A toast to... what?

Final Visit
Originally uploaded by Gna42.

SHOCKING NEWS!

My parents just sent me this photo and ... they are most surely white! After reading the news and seeing the television coverage of the New Orleans destruction I was convinced my parents lived in the 9th Ward and had black skin! Why, I even read that the dead were mostly black (caused by Bush blowing up the levees, of course).

NONSENSE!

Even the very left Los Angeles Times carried an article today comparing the dead racially (They see race in everything) and by class (They also see class warfare everywhere) and concluded begrudgingly that Katrina played no favorites... upper, middle, lower-class, black, white... all were hit fairly evenly. Did these knuckle heads at the L.A. Times really think that a hurricane plays favorites? Do they really think that white people don't need help because they aren't "oppressed?" Yes, they really think that way.

Why does this bother me? Simple. While all this attention was paid to the victims living in The 9th Ward and New Orleans proper, an entire Parish was forgotten and left fairly uncovered by the press, especially the national press. And an entire group of victims was overlooked because they didn't fit a racial or class profile. And because of this people who really needed and need help still are slow to get it.

And it's all GARBAGE!

So please stop with the conspiracy theories and realize that you get what you vote for... and for forty years the politicians you elected have been playing hurricane roulette... building River Walks and gambling casinos and "diverting" money intended to go to the levee system.

Do you really want New Orleans to return to what it was? Do you really want the stale welfare culture to return? No?

Then realize that the victims of Katrina are victims, regardless of skin color or social class. The last thing New Orleans needs now is to stir up racial hatred at a time when people are trying to help one another rebuild their lives.

New Orleans will never be what it was and in some ways it's a blessing. Oh, you're wondering what my parents are "toasting" in the picture? The fact that they are alive? The fact that some good souls kept them from drowning? The fact that the big nightmare is almost over? I don't know.

As my next post will be about faith and Christmas... I'll ask them.