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Outrage!

by Charles P. Howes

Outrage!
By
Charles P. Howes



This is outrageous! The charges of racism stemming from hurricane Katrina only serve to dull the edge of the outrage most Americans felt due to the slow response for help from the federal government. Americans deserve better than what they are getting from the governmental elite, their Hollywood brethren, the talking media heads or the pseudo-con radio talk-show pundits. The average American is not confused by the double talk. This is not about race or economics, this is about incompetence! I saw plenty of white people at the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center. Some of these people may have been poor; others may have just not had transportation. For all its faults, New Orleans had an awesome mass-transit system. My wife and I lived in New Orleans for three years. You could go anywhere in the city in a matter of minutes by public bus or streetcar. Who needs an automobile? Just because most of the victims were black does not make this solely a black issue. All of the victims were Americans or guests of America, which, in my mind, certainly makes it an America issue and, therefore, one for which all Americans should be outraged.

I am outraged at the incompetence of the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA after all the money that has been spent to organize these agencies for the protection of the American people. I am outraged that the levee system of New Orleans has apparently been neglected not by one, but by at least two presidential administrations. I am outraged by the piling on of the news media that could not get enough pretty faces in front of the camera with a back-drop of American angst and human misery. I am outraged by the "me too-ism" of celebrities who cry to the cameras and fake empathy for the common folk who can no longer afford their movies. I am outraged by the brazen attitudes of rich people like Barbara Bush who feel that it could be a good thing that people are forcibly uprooted from their culture and their families just because they were "underprivileged anyway".

I am outraged that people who lived below sea level would choose to stay there. I am further outraged that a municipal government would allow them to stay there, even when local newspapers like the Times-Picayune clearly pointed out the potential danger. It is even more outrageous that when citizens were told to leave they were offered no means of escape or voluntarily chose to stay. It is outrageous that a major American city would have an emergency plan that called for the housing of thousands of citizens in a sports arena that had no provisions, facilities, or drinking water stockpiled for them. I am outraged that a few illiterate thugs can get the better of thousands of honest citizens and a professional police force to stymie the rescue operations so that they can continue their campaign of rape and pillage. I am outraged by corporate opportunists who use the hurricane as an excuse to increase profits and continue their campaign of rape and pillage.

I am outraged that the people being appointed to guard our nation against terrorism have no security, police, or military experience and get their jobs primarily through political cronyism. I am outraged that for the most part they are inept lawyers with padded resumes! I am outraged that the politicians of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans, two of the most politically corrupt entities in American politics, now wash their hands and sanctimoniously point their fingers elsewhere.

I am outraged, outraged, outraged! But wait. Don't let me get off on a tangent here. I'm just a nondescript average American citizen. I'm just a middle-aged, white American male who is lucky enough to get up every morning and go to work at my menial job. Somehow, someway, I am sure this whole thing must be my fault. Please accept my time-delayed apology. I will offer mine as soon as Oprah Winfrey gives hers.