[Shotimes] OT: Katrina Part-3

[Kevin & Cheryl Airth]

 No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact,
some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for
example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had
drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an execrable piece
from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the
chaos on American "individualism." But the truth is precisely the opposite:
the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of
individualism.

      What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of
the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is
behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the
responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a
disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the
difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the
government hasn't taken care of them. And they don't use the chaos of a
disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.

      But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about
saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own
anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or
how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things
before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen
wealth is a way of life for them.

      People living in piles of their own trash, while petulantly
complaining that other people aren't doing enough to take care of them and
then shooting at those who come to rescue them-this is not just a
description of the chaos at the Superdome. It is a perfect summary of the
40-year history of the welfare state and its public housing projects.

      The welfare state-and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains
and encourages-is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness
that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is
reporting.

      Source: TIA Daily -- September 2, 2005

      [This article is available for reprinting free of charge. For the
permission to reprint, write to editor@TIADaily.com. Click here for a
shorter version of this article.]

      Additional comments on Katrina by Robert Tracinski in TIA Daily:

      The An Individualist Plan for Rebuilding

      The Hurricane of Anti-Americanism: The Blame Game's Real Target

      The Real "Two Americas"

      Lord of the Barflies

      More samples from TIA Daily