The Post Without Hope

Reading news headlines early in the morning can really send you off the deep end.

How about
Large Fire Hits Galveston Ahead of Hurricane,
or
Rita Inflicts Fresh Floods on New Orleans.
Then we have
3 in 82nd Airborne Say Beating Iraqi Prisoners Was Routine
Floodwaters Surge into New Orleans Again
Israel Launches Gaza Air Strike
Vatican to Ban New Gay Priests
Rove Fundraises as Rita Lands
Tears, Anger as Many Poor are Stuck
GA Schools asked to Close for Days to Help Save Fuel
TV Weatherman Quits to Pursue Hurricane "Conspiracy Theory"
Mothers Plan Opposing War Marches on D.C.
Battle Robots Could Join Dogs on S. Korea Border
24 Dead as Hurricane Bus Explodes
Frist Stock Sale Investigated
and if you want to be pushed over the edge REALLY quickly, go here:
War Pornography: US soldiers trade grisly photos of dead and mutilated Iraqis for access to amateur porn. The press is strangely silent.

"Good God Mrs. Todd!" as Elvis used to say. We seem to be in WAY over our heads. I watch politicians on TV and see pompous self-serving fools, the bad adults of childrens' stories, who teach us wrong moral character and provide the antagonist to our innocent child protagonist. We seem to be in deep shit, kids.

Which makes my divorce seem right in sync with the state of the world. Everything is falling apart. Hell, maybe "the Yakuza Mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima". What the hell do I know? I'm just hanging on, trying to get through my work day with as little damage as possible. And hoping they'll lob a couple days off our school year, too, to save gas by not driving the busses. Woohoo!

How about this one, from the Washington Post, to blow your mind...
"Military members evacuate elderly and sick patients onto cargo aircrafts at Port Arthur Regional Airport in Texas"



Our character, as a nation, is being called out, and we aren't dealing with it too well, are we? The elderly are taking a beating and we still want to blame the poor for being poor. This sentiment seems to be a popular e-mail forward lately, as even I (who hate e-mail forwards) received it:

By Rabbi Aryeh Spero Posted Sep 7, 2005
 
In New Orleans, beginning Tuesday morning, August 30, I saw men in helicopters risking their lives to save stranded flood victims from rooftops. The rescuers were White, the stranded Black. I saw Caucasians navigating their small, private boats in violent, swirling, toxic floodwaters to find fellow citizens trapped in their houses.  Those they saved were Black.
 
I saw Brotherhood. New York Congressman Charlie Rangel saw Racism.
 
Yes, there are Two Americas. One is the real America, where virtually every White person I know sends money, food or clothes to those in need now and in other crises -- regardless of color. This America is colorblind.
 
The other is the Americafantasized and manufactured by Charlie Rangel, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who constantly cry "racism!" even in situations where it does not exist, even when undeniable images illustrate love, compassion and concern.
 
These three men, together with today's NAACP, want to continue the notion of Racist America. It is their Mantra, their calling card. Their power, money, and continued media appearances depend on it.

Since Katrina I have seen a lot of racism in the form of "blaming the victim" in my neck of the woods, which is a fast developing white-flight area. If you don't think racism exists, you are delusional or in denial or...something. As a white woman living in the midwest, I am automatically in the white club, recognize racism's codes, its subtleties, the way it can be communicated with a glance, or a gesture. Racism, with Katrina, was uncovered, laid bare before us, and we still deny its existence. But then, we are fucking idiots who care more about developing wetlands than human kindness, so it figures. I have heard the racist asides, that New Orleans got rid of its underclass in one sweep, that nobody really wants "them", that "they" just want handouts, that "they" expect to be taken care of.

At least now we know where we stand. We won't expect to be taken care of. Especially if we are old, black or poor.