Update II (2/23): Follow the link to BELIEVE!
Read Scott Ott’s parody.
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Stop the presses!
Someone finally said what needed to be said…publicly. During some government meeting in Houston, three New Orleans council members (guests?) said to “evacuees” what was on so many people’s minds: Get off your duffs and work.
New Orleans doesn’t want its poorest residents back — unless they agree to work.
That was the message from three New Orleans City Council members who said government programs have “pampered” the city’s residents for too long. (Source)
Houston transplants who want to return to New Orleans got a dose of tough love. “We don’t need soap opera watchers right now,” said New Orleans council member Oliver Thomas (pictured).
Thank you, Mr. Thomas! You will be harassed and harangued for being so “judgmental,” but don’t worry about that. The truth is on your side. Please do not apologize!
Poor areas remain poor (with stinky government schools) largely because of a reduced tax base. Too few people in the community are working. One NO council member said the priority is to bring back people willing to work.
The Housing Authority in New Orleans will require future public housing residents to “express a willingness to work.” More productive would be to actually work rather than “express” a soft “willingness” to do so. But who am I to judge?
“Houston officials” were upset by the NO council members’ remarks, and you can guess why. Such unwelcoming and judgmental attitudes may encourage evacuees to remain in Texas, and “officials” want them out of their city. Evacuees are raising hell in Houston, and “officials” want to send them back where they came from, no doubt. That “soap opera watchers” talk may hurt their government-coddled feelings.
In the article you’ll notice the absence of the word “racist.” When blacks complain about other blacks, no one can accuse anyone of the elusive and ever-shifting charge of racism. You may hear “sell out,” “race traitor,” or “Uncle Tom” a lot, but no “R” word, thank goodness.
I encourage you to read the entire article, but the focus of this post is much broader.
What Hurricane Katrina proved was not how racist America was or how its poor got left behind. It proved that generational government dependency has rendered poor black communities helpless and unable to think and plan for themselves.
(Let’s not forget about rampant fraud. Before giving out $2,000 debit cards to evacuees, an ill-conceived plan, the Bush administration knew what would happen. But politicians wanted to placate whiny liberals and bums. Guess what? It didn’t work. Trying to placate whiners with money never works, and it never will. – Thanks for the link, Christine.)
Liberals want to have it both ways. They cried “Racist!” when people questioned the intelligence, resourcefulness, integrity, or morality of those left behind, especially the looters. At the same time they decry the government’s “slow response” and failure to anticipate lawlessness and helplessness. But you can’t have it both ways. Either people are responsible for themselves, capable of decent conduct and good decision-making, or they’re helpless, incapable of making good decisions or accepting responsibility for themselves. Government-savior to the rescue.
Bloated government, income redistribution, and cradle-to-grave care are so pervasive that most of us can’t imagine what life would be like with small government, more of our hard-earned money in our pockets, and total responsibility for our own lives. To expect someone to suffer the consequences of their own poor planning, financial irresponsibility, and immoral behavior is taboo, at least in public. Everyone is equally “good,” and to make distinctions is “judgmental,” which in our upside down world is supposed to be reprehensible.
Star Parker puts the thing more delicately than I do:
We may recall, as the disaster in New Orleans was unfolding before our eyes, the allegations from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others on the black left, that the poor response was racially motivated.
These allegations were, of course, absurd. I wrote then that this was a tragic case in point of the inherent inefficiencies in government. Yet, the baseless and inflammatory allegations of the usual black demagogues achieved their destructive objectives.
…The Katrina debacle showed us, in the most tragic way, the limitations inherent in big government…Certainly, government has a legitimate role.
Creation of wealth and prosperity isn’t part of that role. Private initiative is the only answer to black poverty and to rebuilding New Orleans. The only beneficiaries of government programs are politicians black and white.
And private initiative begins with a community’s willingness to work, not merely exist to suckle the government’s teat. Getting up and going to work, refusing handouts, and facing hardships with dignity builds character and resourcefulness. We should accept nothing less from ourselves or our neighbors.
Some people need government assistance, but too many take advantage of the system. They are healthy enough to work but just don’t want to. You know such people, and so do I. They, and not the truly helpless, are the subjects of this post.
Update: Herman Cain writes about liberals and “gutless socialism.”
