'I'M TERRIFIED. I REALLY AM - I FEEL LIKE THE WORLD'S GONE NUTS.'

[ray of light]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nypost/20050903/cm_nypost/39i39mterrifiedireallyamifeelliketheworld39sgonenuts39

By JIM HINCH
Sat Sep 3, 6:00 AM ET



'LET them know I'm a human being," implored Yolanda Harris.


Standing amid urine-soaked trash on the floor of the convention center and wearing two left-foot shoes, Harris recounted the horror she had seen since this city was buried under billions of gallons of water.


"I'm about to lose my mind, I saw

[Child_Of_Isis]

1. They're treating us like we're the enemy!"

This is probably why they are arming themselves.

[TankLV]

6. She's a democrat and poor and black - it should be obvioius that of course

she is the enemy!

[bribri16]

9. Not true. They are treating you WORSE than the enemy! n/t

[Laughing Mirror]

33. Yes they are, and they always have

Only most people didn't see it before, but if it takes a catastrophe, the whole world sees that naked truth of what the self-proclaimed "richest nation in the world" thinks of its poorest and weakest.

The pictures and reports that I have seen on TV from the relative comfort of my room look worse than scenes out of Africa during a famine or scenes of desperate Haiti when the US has backed another coup.

[jus_the_facts]

2. .

No mercy for what we are doing
No thought to even what we have done
We don’t need to feel the sorrow
No remorse for the helpless one

[koopie57]

5. the only white faces I see

are those holding the guns.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JuniperLea]

23. WRONG!

It would mean that 2/3 of the sufferers would be black. Check out a newscast and do the math. I guess you can't see the black helpers... they must all look the same to you.

[alittlelark]

24. You scare me.

[LostinVA]

15. Wrong. There are many whites in the Dome and the Convention Center

Most very poor people, nursing home patients, tourists. Most are black, but not all. Not all whites are racists... I'll say most aren't really racist. I see alto of people in NO helping one another regardless of color. Their courage and integrity in the midst of madness make my heart break.

Any guns there, whether NG, military, or looters, are pointed at everyone.

[melody]

27. the racial element is in their poverty - it's a secondary factor in this

There is massive poverty among poor white southerners - I know, my father's family escaped east Texas. Most of the white southerners are in the rural areas, waiting for rescue. New Orleans itself is nearly 70% African-American (due to good reasons - the music culture, the tradition of freemen, etc) and thus, most of its evacuees will be African-American people.

What's terrifying is that there are hundreds of other pockets just like the Convention Center/Superdome that AREN'T being covered by the press. We haven't even heard those stories yet.

[koopie57]

31. I'm sorry that my comment caused so much trouble

I simply looked at the picture and it struck me that everyone was black, except those with the guns. But it struck a cord with several of you. I wish I could understand why. I am missing something.

I'm sad race has to be so hard to understand. I think many people are like me. We don't notice if someone is black, white, pink, blue. But I think that we really need to notice it to stay out of trouble. I'm going to try to pay closer attention. Maybe I can learn more. Maybe I need to be more politically correct.

I always think of a book I read called P.S. You're not listening. A student wrote a note and asked, "Can you tell if I'm Black?" or something to the effect.

A poor white person or a poor black person or a poor any person, none seem to matter any more. When my daddy was alive we were one of the more wealthy families in the town I lived in. He died and after all was said and done, we were probably the poorest family in the town. It was so scary. I remember clearly what it felt like. Today me and my husband are able to pay our bills and put money away, but it doesn't matter. It can all be gone in a moment.

Anyway I am sorry for causing anger in anyone. I didn't understand and still don't. Explain to me, I'll listen. I need to know.

[kwyjibo]

3. So frightening.

I can't believe our own citizens are going through this. I don't understand. I'm 500 miles away and I have money, food, water, toilets, computers, art, an ipod, and these people have nothing. they are dying. why can't they be helped? what the fuck is going on??

[rodeodance]

4. 'LET them know I'm a human being,"

[Delphinus]

8. Those are the words that made me start crying

because they've not been treated like human beings since this started. :cry:

[ray of light]

13. The proof is in comparing how they treat victims in Florida

with brother Jebby around.

[LostinVA]

16. Gotta protest that RW Cuban voting base

The hell with the DEmocratic-voting blacks and poor whites.

[Olney Blue]

21. And where was Jeb during all this?

Why didn't he call his brother? Why didn't he say anything? Where was his offer to help?

[Piperay]

26. That just breaks my heart

:cry:

[beetbox]

7. They Killed an Entire City

A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world.

