Immersed in unsettling information
Guy T. Sturino
September 07, 2005
As the city of New Orleans is beginning its recovery from the deluge of Katrina, the whole country is being deluged by a flood of news pointing out the governments incompetence and outright malfeasance. Even at that, what’s coming from the corporate owned outlets is only the outer edge of the storm. Hurricane Neocon, with its tidal wave of corruption and greed, misinformation and outright disinformation, continues to batter the country. As hard as it will be for New Orleans to recover from its disaster, recovery from hurricane Neocon will not even begin until its power dissipates.
The Senate wanted an investigation into what really happened before and after Katrina to begin immediately, before anyone could bury pertinent information. Senate majority leader Frist used his position to cancel the investigation with some lame excuse about wanting a joint House/Senate review sometime in the future.
The truth is that, like the rest of hurricane Neocon, the ‘why’ is of little consequence. It could just as well have been because the moon was in the wrong position at the time. It doesn’t matter because the people don’t matter. If they did, the empty hospital ship off the coast of New Orleans would not have been empty one day after the storm passed, much less still empty five days later. If the people really mattered, they would have been evacuated on government chartered busses before the storm hit. Not only were the people of New Orleans ignored before and after Katrina, the intelligence of rest of the country has been, and continues to be, ignored as we are inundated with excuses, and even outright lies.
Watching President Bush sitting with his cabinet and addressing the nation was an awful experience. Regardless of what his true feelings may have been, the expression on his face and the tone in his voice displayed nothing but contempt for the intelligence, and, unfortunately, even the existence, of the people. That little smirk on the Presidents face while he’s spewing platitudes instead of reason should infuriate everyone. Why doesn’t it?
There is an answer, but the answer is also unsettling. It appears that all too many people believe the president is speaking for them instead of at them, and that the expression on his face expresses what they, too, think about the rest of the country. Who, earning less that a couple million dollars a year, could be that dumb? The people of Louisiana gave all nine of their electoral votes to President Bush and the Neocon agenda. Now that they are living it, and maybe they will rethink their position in November. And, then again, maybe not. The ability of the people to be deceived is a horrible fact of life, but the ability of the people to deceive themselves is devastatingly atrocious.
And, what about the people in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, who could be facing the same kind of destruction from the same kind of winds? Will they rethink their positions? (Florida, of course, will be taken care of, as history has demonstrated.)
Speaking of that, why, do you suppose, we haven’t seen any major news media comparing the response to Katrina with the Presidents personal response to the hurricanes in Florida. He was there handing out bottled water the next day. After Katrina he couldn’t be pried off of the golf course to even get better informed of what was happening. Oh, we see it in columns on the editorial page, but when the President displays such utter contempt for the people, shouldn’t it be front page news? Could it be that the corporate owned news just doesn’t want to bring it to the attention of those who only read the headlines?
Which brings us back to the beginning. We are immersed in unsettling information. Information about Katrina, to be sure, but also about Iraq, the Supreme Court, the hostility of the Republican leaders in Congress, and, by the way, what ever happened to Karl Rove? Is anyone angry yet?
For those of you who have turned your anger inward and are popping pills for depression, the only winner is the pharmaceutical industry. It’s time for a change. Direct your attention to the source of your anger and do something about it. Clear September 24th from your calender and pack your bags for Washington, D.C. Join the rest of us who have already tied a knot in the end of our ropes to keep hanging on.
You don’t have to stand up and shout, you don’t have to wear slogan tee shirts, you don’t even have to listen to those you might not totally agree with. Just being there will show the country just how many people are fed up with the current state of affairs. It will also let you sleep better knowing you didn’t just sit on your hands while our emperor fiddles away everything we’ve managed to accomplish in the last two hundred years.
The Senate wanted an investigation into what really happened before and after Katrina to begin immediately, before anyone could bury pertinent information. Senate majority leader Frist used his position to cancel the investigation with some lame excuse about wanting a joint House/Senate review sometime in the future.
The truth is that, like the rest of hurricane Neocon, the ‘why’ is of little consequence. It could just as well have been because the moon was in the wrong position at the time. It doesn’t matter because the people don’t matter. If they did, the empty hospital ship off the coast of New Orleans would not have been empty one day after the storm passed, much less still empty five days later. If the people really mattered, they would have been evacuated on government chartered busses before the storm hit. Not only were the people of New Orleans ignored before and after Katrina, the intelligence of rest of the country has been, and continues to be, ignored as we are inundated with excuses, and even outright lies.
Watching President Bush sitting with his cabinet and addressing the nation was an awful experience. Regardless of what his true feelings may have been, the expression on his face and the tone in his voice displayed nothing but contempt for the intelligence, and, unfortunately, even the existence, of the people. That little smirk on the Presidents face while he’s spewing platitudes instead of reason should infuriate everyone. Why doesn’t it?
There is an answer, but the answer is also unsettling. It appears that all too many people believe the president is speaking for them instead of at them, and that the expression on his face expresses what they, too, think about the rest of the country. Who, earning less that a couple million dollars a year, could be that dumb? The people of Louisiana gave all nine of their electoral votes to President Bush and the Neocon agenda. Now that they are living it, and maybe they will rethink their position in November. And, then again, maybe not. The ability of the people to be deceived is a horrible fact of life, but the ability of the people to deceive themselves is devastatingly atrocious.
And, what about the people in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, who could be facing the same kind of destruction from the same kind of winds? Will they rethink their positions? (Florida, of course, will be taken care of, as history has demonstrated.)
Speaking of that, why, do you suppose, we haven’t seen any major news media comparing the response to Katrina with the Presidents personal response to the hurricanes in Florida. He was there handing out bottled water the next day. After Katrina he couldn’t be pried off of the golf course to even get better informed of what was happening. Oh, we see it in columns on the editorial page, but when the President displays such utter contempt for the people, shouldn’t it be front page news? Could it be that the corporate owned news just doesn’t want to bring it to the attention of those who only read the headlines?
Which brings us back to the beginning. We are immersed in unsettling information. Information about Katrina, to be sure, but also about Iraq, the Supreme Court, the hostility of the Republican leaders in Congress, and, by the way, what ever happened to Karl Rove? Is anyone angry yet?
For those of you who have turned your anger inward and are popping pills for depression, the only winner is the pharmaceutical industry. It’s time for a change. Direct your attention to the source of your anger and do something about it. Clear September 24th from your calender and pack your bags for Washington, D.C. Join the rest of us who have already tied a knot in the end of our ropes to keep hanging on.
You don’t have to stand up and shout, you don’t have to wear slogan tee shirts, you don’t even have to listen to those you might not totally agree with. Just being there will show the country just how many people are fed up with the current state of affairs. It will also let you sleep better knowing you didn’t just sit on your hands while our emperor fiddles away everything we’ve managed to accomplish in the last two hundred years.
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