WHAT WAS EXPOSED BY KATRINA
Robert Tracinski writes of what lies beneath:
What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. And they don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.
People living in piles of their own trash, while petulantly complaining that other people aren't doing enough to take care of them and then shooting at those who come to rescue them—this is not just a description of the chaos at the Superdome. It is a perfect summary of the 40-year history of the welfare state and its public housing projects.
The welfare state—and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages—is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting.
posted by Jeff @ 1:05 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
oh, OWWW!! That might be partially true, but it's an overgeneralization which is harmful. I've been the very poor, and know not only what hopelessness it leaves you in, because everyone who is supposed to be advocate basically only waits for you to get a grip and dig yourself out, while they get paid to help the very poor, but I have seen the progression of what a lack of love and charity for our fellow man can do to anyone.. I can never condone crime or wrongdoing of any sort, but I've seen it from both ends of the spectrum. Mercy. That's what He asks of us. He said, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Ahmen. Where would most of us be without mercy, both His and that of others? Love thy neighbor as thyself. Well, and this is where the poor are too purposely hidden sometimes, we need to look for, find, and see our invisible neighbor.. but we need to see him as our self -- our other self.
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