They had about a week to shore up the levees, evacuate the poor, and prepare for disaster management. They knew all the details of the full scope of the disaster, and the official warnings were as bleak as any official warnings can be. They didn't try to do anything. Bush golfed and pretended to play guitar. Since the funding, manpower, and equipment that would normally be used for such purposes was in Iraq, trying to do something constructive would only have embarrassed them, so they just relaxed and let it happen. Needless to say, the next step will be the announcement of billions of dollars of reconstruction contracts for Halliburton and Bechtel, thus proving that Bush really does care. Disaster is another opportunity to make money, while trying to stop disaster is just a drain on public finances.

[valerief]

11. You've hit the nail on the head

What a creepy picture.

[arikara]

22. You haven't heard then...

they already announced yesterday that Haliburton has the contract for storm cleanup. Unca Dick has been a busy busy boy on his vacation.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1747674&mesg_id=1747674

Sickening. Just sickening.

[DoYouEverWonder]

28. This event is really bringing out the best in some people

I can't believe the ugliness that I am seeing coming out of some people. I feel like it the Night of the Living Dead and all the ghouls are starting to show their true selves.

[latebloomer]

29. what a beautiful touching description of NO!

:cry:

[Laughing Mirror]

34. You got it.

How much clearer can it be?

[shockra]

36. Good article.

Notes from Inside New Orleans
By JORDAN FLAHERTY

<snip>

For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible, glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world.

It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state and federal governments that have abdicated their responsibility for the public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not only asks how you are, they wait for an answer.

It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300 murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.

more...

http://www.counterpunch.org/flaherty09032005.html

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. Holy shit!

In the historic — but ravaged — neighborhood of Algiers, Alexandra Boza patrolled the streets on a red Honda scooter, wearing flip-flops and clutching a .38-caliber pistol in her left hand.

Looters had been wandering the area, and her eyes were wide with fear. She stopped near a boarded-up house with graffiti that read: "Looters will be shot. Bush sucks. Where's FEMA!"

"I feel the end has come," Boza said. "The end of the world, the end of decency and integrity. I'm terrified. I really am. I feel like the whole world has gone nuts."

-----SNIP----

[faithnotgreed]

14. thats an agonizing quote from ms boza

and so right on

[Pirate Smile]

25. I want a photo of that. I'd love to see it on every front page in the

country.

[nashville_brook]

17. i feel the same way.

[pat_k]

18. And from the other side of the "tracks"...

Reports from http://polimom.blogspot.com (a blog for residents of affluent Algiers Point):

9/1 @ 7:44 PM -- "So far, the dead are all looters." {looters or just people someone thought were looters?}

9/2 @ 5:59 AM -- "The night was quiet on the point…"

9/2 @ 9:52 AM -- "The looting on AP {Algiers Point} seems to be confined to businesses/commercial building…"

9/2 @ 7:37 PM -- Comment added by Debbie "My husband and a small band of neighbors stayed and have been patrolling Lower Coast on horseback, armed with guns. On Wed, police took them to Breaux Mart and allowed them to take food, water and supplies…."

9/2 @ 9:31 PM -- "…The reality is that the looters on the West Bank are from… well… the West Bank."

9/3 @ 7:56 AM -- "The folks…say that someone was prowling around the block last night. They know because they scattered some aluminum cans about as an alert system…. Whoever it was said, "Don’t Shoot," and took off…"

9/3 @ 12:38 PM – "We can't fire a warning shot - shooting will bring armed residents from all around the area immediately. I feel really sorry for looters who try to come in here."

Nola.com Nola View, Friday, September 02, 2005, "Trapped in Algiers" 4:47 PM by "…Looters walk his neighborhood everynight with flashlights looking for unoccupied homes"

Were those "looters with flashlights" actually vigilante "patrols"? What about the person that was "prowling around the block last night"?

The silence on the criminal behavior of vigilantes needs to be broken!

Are vigilante murders going to be investigated? What do public officials have to say on the subject?

We’ve heard plenty of tough talk about using lethal force to stop looting. What about efforts (lethal or not) to stop vigilantism?


Here's what I sent to CNN on the subject: Rampant rumors and paranoid vigilantes

[Laughing Mirror]

35. Quite illuminating from over there

" . . . gated community between Thayer and Atlantic near Pelican (Riverside?) will be host to operations for the FBI and the military."

The New Orleans protected Green Zone?

[Endangered Specie]

19. Let this be a reminder when someone asks

how much progress we really have made in this country.

[Robeson]

20. Exactly my thoughts.

[yodermon]

30. *Still* no leadership.

After National Guard troops arrived at the convention center, most milled around aimlessly. Some unloaded supply trucks. Others napped on Humvees. Many stood guard, holding back seething, shouting masses of refugees.

"I don't why I'm here. I'm just following orders," said one soldier who wouldn't give his name. "My orders are to stand right here."

[MadeinOhio]

32. Racist sons of bitches indeed!!!!!

There's no wonder why they paint "Bush Sucks" on the walls, they knew what to expect and how bad this would be. Damned racists. :mad: :mad: :mad: