A One-Two Punch

First, you're going to have to set some time aside.  Serious reading lies ahead.  It's worthwhile reading though, and at the end, you'll want to be printing out much, if not all of what you're about to read.

Anytime that Bill Whittle publishes a new essay is a time to set other less important matters aside, and to give full attention to his thoughts and words.  It matters that you do. 

Mr. Whittle is not alone in his assesment of the aftermath of Katrina.  But he says some things just do damned clearly that the power of his thoughts will change perceptions.  It's not just that he's right in his statements......it's that he's nailed the points with all the power of a sledgehammer driving a thumbtack into soft pulpwood, and doing it accurately with every swing of the doublejack.

That has nothing to do with me being white. If the blacks and Hispanics and Jews and gays that I work with and associate with were there with me, it would have been that much better. That’s because the people I associate with – my Tribe – consists not of blacks and whites and gays and Hispanics and Asians, but of individuals who do not rape, murder, or steal. My Tribe consists of people who know that sometimes bad things happen, and that these are an opportunity to show ourselves what we are made of. My people go into burning buildings. My Tribe consists of organizers and self-starters, proud and self-reliant people who do not need to be told what to do in a crisis. My Tribe is not fearless; they are something better. They are courageous. My Tribe is honorable, and decent, and kind, and inventive. My Tribe knows how to give orders, and how to follow them. My Tribe knows enough about how the world works to figure out ways to boil water, ration food, repair structures, build and maintain makeshift latrines, and care for the wounded and the dead with respect and compassion.

Mr. Whittle is far from alone in his assessment of the debacle in New Orleans and Louisiana. 

From Mr. Robert Tracinski, as found in the Intellectual Activist, September 2nd, 2005.

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.

Mr. Whittle and Mr. Tracinski are both exactly, entirely correct.

Dare you find flaw with their reasonings; for I find none whatsoever.

I know where I am in relation to the herd.  I know of what Tribe I to which I am enjoined. 

Do you?

Comments

[Rivrdog]

Here's a story of a "tribe" that persevered:

http://rivrdog.typepad.com/rivrdog/2005/09/stories_from_ne.html