[Rhodes22-list] Your Tax Dollars At Work

Mon Sep 19 23:25:54 EDT 2005

Herb,

Just want to say what a "breath of fresh air" it is to hear your 
thoughts and experiences. I never thought I'd see the day when the media 
could lead so many people around by the nose, but apparently it is here. 
No one seems to believe it possible that the media could have an agenda 
of it's own.  And, God forbid that anybody be expected to be responsible 
for themselves for a few days.

Thanks for your service, both in N.O. ..... and on this list.

Rik Sandberg
Formerly, 1995 R-22, S/V Country Rhodes

Herb Parsons wrote:

>That's just it Slim, it WAS commonplace. I saw it everywhere. The problem is that it isn't the story that's being told. I went down there fully expecting to be shot at, because that was the story the media was feeding us. I expected to go down there and see absolute chaos, but it wasn't there. Yes, there was frustration with red tape, but there's ALWAYS frustration with red tape. One can sit around and complain about it, or one can work around it, and even sometimes even WITH it.
>
>The Air National Guardsman that was in charge of the unit I worked with was a prime example of that. One time, while we were waiting to be cleared to go back in, he told me that he saw the transport truck bringing in our DUKW as we rand down the highway. He said he told a buddy how he would love to have the use of one of those. Then, lo and behold, the PRIVATE K9 company that I approached happened to be assigned to him. I asked them how we could be used, they asked him, and he jumped at it. He didn't ask permission up higher, he acted. He moved around all of the red tape that we were warned would be in place, and he acted.
>
>And, that is the COMMON story. Not the other way around. Inept officials, folks more worried about their job or their political positions may have made more salacious reading and viewing, but they do NOT represent the majority of what was happening there. The majority of what was happening there was people who cared, making things happen. That's the way it should be.
>
>Herb Parsons
>
>S/V O'Jure
>  1976 O'Day 25
>  Lake Grapevine, N TX
>
>S/V Reve de Papa
>  1971 Coronado 35
>  Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana Coast
>
>  
>
>>>>salm at mn.rr.com 9/19/2005 9:25:41 PM >>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>Herb,
>
>Brad Mercer's story was certainly wonderful enough.  And thank you for
>posting it.  But what the rest of us are disgusted about is that a story
>like that needs to be told at all.  Why is a story that describes human
>compassion, brotherhood, heroics so anecdotal?  It should be commonplace.
>
>Slim
>
>On 9/19/05 8:45 PM, "Herb Parsons" <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Thank you Brad. That was essentially what I was trying to get folks to
>>understand when I posted what Brad Mercer had to say of our trip. I
>>guess some of what I find galling about some of these discussions are
>>when I hear about sitting back in France and seeing the US from the
>>viewpoint of another country. France, let's see, that's the country that
>>lost almost 15 THOUSAND  die in this year's heat wav. and it's not the
>>first time the death toll there was in the thousands from a heat wave.
>>Where's their version of FEMA, where's their action plan, where's the
>>broad scale indictment of them as a country as we are seeing in the US
>>right now?
>>
>>It's especially galling to see folks who are complaining about what the
>>government hasn't done, when  the folks doing the complaining have been
>>sitting on their asses talking about how they'd LIKE to help, and the
>>ones they are complaining to are those that got off said asses and
>>actually did something.
>>
>>There, I feel much better now.
>>
>>Herb Parsons
>>
>>S/V O'Jure
>>1976 O'Day 25
>>Lake Grapevine, N TX
>>
>>S/V Reve de Papa
>>1971 Coronado 35
>>Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana Coast
>>
>>    
>>
>>>>>flybrad at yahoo.com 9/19/2005 7:52:54 PM >>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>Slim,
>>
>>You got this one wrong, quite the contrary, BB got it
>>right.  Here is another perspective.
>>
>>Brad
>>
>>----------------
>>
>>
>>September 16, 2005
>>
>>Space, food, medicine, protection: it's better here in
>>Barbara's hall of plenty
>>Gerard Baker
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>BARBARA BUSH. Don't you just love her? Last week she
>>put her elegant heel right into what her husband used
>>to call deep doo-doo when she told a television
>>interviewer that evacuees from Hurricane Katrina who
>>had been housed in the Houston Astrodome were really
>>very happy with their lot.
>>
>>"What I'm hearing is that many of them want to stay in
>>Texas," the former First Lady said. "The hospitality
>>has been so overwhelming. And so many of the people in
>>the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway,
>>so this is working very well for them."
>>
>>Not since Louis XVI's missus puzzled about the dietary
>>choices of indigent Parisians has there been such an
>>appalling display of aristocratic ignorance. How dare
>>she? How could she? Even the White House winced.
>>
>>But in the disgust that greeted her remarks in
>>Highgate and the Upper West Side no one stopped to
>>consider the possibility that Mrs Bush was, in fact,
>>dead right. 
>>
>>Anyone who has visited the most deprived parts of
>>America's cities, rather than merely empathised with
>>them from afar, would have no difficulty whatsoever
>>with the proposition that the inhabitants would prefer
>>an air-conditioned sports stadium with all the food
>>they can eat, the country's best medical attention and
>>the benign security of National Guard protection to
