Stop telling me to donate to Hurricane Katrina Victims
To celebrities, singers, athletes, ex-presidents, billboards, companies, charities, people standing by the entrance to the metro, et al:
STOP TELLING ME TO DONATE TO THE HURRICANE KATRINA RECOVERY EFFORTS!
I am so incredibly sick of hearing people tell me to donate that it's starting to make me physically ill.
I don't even think I can watch football this week, because since the NFL has dubbed it Hurricane Weekend I can't watch 3 minutes of a game without hearing someone tell me that I should give money, more money, to the Red Cross.
I have a tip for you New Orleans residents: the rest of the country is sick of hearing about you. We've already seen the TV images of the destruction of your city, and we've already opened our hearts, our homes, and our wallets. We've also seen the looting, the shooting, the blame game, the political opportunism, the sensationalism, and the idiocy of so many New Orleans residents. The wire photos of people refusing to leave, even though their living rooms are under water. The interviews with the people demanding "when is someone going to come and help me?! Who is going to help me?" (Hint: Call your insurance company. Don't have flood insurance? Tough. You live below sea level, retard.)
We see now that your city has been suffering from financial mismanagement for years, that your city leaders were indicted for misusing federal funding BEFORE the hurricane even happened, that Jefferson County Presdident Aaron Broussard was lying when he made his gripping emotional appeal on Meet the Press, and that people are using their "Relief" debit cards to buy flat screen TV's.
Where are the 10,000 dead bodies that we were told were coming? First hand accounts called N.O. a "war zone," with dead bodies "floating everywhere." Your own mayor came on national television and said that the city needed thousands of body bags. For what? To carry away the cash that was pouring in?
I already donated money to the "effort," as did many Americans. We all did so as it was happening, as it was being sensationalized on television. I, for one, am really starting to regret that I did.
If you give a beggar $20 once, he'll never leave you alone again. Every time he sees you, he'll have his hand out, asking for more.
But least you can get away from a obnoxious and pushy beggar by going into your house. You can go home, turn on the tube, and watch some football.
With this, no one has that luxury.
Posted by jkhat at September 18, 2005 12:06 PM
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Comments
| # September 18th, 2005 12:57 PM Laura |
| I can relate to your feelings on this. But please do keep in mind that what you see on the news is not representative of normal Louisiana residents. The vast majority of us are going about the business of rebuilding, grateful for the help we've received, and doing our best to work through this on our own. It's in the interests of the politicians and MSM to play those games, and they're good at it. The people who are still flooded yet refuse to leave were asshats before the storm and remain asshats today, they're just doing what asshats do everywhere; being useful idiots for the MSM and politicians.
The rest of us are too busy working to participate, and are only vaguely aware of it. My media time is down to about 30 minutes a day of internet since we got back (my husband insists on a day to rest today so we don't get too exhausted to be effective but tomorrow it's back to the grind - and by day of rest I mean we're picking up around our own house slowly with frequent breaks, instead of top speed on someone else's house or business). Most people do not have internet, and only have one local channel to watch as cable TV is gradually being restored. Locals with TV are too busy to watch, and are not aware of what is being said and done in our names. So while I understand your frustration and resentment, and I acknowledge that a large part of the problems we now have were preventable with less corrupt and more efficient local governments (no, I didn't vote for Aaron Broussard, he's a Democrat) you're only hearing from/about a tiny minority of people. We're not all like that. |
| # September 18th, 2005 12:58 PM kris |
| Hear Hear. Americans are uncommonly generous, but after awhile you start to feel like a chump when you're told that you're really a racist that doesn't care about Katrina victims because they're black and you learn that Louisiana's government is even more corrupt than you thought. |
| # September 18th, 2005 7:27 PM BVBigBro |
| Well, I think ther's an awful lot of middle ground between "Go to hell" and "Write me a blank check". |