the poor souls with no vehicle, money, or any place to go. They cannot escape."

I say B.S.

We live in such an entitlement generation that many of these folks expect the government to come and rescue them at their beck and call. And why shouldn't they? When they feel ill, they dial 911 and an ambulance takes them to the ER for free medical treatment. When something truly life threatening approaches, should we expect these folks to..I don't know...walk to safety? Hitchhike? Ask a neighbor for help? Perish the thought!

I just listened to a man crying over the death of a loved one. He had been calling for help for days and no one sent help. Aparrently he couldn't go outside and ask for a ride, or call a cab, or walk. He lived...she didn't. According to him , it was everyone elses fault but his own.

I seems that it is somehow more noble to die in your house than to carpool to safety on your own dime.

I say that local govenments need to demand that their citizens assume some to the responsiblilty for their own lives, and the blame for their misfortune, or they can invest in a fleet of limosines to convey the "helpless" to safety in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

 

[BobK]

I agree. Too many people rely on the government to take care of them because they don't know how to take care of themselves. Our welfare system has made some folks lazy and down right stupid. Why would strong able bodied young men and women not help themselves and them blame the government! Stupid, lazy, ignorance. That's why.

 

[Jeeper]

I agree 100%

At least we get to foot the bill to pay for a place to live for these geniuses for the next 5 years :barf: :barf:

 

[rangermonroe]

Mods,

please delete this one ...I posted two of the same.


Thanks.

 

[coolridelude]

rangermonroe i agree 100%. i think about it but you put it in to words. they want the gov to supply them with every think. i say why were they not prepared. they need to get off there ass. i can't say anymore will get too carried away. stupid people. well i was ready for rita but it did not hit us. i live in the south part of texas where it could of hit but since it moved i did not get hit. i had 30 gallons of water 25 propane tanks and canned food for a year. + ammo and a chainsaw. clothes, you name it i had it.

 

[psycho nut]

Walk somewhere, it's free.

 

[joab]

Such a simplistic view of things.

Life is very seldom as black and white as you seem to think.

Getting out on your own dime is one thing. but getting out when you have inadequate warning is quite another.

Not every body that was left behind was stupid or macho some merely had no other option.

Some followed the instructions properly and wound up in the Superdome lion's den

as far as food and water caches. I wonder how many ended up in the flooded ground floor kitchen as the occupants of the building were forced to flee upstairs away from the fast moving flood waters after the levy broke.

Way to many gray areas and unknown details to label every victim an idiot

 

[SIGSHR]

These hurricanes are part of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy. Both Texas and Louisiana are RKBA states who went for Bush last year.

 

[rangermonroe]

not everyone...just most.

 

[Majic]

You my friend must not have seen the real poor or spent much time looking around a large city. There are vast numbers of people who don't take government handouts and try to make it on their own. They barely make it day to day and you expect them to stockpile supplies. Also a large number of major city residents don't own vehicles simply because there is very little space left for parking. You mentioned the man calling for help for his wife, well suppose the help just couldn't get to him so how was he suppose to get to the help? The city was basically flooded and you suggest walking, calling a cab, or asking for a ride. Ask who for a ride? Everyone with a vehicle around him was possibly long gone or stranded like him. Call a cab? Get a grip on reality. Do you honestly think cabs were running around picking up passengers?
Get up from in front of your computer, empty your pockets, walk out of your nice home, leave your nice vehicle and try to live like some of these people. Then toss in a major natural disaster for good measures and see just how life can be. By your own statement ("we live in such an entitlement generation") I bet you would be the first in line aplying for welfare.
A lot of us are blessed with what we have, but don't ever forget that it can be taken away at a moments notice. As you live your life day to day look around every now and then and you will see there are those not as fortunate as you just trying to make thru the day alive. Life isn't as simple as you obviously think it is.

 

[rangermonroe]

Uh, yeah, ok Majic.

I guess stay and die is better.

 

[Majic]

If staying is the only option for you then you take your chances as that is all you can do.

 

[joab]

So no addressing the points I brought up,and no elaboration on another simplistic remark, why doesn't that surprise me?

 

[Double Naught Spy]

rangermonroe, you have a naive and overly simplied view of the situation. Your gross categorization of those who did not flee and then needed help is most insulting to those that actually could not flee, such as invalids, hospital patients, people in nursing homes, etc.

I just listened to a man crying over the death of a loved one. He had been calling for help for days and no one sent help. Aparrently he couldn't go outside and ask for a ride, or call a cab, or walk. He lived...she didn't. According to him , it was everyone elses fault but his own.

The man may have blamed everyone but himself, but he has no reason to blame himself since he didn't cause the death of his loved one.

I say that local govenments need to demand that their citizens assume some to the responsiblilty for their own lives, and the blame for their misfortune

Everyone should take responsibility for their own lives and blame for their misfortune? Is this just for the hurricanes or everyday life as well. If everyone is to responsibility for their own lives and blame for their misfortune, then we apparently don't need services such as the police, fire department.

Why would you stay in a place like N.O. La when a flood was coming?

What makes you so sure they knew a flood was coming? They knew a hurricane was coming, but more often than not in the past, flooding from hurricanes has been relatively minor, if at all.

How often New Orleans gets affected?
brushed or hit every 3.94 years

Average years between direct hurricane hits.(usually within 40 miles to include small hurricanes)
(10h)once every 13.40 years

Given the rarity of major hurricanes and the lack of significant flooding produced by the smaller ones, folks didn't have all that much to fear from flooding by the hurricanes.

