Katrina, Bush and race

"I was somewhat amazed (slap me stupid) when Bush replied to assertions by some that the Katrina response would have been faster if so many of the victims were not poor and black with this gem: "The storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort."  Technically the storm didn't discriminate, true.  Storms are neither conscious nor evil.  They simply blow in and destroy whatever, whoever, lies in their path.  But using this
technicality exposes once again the President's bewildered lack of understanding of the effects of the storm.

  As a causal force the storm did not discriminate, however, its effects were most certainly discriminatory. 
And the fault for that discriminatory effect lies not with the storm, but with a government that has allowed a
three-tiered society to become entrenched, and made it very difficult to cross over from the lower tiers to the
higher tiers; poor to middle class, middle class to the very rich.  Yes, it can be done--in fact, it happens
all the time--to a small percentage of very motivated individuals.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of the poor
stay poor, and raise poor children that stay poor.  So, to return to my point, Bush used a technicality to
ignore a huge societal problem exposed in the raw by the after affects of Katrina.  The poor were most certainly
discriminated against because they were left behind to face the wrath of the storm.  Furthermore, we saw the
faces of the poor in New Orleans and they did not represent the rainbow of color racial equality brings."

 

Ken Gunn