I recently fell in love with Travis McCoy and Bruno Mars' song, "Billionaire", and can often be heard singing or humming it while doing mundane tasks. For the most part, I love the song, I really do. However, there is one lyric that irks me.
"I'd probably visit where Katrina hit/and damn sure do a lot more than FEMA did."
It's amazing how so many people are still so misinformed as to what happened that fateful day on August 29, 2005. The fact of the matter is this: New Orleans is a city run by some of the most corrupt idiot politicians in the U.S.of A.
Ray Nagen was mayor at the time, and though he talked a good game for the media, he did not do his best. The same can be said about Kathleen Blanco, who, truly, was about as useful as tits on a bull. The two of them, as well as the mainstream media, would like you to believe that the "poor, disinfranchised" citizens of New Orleans were absolutely, 100% trapped, with no hope or any way to get out. This is not true.
Louisiana’s disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00, as published on the Drudge Report:
‘The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating’…
This image here shows a vast number of busses that were not utalized to transport citizens out of the city. George W. Bush and FEMA had nothing to do with this. This was a blunder on the then-Mayor and Governer.
And here's the more shocking part! Hold on to your hats, kids, because this is going to make you reconsider your "Aww, poor New Orleans" attitude. FEMA put out TENS of MILLIONS of dollars due to...Fraud. Yes, fraud. Dishonest inhabitants who were milking a disaster for all they could. Did they fix their homes with this money? Some of them did. But I can promise you this: sales for big screen TVs, designer clothes, and new cars shot up like you wouldn't believe. Is this FEMA's fault? Is it their fault that they were trying to help the people of New Orleans through the biggest man-made disaster in this country's history, only to be bombarded by false claims that they didn't have time to properly look over? (And yes, it was man-made. In case you've been living under a rock, it was not the hurricane that did the damage, it was a levee that broke.)
Five years later, there are places in New Orleans and outlining areas that still look like Katrina hit last week. Were FEMA and Bush completely faultless in this? Absolutely not. It was a slap in the face that Bush took his time to react to the devestation. Seeing him playing golf while my family and I were shacked up in a hotel room wondering if we had a home to go back to was infuriating.
Listen, I'm not trying to downplay what happened here. Yes, there were many, many lives lost, there were many, many tragic stories about mothers sacrificing themselves to save their children. There were as many heartwarming stories as there were stories about men raping little girls in the Superdome. There were as many people looting for food and clean water as there were looting for TVs, sneakers, and jewlery. Katrina brought out the best and worst of our community, and most people just want to put a sticker on all of them that says, "Poor victim."
The "poor victims" are still milking it 5 years later. Please remember that next time you hear anything about Katrina.
*~~*T Jay*~~*
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