>>the hunger, sickness and lawlessness in which many of
>>them live. 
>>
>>Large parts of Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago or Los
>>Angeles already look, on their best days, as though
>>they have been hit by natural disasters. I'm not at
>>all surprised to hear that the fortunate who made it
>>to Houston are eager to start new lives there, rather
>>than return to the crime-infested housing projects of
>>New Orleans. 
>>
>>But Mrs Bush touched on a larger truth, almost wholly
>>obscured in the rush to judgment. Most of the
>>attention has focused on how the Government failed in
>>responding to the disaster. I have done it myself.
>>Grand conclusions have been drawn about the (flawed)
>>nature of American society. I've done a bit of that
>>too. But little has been said about what the response
>>of ordinary Americans * not mayors or governors or
>>presidents * tells us about the strengths of that same
>>American society.
>>
>>Another lucky group of New Orleans evacuees has been
>>housed not far from where I live in Washington at the
>>DC Armoury, the local headquarters of the National
>>Guard. This week, along with the truckloads of food,
>>water and clothes, came something that will, in the
>>longer term, be of even greater assistance, a group of
>>eager employers looking for workers.
>>
>>Forty-two local businesses participated in a job fair
>>for the new homeless at the Armoury on Tuesday; more
>>wanted to take part but couldn't because there was
>>limited space. Twenty of the 150 or so evacuees were
>>hired on the spot. An official at the District of
>>Columbia government involved in organising the event
>>said that more were expected to be offered jobs in the
>>next few days. The exercise was such a success that
>>employers are demanding another one. If there's anyone
>>left still to hire it will take place in the next
>>couple of weeks. 
>>
>>The story is being replicated across the country. The
>>victims of Katrina are getting new opportunities. Some
>>of it comes from an immense outpouring of compassion
>>by Americans in the form of hundreds of millions of
>>dollars in charitable contributions and unquantifiable
>>help in housing families and schooling children. Some
>>of it comes from the unsentimental compassion of the
>>free market: the unerring capacity of the capitalist
>>system to match those who have something with those
>>who need it, whether it be labour, capital, goods or
>>services. 
>>
>>Both tell us far more about the way this country
>>works, the strengths of its values and people, than
>>the bureaucratic bungling in Baton Rouge and
>>Washington. 
>>
>>Of course you will almost certainly not have read or
>>seen much about this, especially outside the US. The
>>world has indicted America once again on charges of
>>ineptitude and racism and has moved on to more
>>important matters such as Britney Spears's baby. For a
>>variety of reasons this good news about the response
>>of ordinary Americans is of little interest to the
>>media. First, no self-respecting reporter wants to
>>waste his time with insights into the better angels of
>>human nature. No one ever won a Pulitzer or a Bafta
>>recounting banal tales of man's humanity to man.
>>
>>Secondly, it really doesn't fit too well into the
>>stereotype that entrances most of the world these
>>days. Anything that doesn't show Americans as stupid,
>>selfish, warmongering, religious bigots, half of them
>>living in pampered luxury in garish purpose-built
>>Italianate mansions, the other half downtrodden in the
>>ghetto by Halliburton stock-owning fat-cats, isn't
>>going to make it to the front pages or the Ten O'Clock
>>News. 
>>
>>But the main reason I think these recovery efforts by
>>millions of people attract insufficient attention is
>>that most people have become conditioned to thinking
>>solely in terms of government's responsibility. Of
>>course, the bulk of the recovery effort must be paid
>>from public funds as President Bush announced
>>yesterday but most Europeans and * despite decades of
>>a so-called conservative revolution * a large number
>>of Americans, can't think beyond the government.
>>
>>Something bad happens: it's government's fault for not
>>preventing it. It's government's responsibility for
>>cleaning up the mess. And if the mess gets bigger,
>>that's government's fault too.
>>
>>The irony is that New Orleans is one of those cities
>>where government-dependency had reached such levels
>>that a kind of economic and social anomie had set in.
>>For many of its victims the escape depicted by Barbara
>>Bush is just what they needed.
>>
>>
>>gerard.baker at thetimes.co.uk 
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>--- Slim <salm at mn.rr.com> wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>I thinks Barbara Bush's remark was the biggest
>>>Let-them-eat-cake comment
>>>I've heard for a long time.  But then, let's
>>>consider the source.  All they
>>>did when she was 1st lady was try to keep the
>>>microphones away from her.
>>>Every time she spoke, there was damage control.
>>>
>>>Slim
>>>
>>>On 9/19/05 7:15 PM, "R22RumRunner at aol.com"
>>><R22RumRunner at aol.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Saroj,
>>>>Ah, the old treat em like mushrooms routine. Keep
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>em in the dark and feed  em
>>>      
>>>
>>>>horse manure.
>>>>
>>>>Rummy
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>>>>
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>>>      
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>______________________________________________________
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>>
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>>
>
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>