George Orwell wrote:
> Just a personal observation...as I observed the news
> coverage of the massive flooding in the Midwest with over
> 100 blocks of the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa under water,
> levees breaking, and the attention now turned downstream
> for when this massive amount of water hits the Mississippi,
> what amazed me is not what we saw, but what we didn't see...
>
> 1. We don't see looting.
You're not trapped there in a giant sweltering toilet bowl littered with
dead animals and toxic flotsam, without clean water, and you don't have
a metropolitan area the size of New Orleans with no way out.
> 3. We don't see people sitting on their rooftops waiting for the
government to come and save them.
That's 'cause you could leave.
> 4. We don't see people waiting on the government to do anything.
The water hasn't receded yet.
> 5. We don't see Hollywood organizing benefits to raise money for people
to rebuild.
I donated a bunch of money to Katrina victims in Mississippi. Sounds
like I'll save my money when the Red Cross and various relief
organizations calls this time. Looks like you have it under control.
> 6. We don't see people blaming President Bush.
True.
> 7. We don't see people ignoring evacuation orders.
Perhaps they learned from the experience of others.
> 8. We don't see people blaming a government conspiracy to blow up the
levees as the reason some have not held.
How'd those levees work out, regardless? We all know about levee
failures now.
> 9. We don't see the US Senators or the Governor of Iowa crying on TV.
Seen any bloated corpses floating down your streets?
> 10. We don't see the Mayors of any of these cities complaining about the
lack of state or federal response.
"Only 28 of the town's 200 residents had federal flood insurance. The
rest trusted the levees would hold. Residents Rick and Gina Gerstel, who
lost everything, say no one from their bank to the municipal or federal
governments ever told them they were at risk and ought to buy flood
insurance.
Some residents told CNN they felt misled about the risks of not having
flood insurance. They said they thought the chances of a catastrophic
flood were miscalculated." CNN today.
> 11. We don't see or hear re****ts of the police going around confiscating
personal firearms so only the criminal will be armed.
Is Blackwater there yet?
> 12. We don't see gangs of people going around and randomly shooting at
the rescue workers.
That was media hype and propaganda. The military agencies who were
re****tedly shot at said it didn't happen.
-c
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