Evacuations For White Americans

I got to say it. I find it very interested how the United States couldn't find the resources or manpower to safely evacuate Americans from Hurricane Katrina - residents living within the continental United States; yet our country can find immediate means to evacuate American citizens in the worn torn Middle East, where Lebanon and Israel are currently at odds. Not only do Americans, most of whom are white, get evacuated safely, but most by plane, or luxurious cruise ships amidst bombings and chaos. Yet, somehow, a natural disaster that was predicted days before it occurred in a mostly poor and black area concentrated area in the United States can not have had the same effect.

Not only that, but the national news media makes pleas for the American Secretary of State, Ms. Rice, to immediately go to the Middle East to help address the war torn countries' concerns and to ensure the safe evacuation and care of American citizens through the Embassies -- another example of American errogance which suggests we, and only we, have the power of bridge divides in other places.

Does anyone remember the national media -- Anderson Cooper perhaps beside -- making pleas for national leaders to rush to the scene in the midst of Katrina?

Oddly Bush is right, as he articulated is his first ever speech to the NAACP - conveniently after he no longer needs conservative votes for re-election - when he said, racism still exists in this country and his party shares much of the blame for its political participation.

Still a Hometown Boy

Ok, I will keep this brief, because most of you aren't from Toledo and likely won't care. However, the current mayor of the city of Toledo, OH, Carty Finkbeiner, (D), a white man who unseated the city's first black mayor, Jack Ford, (D), last November, recently called the Fire Chief, a black man "King Kong" in a staff meeting. The comment leaked to the press, creating a fiasco because of Mr. Carleton Finkbeiner's previous verbal and physical blunders as the mayor from 1993-2001.

Some might know the Trivial Pursuit board game and be aware of the mayor's former comment suggesting deaf people be moved to the airport?

The Fire Chief made a plea that people not make an issue of it, saying he did not think the mayor meant anything of it. He agreed with the mayor's statement to the press that he meant the comment to refer to his strength and stature as a man.

But, to me, this is another example of blacks being complacent about implicit racial behavior of white public officials and choosing to do nothing about it. I wrote a editorial that was printed in The Blade. See the web address:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060604/OPINION03/606040350&SearchID=73251045005445

You will also notice a woman's letter on the same page whose opinions are contrary to mine on this issue, and in my opinion, her examples are irrelevant. Also, most noticeably is the Mayor's own response -- a great political answer that does not acknowledge fault for the comment.

What do you think?