Thursday, September 15, 2005
The Greatest of All Disappoinments
First I have to apologize for ignoring this Blog of mine for so long. There have been many distractions both internal and external that have kept me from it. But now that there seems to be a moment that does not have some sort of disaster again both personal and external happening, I can return to this endeavor on a full time basis for as long as I am able.
What I have seen over the past several months has, as I am sure has many millions more saddened me. From a war that is being fought far away to our own disaster in New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi that left so many of our fellow Americans suddenly reduced to the status of Third World Refugees.
It is not so much the loss of property or lives that saddens me as much as seeing the same old evils raising their ugly heads again with even more ferocity than they were before.
The ugly face of a government lying to its own people as why we are going to war is something that I thought we had gotten over after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident had been proven to be a fabrication The tactics of using the fear of a Madman with Weapons of Mass Destruction has proven to be as much a lie as PT Boats attacking our ships in the South China Sea. Why did our government seem to think that they had to come up with this fabrication to justify a war?
The moral outrage throughout the world against Saddam Hussein was enough to justify his removal for actions he took against the Kurds, Kuwaitis, and the Shiites in his area of influence in the world. If nothing else, there was a feeling that we had stopped too early after the first Iraq War and we would just be finishing up what needed to be done. But due to someone’s bad perceptions they made our righteousness into a lie and we now as Americans look upon this “Noble War” with embarrassment and we stand before the world ashamed of our leaders and question our values once again.
Another of the ugly heads that has raised itself into full view is our racism. Thanks to the fury of Hurricanes Katrina’s winds and destruction a façade has been once again been ripped away to expose one of the ugliest components of our society. Suddenly we were bombarded with images of dark skinned people wading through filthy chest deep water with their possessions on their heads looking all the world like a scene from a Third World African Nation. Not to imply that the only people that were in the same situation were Afro-American, but it is noted that there were very few Caucasian faces among the constant barrage of images of “Looters”. If there is one set of photographs that prove this point is a picture of a White Couple wading through the water with groceries in tow with the caption that this couple was able to “find” food and an almost exact photo of a black couple was captioned that they had just “looted” food.
How after all these years and all the money and the shifting sentiment towards race relations by Generations that followed the Baby Boomer Generation that fought for Equal Rights in the 50’s and 60’s this type of racial socio-economic disparity still exists in this country is one of the great disappointments of my life.
What I have seen over the past several months has, as I am sure has many millions more saddened me. From a war that is being fought far away to our own disaster in New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi that left so many of our fellow Americans suddenly reduced to the status of Third World Refugees.
It is not so much the loss of property or lives that saddens me as much as seeing the same old evils raising their ugly heads again with even more ferocity than they were before.
The ugly face of a government lying to its own people as why we are going to war is something that I thought we had gotten over after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident had been proven to be a fabrication The tactics of using the fear of a Madman with Weapons of Mass Destruction has proven to be as much a lie as PT Boats attacking our ships in the South China Sea. Why did our government seem to think that they had to come up with this fabrication to justify a war?
The moral outrage throughout the world against Saddam Hussein was enough to justify his removal for actions he took against the Kurds, Kuwaitis, and the Shiites in his area of influence in the world. If nothing else, there was a feeling that we had stopped too early after the first Iraq War and we would just be finishing up what needed to be done. But due to someone’s bad perceptions they made our righteousness into a lie and we now as Americans look upon this “Noble War” with embarrassment and we stand before the world ashamed of our leaders and question our values once again.
Another of the ugly heads that has raised itself into full view is our racism. Thanks to the fury of Hurricanes Katrina’s winds and destruction a façade has been once again been ripped away to expose one of the ugliest components of our society. Suddenly we were bombarded with images of dark skinned people wading through filthy chest deep water with their possessions on their heads looking all the world like a scene from a Third World African Nation. Not to imply that the only people that were in the same situation were Afro-American, but it is noted that there were very few Caucasian faces among the constant barrage of images of “Looters”. If there is one set of photographs that prove this point is a picture of a White Couple wading through the water with groceries in tow with the caption that this couple was able to “find” food and an almost exact photo of a black couple was captioned that they had just “looted” food.
How after all these years and all the money and the shifting sentiment towards race relations by Generations that followed the Baby Boomer Generation that fought for Equal Rights in the 50’s and 60’s this type of racial socio-economic disparity still exists in this country is one of the great disappointments of my life.
