The truth be told, the consequences of New Orleans are proof that the United States is headed in the wrong direction. This was not just a singular failure of the United States Government to care for its own, it was a systemic failure. George W. Bush, the NeoCons, and the Conservative bible thumpers that support him are tragically and inevitably wrong. This country must pull back from a viciously capitalist system and incorporated Socialistic programs to aid its citizens. WE must decide that the future of America lies with the strength of a pluristic society over a militeristic society. We must decide that all of our people, not just the rich and powerful, are important to the future. WE must regain the belief, no the fact, that in this country, if you are black, chincano, asian, female, or any other sub-group, you have the chance to lead a good and comfortable life. This country must be about more than just rich caucasion men. It must begin to stand for genuine freedom, and opportunity.
Until George W. Bush and his ilk are defeated, this country will continue to sink into a morass of economic failure, military misadventures, and surreal, overwhelming heartbreak:
The All-too American Tragedy of New Orleans:Empire, Inequality, Race and Oil
by Paul Street.
"...an imperial “defense” budget that equals the rest of the world's total military expenditure. This “defense” budget (mainly dedicated to what the Pentagon calls “forward global force projection”) amounts to more than $600 billion when properly calculated. United States “defense” expenditures outweigh federal domestic expenditures on education by 8 to 1; income security by 4.5 to 1; nutrition by 11 to 1; housing by 14 to 1; job training by 32 to 1. Someone else will have to find the relevant fiscal disparities between empire abroad and flood prevention at home, paying special attention to the Bush administration's refusal to move money intended for News Orleans' levees to war and “homeland security.”.."
"..“America” might feel less compelled to choose between guns and butter/bottled water (and flood prevention and public transit and sustainable energy policies and…fill in the blank) if federal policymakers weren't so dedicated to piling yet more tax-cut caviar on the plates of the already super-opulent few in the “advanced” world's most unequal and wealth-top-heavy society. By the end of last year, the total cost of the Bush administration's tax reductions reached $297 billion, helping sink federal revenues to their lowest level as a share of the US economy since 1950 and creating “deficits as far as the eye can see.” Twenty-four percent of the great national tax giveaway went to “ America 's” wealthiest 1 percent, whose households received an average tax cut of $35,000..."
"..There should be no mystery about why so many black poor people and others in New Orleans and elsewhere across the disproportionately black and poor Deep South were so terribly exposed and unprotected in the wake of a not-so “natural disaster.” Their tragic and terrifying experience is all too predictable and all-too quintessentially [ United States of] “American”. It is the natural outcome of the “indispensable nation [Madeline Albright]'s” longstanding failure to acknowledge, confront, and overcome what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the triple evils that are interrelated”: militarism-imperialism, economic exploitation (capitalism), and racism.
Truth be told, the US has been sinking in a toxic stew of Empire and Inequality for quite some time. The tragedy of New Orleans is just the latest and best example to date of the “American” peoples' need to complete their many unfinished revolutions, including the one that drew to its final close when the last federal troops left Louisiana in 1877."
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