Comparing a blizzard to Katrina? Or is it white vs. black?
Here is the original email sent to me, followed by my response below:
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Subject: This is good and an excellent example of what people can do w/o the government
The following was written by a county emergency manager located in central Colorado after last week's blizzard: WEATHER BULLETINUp here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" ---with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
FYI:
George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera. No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work orDie".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves. Maybe some people will get the message. The world does NOT owe you a living.
--------------- My response to the person who sent me the above email:
Sorry to be a spoil sport, but just about everything in this email is false. It was actually written about a snowstorm that occurred in 2005 in the North Plain states (Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas) and it was filled with falsehoods about that storm, too. And now some yokel just changed the setting to Colorado and the time to 2006. And the South Dakotans did in fact "howl for the government" after that 2005 blizzard--click here. The governor formally requested federal assistance and 25 counties were declared FEDERAL disaster areas (eligible for those damned government handouts that white people supposedly don't get) and, yes, Virginia, FEMA was there, too. Additionally, National Guard troops were dispatched on the same day in North Dakota to deal with that disaster. The Louisana National Guard was also able to respond to the far more severe disaster called Katrina--but two days AFTER Katrina's landfall and with 40% of its troops unable to help (they were stuck in Iraq fighting King George's unnecessary war).
Most importantly, read between the lines. What is this email REALLY trying to say? It implies that two natural disasters occurred and that one group responded by wallowing in helplessness and self-pity while the other group admirably rose to the challenge, pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and selflessly performed acts of heroism (what a bunch of horse feathers!). Plus, we have to admit, many Americans reading this will equate the sturdy, hard-working, self-reliant people portrayed in the blizzard as white, while they will envision the whiny, lazy, dependent people with a huge sense of entitlement affected by Hurricane Katrina as black.
Not sure if that's true? Read the email again and see how many references you can spot that are supposed to get you to think about and have no respect for the black people affected by Katrina. I found more than a typical "Where's Waldo?" I found these: Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the person who "uttered an expletive on TV" (referring to Kanye West, a black hip-hop artist), the people waiting for "some affirmative action government," the mayor who blamed Bush (a reference to New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, who is African-American), and the so-called looting (the racist media planted this idea. In fact, white people only saw Kanye West say "George Bush doesn't care about black people." But the same media didn't report him saying: "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says they're looting. You see a white family, it says they're looking for food."). The author of the email didn't come right out and contrast what he or she believes were white vs. black people's responses, but it is STRONGLY implied. This fits right into the stereotype of African-Americans who supposedly don't work as hard as whites yet demand handouts from the government.
This email is already too long, but if you want to see how most government handouts go to non-poor, mostly white, mostly Republican folks, click here, scroll about halfway down and start reading the paragraph that starts "Here are quotes from a book written by John Sperling (an entrepreneur and the founder of the University of Phoenix)". It's blog page I wrote in which I debunk yet another silly, racist email. In fact, according to the Census Bureau, South Dakota (and all its white folks) gets $1.49 in federal expenditures for each tax dollar they pay into the Federal treasury. Louisiana (with all its black folks) gets slightly LESS ($1.47 from the Feds for each $1 paid to the Feds in taxes).
Click here and scroll down to Table 5 if you want to see for yourself. And to compare a blizzard in the Northern Plains to the worst natural disaster in our nation's history is also inappropriate. As Mark Woods (a columnist for the Florida Times-Union) wrote:
People on the Gulf Coast didn't lose power. They lost homes, jobs, hospitals, churches, grocery stores, cities.
I've been to New Orleans three times since Katrina. And each time I have been struck by the misconceptions still swirling. One is that Katrina affected poor blacks. Another is that people are waiting for government to get them back on their feet.
Katrina, of course, did affect poor blacks. But it didn't discriminate. It destroyed poor neighborhoods, rich neighborhoods, middle-class neighborhoods. It killed people of all races. And while I'm sure some of the survivors are waiting for others to solve their problems, I haven't met them.
I have met people -- rich, poor, black, white, young, old -- who are working incredibly hard to rebuild their houses, their businesses, their city.
Man, if I had survived Katrina, had been working to rebuild my home and the rest of my life, and then read this email--I'd be hoppin' mad!
What amazes me about emails like this is how one ignorant individual can fabricate a story like this with clear racist overtones--and almost NO ONE BOTHERS TO CHALLENGE IT!!! Most readers will mindlessly soak it up like a sponge because it merely reinforces their prejudices. It makes them feel good about their race and who (they believe) they are. Just imagine how many thousands of people will get this in their Inbox, not bother to check out the veracity but instead nod their heads in agreement. Look how many web pages have regurgitated this email and are presenting it as fact. And round and round the world this and other harmful emails continue to roll. To quote the old Negro spiritual, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?"
So people can either strive to learn the truth or they can believe lies that make them feel good about themselves. Maybe instead of wanting to know the truth, most people would prefer to simply feel good--knowing that they're not like "those people" we all saw on TV in New Orleans during the aftermath of Katrina.
