Theos-Talk Archives (September 2005 Message tt00053)

 Assessing blame after the fact?

It is difficult to know who is to blame. According to my cable news. Some policemen who have lost everything have turned in their badges instead of waiting for emergency to be over. The governor of Louisiana is a democratic as is the director of federal disaster relief for the crisis. There has been a noticeable lack of blaming between the two. In this mess President happens to be a Republican. But Army Corps of Engineers started telling President Clinton and everyone since that levies were only capable of withstanding a category 3 hurricane. Yet Congress and the Presidents have never provided the funding to upgrade them. There is plenty of blame to go around, but this is not the time to play that game.

Interesting that the victim is blameless for his situation. It is seldom been that way in my experience.

David B
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> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, david-blankenship@c... wrote: 
> > It is the modern age. People want the needs assuaged 
> immediately. 
> 
> Hi David, 
> 
> Sorry but this is hogwash. People were languishing 5 days after the 
> storm with no food, water, or security, waiting patiently for most of 
> that time. Now that many are dead or dying from the criminal neglect 
> and incompetence of this maladministration, you accuse them of 
> untoward impatience? 
> 
> > These are same people who ignored warnings a good four days in 
> advance that this was going to be a killer hurricane: A once in a 
> lifetime event. Unlike many hurricanes it varied little from its 
> predicted path. No matter who is in power, relief takes time. 
> > 
> If all the news media could get in there days ago, so could the 
> National Guard with water and food. Yes, relief takes time, but this 
> is absolutely outrageous. Bush was down in Florida *two* days after 
> their hurricane handing out water. Of course there he had a 
> brother's reelection to worry about. 
> 
> The reason no help came for so long? The head of FEMA was fired from 
> his last, relatively penny ante job for incompetence. He and 
> Chertoff did not know AS OF YESTERDAY AFTERNOON about the thousands 
> starving and dying at the convention center EVEN THOUGH THE NEWS 
> MEDIA had been covering it for more than a day. The mayor of NO has 
> made it clear that the Federal response to his and the governor's 
> pleas for assistance has been abysmal. 
> 
> Chuck might be right about the incompetence and bureaucratic bungling 
> factors, but if tens of thousands of middle class whites were 
> starving and dying in front of TV cameras, do you really think the 
> response would have been so sluggish? So I see racism and classism 
> as unconscious factors in this. 
> 
> Blaming the victims for "ignoring the warnings" is a rather typical 
> rightwing bullshit way to heartlessly dismiss the human tragedy 
> unfolding before our eyes. People who were too poor to evacuate, who 
> had no means to evacuate, had no choice of whether or not to "ignore" 
> the warnings. And in a 2/3 black and extremely poor city, that was 
> tens of thousands of people. 
> 
> Paul 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > -------------- Original message -------------- 
> > 
> > > 
> > > I was also wondering why there is no help. At least in the news 
> here it shows 
> > > all the time the victims complaining that the government did not 
> send help, food 
> > > or medicine for them. 
> > > 
> > > Erica 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Frank Reitemeyer wrote: 
> > > The hurricane destroyed a whole city. 
> > > They get no help by the Bush administration since days, although 
> there was a 
> > > forewarning. 
> > > No prememptive strike, no Navy, no army standing in the back to 
> be ready for 
> > > help ASAP. 
> > > 
> > > The pictures of the destroyed cites in the New Orleans area 
> remind a German 
> > > theosophist to similar domestic pictures of 1944-45, when Jewish- 
> American 
> > > freedom and liberty bombed destroyed Germany's cities (BTW, 
> Wurzburg 
> > > (Elberfeld), where HPB began to wirte her major work The Secret 
> Doctrine was 
> > > the city which was with 95% the relatively most destroyed one). 
> > > The pictures of Berlin, Hambrg, Dresden, Cologne, Munich, Vienna, 
> Pforzheim 
> > > etc. come to mind. 
> > > 
> > > Although the Germans suffered physically, they remained unbroken 
> > > spiritually. The remedial actions worked. There was no chaos from 
> within, 
> > > everyone worked for the public interest. Egoism was the 
> exception. This 
> > > untold but remarkable behaviour is owed by the general high- 
> mindedness of 
> > > the Germans and their high regards for virtues, which the 
> governments of 
> > > Bismarck, Wilhelm II. and Hitler strengthened. 
> > > 
> > > What is the reason that such chaos, looterings, murder, rape, rap 
> in New 
> > > Orleans could happen? 
> > > Is it the general cultivation of the lower self? The every day 
> appeal to 
> > > outsmart your neighbour, your colleagues? 
> > > 
> > > No doubt, if such a cataclysm would happen in the Germany of 
> today, I have 
> > > no doubt that we would see the same pictures on tv. 
> > > But the spiritual conditions were otherwise before the German 
> soul was 
> > > killed. 
> > > One thing is certain: If that cataclysm would happen today on the 
> German 
> > > coast and there were no help from the goverment since several 
> days - the 
> > > chancellor would be kicked out of office by return. 
> > > 
> > > Is not Theosophy and its appeal of Universal Brotherhood the 
> spiritual 
> > > antidot for this outbursts of the lower self? 
> > > American patriot and theosophical Leader Katherine Tingley gave 
> some 
> > > practical examples with their Sisters of Mercy and other first 
> aid actions 
> > > to help victims of wars and cataclysms. 
> > > Where are the Theosophists of today? 
> > > 
> > > The US Army has ordered a ban on leave for September. Is it that 
> the new war 
> > > against Iran is in its last phase of preparation? 
> > > Was the Hurricane Katrina butting into the onrolling war machine 
> and the GIs 
> > > on the way to Iran have to be redirected? 
> > > 
> > > Is that the reason why the Bush government sent no troops to help 
> the 
> > > Americans in New Orleans? 
> > > Because they are prepared to help (liberate) the Iranians? 
> > > 
> > > Or is it that it concerns only a poor Southern state? 
> > > Do they just follow the Kissinger doctrine that they will get rid 
> of the 
> > > poor, stupid mob? 
> > > Kissinger wants that 5 out of the 6 billions people of the world 
> must be get 
> > > rid of by violence to have a paradise in the aftermath. 
> > > Do the New Orleaners die for the sake of the One World 
> conspiracy? 
> > > 
> > > Questions over questions? 
> > > Who is able to answer? 
> > > 
> > > Frank 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
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> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] 
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> Yahoo! Groups Links 
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> 

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