Hurricane Katrina/Rita

There has been a huge public debate about the initial lack of response to Hurricane Katrina. Many public figures state that racism was at the heart of this appalling lack of readiness. I disagree. This is pure Zonked Zone boolsheet.

The lack of response was primarily caused by an inept Governor-Kathleen Blanco, and that idiotic mayor of New Orleans-neither one of them fit for their respective posts. Gov. Blanco, in the initial hours, refused to mobilize her own National Guard. The Mayor refused the use of buses, that could have transported many many people, left without private transportation, out of the city.

If any prejudice was involved, it was against the impoverished of that region. A prejudice shared across our entire nation. For we are an unkind nation, with deeply ingrained attitudes towards the poorest of the poor. Before anyone cries foul, and points to the enormous outpouring of support across the entire continent-we do help-when it's politically correct to do so. When public attention is focused on a particular event.

I'm referring to the day to day prejudice the poor encounter, from simply being looked through, to inequities in our judicial system. We are an affluent society-a society that cares more for externals than inner values. If a person lives in the right area, wears the "right" clothes or shoes, and possesses enough of the "right" things, anyone outside this comfort zone is an outsider.

The poverty in New Orleans is deep and pervasive, going back generations. The racism is bred in the bone, as is the attitude of oh well. I submit that very few in that stinking cesspit gave a tinkers damn whether any of the indigent or elderly made it out. Think about it-did you ONCE see that sham of a mayor plead for those people trapped up on that bridge for days? No, it was Shepherd Smith of Fox News, who stood up there pleading for help, bearing witness to the continued indifference to the suffering going on there.

Contrast the lack of response, to the able, considered compassionate handling of the same situation in Baton Rouge, Gulfport and Biloxi. The people of that region, when all is said and done, need to hold their officials accountable for their sheer ineptitude and gross negligence. And kick that pretty boy toy mayor out on his useless arse.

It will be interesting to see how he reacts if Hurricane Rita causes further damage to his shell of a city. Maybe he won't be so quick to exhort his "folks" to hurry on home now.