Of course, this differs with Katrina. Once Katrina passed through, it was obvious that there was little direct flooding as is normally the case. The flooding that did occur came after Katrina passed. What caused the flooding was the failures of the levy system. Since they did not know the levies were starting to flood the city until they saw the infilling water, then they could not have known the flood was coming.

But when the experts are proved right, and the worst case scenerio plays with you at center stage...you made your choice.

The experts were not proven right as they did not know the levies would fail.

I say that local govenments need to demand that their citizens assume some to the responsiblilty for their own lives, and the blame for their misfortune, or they can invest in a fleet of limosines to convey the "helpless" to safety in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

Okay, while the gov'g didn't demand personal resonsibility, they did have several hundred school buses they could have use, but the local government failed to use them.

You know, if you want to complain about the course of events and blame the 'survivors' for their own troubles, then why not consider things on a larger scale. Being as NOLA is partially below sea level and prone to flooding, why would they live there?

 

[BobK]

Majic, sorry but being down and out, homeless, poor, on welfare, is a choice. I've been faced with those choices and CHOSE to go forward and rise above it. I never blamed anyone else.

 

[Crosshair]

Only assistance I am getting is living at home with my parents (Actualy I help out at home quite a bit.) and getting loans for school THAT I WILL PAY BACK.

 

[blackmind]

You mentioned the man calling for help for his wife, well suppose the help just couldn't get to him so how was he suppose to get to the help? The city was basically flooded and you suggest walking, calling a cab, or asking for a ride.

Presupposing that these people could not have made plans to get out, um, before the streets had 5 feet of water in them? What of the fact that we live in the space age and satellites frequently tell us DAYS in advance when a monster storm is approaching.

Tsunami, no.

Hurricane, yes.


There is little or no excuse for not getting out, regardless of how poor you are, IF YOU ACCEPT THAT YOUR LIFE IS AT STAKE, as anyone there SHOULD HAVE, given the info that was available to ALL.


-blackmind

 

[Pointer]

First I agree

BUT...

BobK

Your capacity to choose notwithstanding, you are to be commended for rising from the dust... however, you must have had an asset(s) that made the progress plausible.

Perhaps these people are hampered by age, health, obesity, stupidity, handicaps or lack of education.

Yes, they are responsible for themselves, regardless of these things. But, failure and making really big mistakes, does not preclude our moral concern for their well-being.

Majic

In the entry #25 you just made the case for letting them be responsible for themselves. They are in fact responsible to work out their own survival. Even if that only means planning and ASKING for help in a timely manner.

Rangermonroe

The great majority of Ghetto dwellers are God fearing and hardworking, good and decent people just trying to make it one day at a time.

Being stupid, or obese, or old, or sick, or poor, or whatever else caused them not to evacuate in a timely manner is not a capital offense.

Everything you said makes good sense... but good sense must be tempered with mercy, and judgement must be seasoned with patience and kindness. Not with invective.


Psycho nut

Most of these people don't like the loud-mouth liars like, Mayor Nagin or Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson... and gang-bangers and drug pushers in their neighborhoods, and other low-lifes, any more than you do.

It is true, many are decieved, but only a small number of them are screaming obscenities and fixing blame.

They are not even directly responsible for their welfare mindedness. This evil was perpetrated on them, back in the fifties, by white bleeding-heart-liberals who taught them that welfare/dole was morally acceptible, and it was their right, to expect the government to take care of them.

They will learn a great deal from this Katrina/Rita experience and will be very surprised to learn of the millions of people from all over the United States and the world, who have done so much to help them in their awful situation...

Hell, they might even learn that a lot of help came from conservatives like us.

If you want them to be more like you... you must "teach them correct principles", show them how, and allow them to govern themselves.
They would surprise us, if the damned Liberals would get out of their way.

Welfare states stifle human progress and rob the people of their self-respect.

 

[cortez kid]

I've seen the poor. It's a terrible situation to be in. No one wants to be poor. I feel for those tied to bed and unable to move on their own. The storms are a horriblething to go through. They have been from the beginning of time. We have always had hardship and lose of life. Can't be avoided.
The only people that can assure themselves of survival are the ones who take the initiative to save themselves. It's a simplistic view because it's simplistic. Where was thier food?. Never seen the affirmation of the widening of the population more evident then most of us in those lines and stadiums. No food? Or was it the expectation of free govt food to be made available and palatable at thier final destination. And no warnings? The country was warned for almost a solid week that a major, horrible storm called "Katrina" was coming. All those people had no tv, no radio, no newspapers? What about all the people in Texas on those hiways. The govenor told his constituants specifically to leave early and not get stuck on the road in traffic, with no fuel. I guess it was his fault he didn't have the helicopters ready.
No one has more responsibility to save themselves, then themselves. I'm not even going to get into how these same people who boo hoo'ed over the lose of their homesteads and city lifted not one finger to help, you know like in the movies, sand bags, sandwiches and coffee, rounding up all the old folk they knew better than some pin-head in Wash D.C., but instead did more in the dept. stores helping themselves to tv sets, raping inocent young women and shooting at emergency responce teams. Those people that owned that old folks home that abandonned them, should be shot. What should we do to the families of those old folks. Didn't they leave them there too? Oh yeah, they're going to sue and get money.
I know this will never happen, but we need to think about this for a while. The Gov't failed. You bet, but as a society we failed even worse. God Bless America, although I don't see why He should!
kid

 

[Jogah]

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