Poop Shute

For Shame, America

I have said that many times before. I said it when we elected The Bumpkin to our highest elected office in 2000. I said it again when I heard eighteen million people watched the series premiere of the Friends spin-off, "Joey." And when the parts of this country that should have been allowed to secede 150 years ago re-elected "Dubya" in 2004, I said it yet again.

I meant it most solemnly each time I've said it, but this time I mean it with a deep and sorrowful regret of the fact that I am in some socio-political way associated to some of our fellow countrymen.

First off, I am done listening to news about New Orleans. It's a horrible tragedy, and I feel badly for the survivors, but really, what is newsworthy about it anymore? The relief efforts for the refugees are receiving an overwhelming response, so what more attention do they need from me, John Q Public?

Having said that, I'm here to talk about Hurricane Katrina. Sorry, but this is actually important.

In the weeks following the disaster there have been a number of reports floating around the internet, in the form of mass-forwarded emails. These reports range from supposed first-hand accounts of people dealing with the refugees to "My Dad was there and he said" types of accounts. The common thread with them all is they paint a very unsympathetic portrait of these people.

They are shown to be greedy, slovenly, angry, rude, etc etc to the very people that are there to help them. These poor, homeless people who don't have a job to work even if they wanted to are accused of doing everything from refusing what they are given, to attacking volunteers all the way on up to maliciously vandalizing facilities. I'm here to tell you that there is no factual basis for any of these claims. Spread the word. In fact, if you, or someone you know are getting these emails, you owe it to yourself to have a look at the following links.

REST STOP

SO I VOLUNTEERED

PARAMEDIC

The links go to articles on SNOPES . If you read one of them, PLEASE, READ THE WHOLE THING, especially the summation at the bottom. Snopes is a website dedicated to digging deep into the muck to find the truth behind urban legends, large scale hoaxes, and even fallacious news items. They've been around for years, and I trust them, not only because of their age, but also because they are free and open about their sources and bibliography that yielded their judgments.

I have waded through several of these emails, and picked the three that I felt were the best... or worst... whatever. One thing that disturbs me greatly is that another very strong common thread is that the people in these emails say things to the effect that FOX News is the only news source doing a "good job" of showing what's really going on down there. WHAT!?! WHAT?!?! WHAT?!?! Surely, my eyes have a serious bacterial infection and are secreting puss that happened to form the shape of those words on the lens of my eye, right? Surely, my mild case of manic depression has escalated into full-blown psychosis and I am hallucinating? DID I TAKE THE BUS TO CRAZY-LAND AND FALL ASLEEP UNTIL I GOT TO THE CAPITAL?!?!

Fox is slanted crap. Anyone who isn't high or a fundamentalist christian knows that. The fact that these people are citing it tells you what place they are coming from. What's their angle for making these folks look bad, you might ask. That is simple, as Snopes so astutely points out in the above links. If we feel like these are bad people then we can justify scaling back the relief efforts and just let them die and/or kill each other. Think about it, if these are good people then of course we will feel obligated as a country to do everything in our power to help them. BUT if they are mean ingrates who callously abuse those who are trying to help them then we can just write them all off and not feel bad about it. It's called a salve to the conscience.

It's also one of the most insidious propaganda campaigns I have ever seen. BUT. Let's say for just a second that a substantial portion of these people have been ingrates. Let's say for the sake of discussion that they have been verbally abusive. These folks have just had their whole world turned upside down, lost their home, lost their job, possibly lost loved ones, and lost everything they have EVER owned all in a matter of minutes and are now left far from the place they call home with only the clothes on their backs. I think these people deserve a little wiggle room when it comes to fvcking manners! I mean, come on!

It's called shock, people. It hits us all in different ways.