The Congressional Black Caucus hit a new low today. During a press conference, Rep. Elijah Cumming (D-MD)
stated: "The overwhelming proportion of black people among the refugees, made clear to Americans by television coverage of huge black crowds pleading for water and food in New Orleans, has raised questions about the role of class and race in the response."
I don't know what the television coverage has made clear, other than a tragic event caused by nature. However, Congressman Cumming's implication is clear -- the plight of the New Orleans victims of Hurricane Katrina is a result of racial animus on the part of the "white" Bush Administration and its "failure" to do anything to help.
Perhaps a few words of explanation are in order, Congressman Cumming.
First, the reason there has been an "overwhelming proportion of black people among the refugees" is because New Orleans (or at least Orleans Parish, Louisiana, of which New Orleans is a major part) is 67.3% black
(U.S. Census Bureau, Louisiana Quick Facts [Orleans Parish]). Thus, it stands to reason that the majority of those affected would be black, and not those of other racial groups.
Second, there is a very simple explanation for why the relief effort is not farther along -- there just has not been time to execute a relief plan for such an unprecendented disaster. Today is Friday, September 2. While it is true that Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on the morning of Monday, August 29, the City of New Orleans escaped the direct wrath of Katrina. It was not until the morning of Tuesday, August 30 that the 17th Street Canal Levee broke. Even after the levee broke, it was not clear at the outset that the resultant flooding would be as severe as it turned out to be. We, thus, are only about 72 hours removed from the first realization that the flooding was going to be a serious problem. (Incidentally, this is far short of the 140 hours that Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. claimed in his companion speech to that of Congressman Cummings' speech this morning (140 hours before Congressman Jackson gave his speech was Sunday morning, August 28 -- a full
48 hours or so before the levees broke.))
72 hours.
In such a short period of time, the Black Caucus (and other black leaders who have jumped on the bandwagon), apparently expect miracles beyond the capability of any human organization to perform. This is a crisis of the first magnitude of the sort rarely seen in a Western nation. And yet in such a short period of time, the Black Caucus clearly expects that all of the victims of the New Orleans flood to have been evacuated elsewhere. Never mind that many of the victims are scattered all over New Orleans, which has been virtually inaccesible to automotive traffic and accessed only with difficulty by boats (due to the debris in the water and the danger of fouled propellers). Heliocopters have essentially been the only means to rescue many of the unfortunates.
Never mind that the hurricane itself made the land routes to New Orleans difficult to traverse, particularly from the north and east. Never mind that much of the infrastructure in the vicinity has been destroyed or seriously damaged, making coordination all the more difficult. That anything is happening at all at this early date is a testament to the logistical abilities of our great nation.
Never mind that efforts to rescue and evacuate and provide medical treatment for the victims have been hindered by the actions of animals scarcely deserving of the title "human being" brandishing AK-47s, who are murdering, raping and pillaging all over the City of New Orleans. At the risk of being labelled a "racist" or of "generalizing", I am nonetheless quite certain that these individuals are mostly, if not all, black. They are the product of the failed "promise" of modern liberalism and feminism, to which the Congressional Black Caucus succombs hook line and sinker. The thugs roaming the city streets of New Orleans and inside the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center are, in most cases I am sure, the children of single-parent, frequently drug-addicted mothers who have been told over and over again that its okay to have children out of wedlock; it's your reproductive right to do so. (See Michelle Malkin's
post earlier today for the argument that the thugs themselves are drug addicts) We are now reaping the whirlwind of those foolish, self-indulgent policies. Who are paying the ultimate price for these policies? The good people of New Orleans who are not being rescued by the police and National Guardsmen who have had to engage in urban warfare rather than search and rescue.
Had this tragedy occured during the Clinton Administration would there be such recrimination from the black "elite"? I don't think so. This is clearly just another effort to "bash Bush".
Shame on you Congressman.
P.S. I took great pleasure in watching your diatribe on Fox News Channel this morning in a split screen. What was on the other screen, you ask? Merely images of the convoy of several thousand vehicles -- fire trucks, buses, Chevrolet Suburbans towing boats, and the like -- making their way across the Mississippi River into New Orleans.
I guess you criticized a little too soon, eh Congressman?
