RE: How Blacks interpret Katrina debacle

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

 

I worked, very, very, very hard to get Bush out of office. I lived for a

year with action built from the thought that I didn't want to wake up the

day after Election Day and say I hadn't done enough.

 

One of my campaign friends (also white) lost her life after the election.

Immune system and hospital system not up to the infection she got. I want

to show you pictures of people who worked their tails off to get Bush out

office, in memory of Leah, aged 25.

 

http://drivingvotes.org/leah/

 

We went into rural white communities in West Virgina, went to urban Black

communities in Pennsylvania, we went to York with Spanish speakers, and we

even stopped at doors of Republicans to try to persuade them not to

re-elect Bush. None of this was comfortable work, but we did it anyway. We

organized volunteers (and we were volunteers, too) all over the country.

We worked with bus companies, we signed people up, we got frustrated when

volunteers don't show, we were thrilled when our ranks overflowed...

Honestly, I know why Leah died, another friend of mine who worked at this

intensity got so sick after the election, she THOUGHT she was going to

die, also of infection, but survived that.

 

When the Driving Votes caravan got to Florida, instead of registering

voters, they took up with hurricane relief...they did what needed to be

done.

 

http://drivingvotes.org/leah/pics3.shtml

 

 

Bush is a terrible, awful president, but shared skin color, or not, I'm

not in the same camp.

 

I wasn't on that particular caravan to Florida, come to think of it, I,

was also doing this work midst a state of flood emergency, as documented

in a light-hearted song here:

 

http://drivingvotes.org/blogs/margie/

 

 

I put up websites like 50BushFlipFlops.com, before the election. Put up

registration-deadlines.com. After the election, I put up

www.ElectileDysfuntion.org. I rose to the occasion for leadership, worked

every day, grew an organization, drove hundreds of miles every weekend

into swing states (even though I hate driving), and then took off two

weeks from work before the election, and after the election tried mightily

to get word out about the Conyers hearing that never saw the light of day

except on Amy Goodman... (all the video from that hearing, some of it

shocking, is on my ElectileDysfunction.org site.

 

This election was won because of racism, along with a number of other

factors: Indeed, in Ohio, they put 7 times as many voting machines PER

REGISTERED VOTER in the middle-income white communities as low-income

black ones in Ohio. The Bush people cheated all over the place, ripping up

Democratic registrations, etc.

 

 

I oppose this, as do all caring people, regardless of skin color. (I can't

tell you how many people I've written to since the election, to ask them

to look at that congressional testimony. )

 

There are people of all shades and all economic backgrounds working to

help, as much as humanly possible.

 

Yours in shared struggle,

 

Margie

 

 

 

 

--

Marjorie Roswell

3443 Guilford Terrace

Baltimore, MD 21218

mroswell

410-467-3727

RawFoodWiki.org

50BushFlipFlops.org

ElectileDysfunction.com

BaltimoreVillage.org

RawBaltimore.org (check it out!)

[Guest guest]

Hello, Althea,

 

Thank you so much for your courageous personal expose of your experience in

America as an overt minority citizen. While this list is clearly intended to

discuss aspects of raw food, I deeply appreciate that many of us feel

introspective and mutually trusting enough to discuss peripheral topics of

culture, politics & religion that may be very controversial and sensitive. I

honestly wish I could disagree with anything you said, but I also know both from

firsthand experience what prejudice feels like, and from reading various books

about & observing George W. Bush's statements & actions during the past 5 years,

to know the depth of bigotry surrounding us in this nation. One would be

hard-pressed to argue in any intellectually honest way that this nation was not

founded upon bigotry, genocide, patriarchy, misothery (hatred of nature) and

slavery. The latter has never been limited to human beings, but has always (at

least since humans began " domesticating " nonhumans thousands of years ago) been

perpetrated against nonhuman animals since they can't protest in any way that

humans would ever naturally understand. Two excellent books that profoundly

delve into this subject are Jim Mason's " An Unnatural Order " and Marjorie

Spiegel's " The Dreaded Comparison. " As a Jew, I was often subjected to a

multitude of anti-Semitic epithets and harassment throughout my school years,

from elementary school through my freshman college year at UConn in Storrs,

Connecticut. Unlike you, I had no physical features or wardrobe that would

distinguish me as a Jew, but since 2nd grade, my classmates knew I was Jewish. I

was not a very street-smart adolescent, so I readily disclosed virtually

anything personal details they might ask me, starting with my religion. I

remember for example in high school a few incidents when boys would throw

pennies at me as I stood in front of my locker between classes, then laugh

hysterically at me when I bent down to pick them up. Of course none of them were

ever caught by teachers harassing me like this, but I just put up with it since

I was never the confrontational type. When I attended UConn in 1990-1991 for 2

semesters, I vividly recall 2 of my next-door dormmates repeatedly leaving

sinister messages on my answering machine, alternately claiming to be either

Hitler or Satan himself. They also did other anti-Semitic things to me late at

night while my roommate was away, who himself seemed to have anti-Semitic

elements.

 

This connects to George W. Bush mainly because his family has a long history of

anti-Semitism and racism underlying their politics and culture. It's no

coincidence that Kennebunkport, Maine, home of the Bush family estate, is widely

known for its anti-Semitic culture. Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush and

great-grandfather George Herbert Walker (Prescott's dad-in-law) directly

financed Hitler's war effort during World War II by diverting funds from their

Union Banking Corporation in direct violation of the Trading with the Enemy Act

signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The UBC was subsequently penalized after a

detailed investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission and UBC was

disbanded, though the Bush family fortune remained intact. It's also no

coincidence that while Texas Governor when asked by a reporter what he would

tell Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (later assassinated) when he'd meet

with him, George W. Bush replied, only half-jokingly, " You're goin' to Hell if

you don't accept Jesus as your Savior. " Bush further inflamed Texan Jews when he

signed into law a " Jesus Day " when public schools statewide were encouraged to

honor Jesus in ceremonies with their students, regardless of the students'

religious affiliations.

 

Suffice to say, bigotry is alive and well in America under George W. Bush, as

long as he continues to illegally occupy the White House, circumventing every

law passed by Congress & embodied in the U.S. Constitution that he can get away

with.

 

I don't seek to turn off anyone on this list, regardless of philosophy or

political adorations. Let the blunt truth be told, and let the chips fall where

they may, even if we have to wait for Mother Nature to have Her way. My raw

vegan potluck 1 week from today will not involve any political controversy, for

those who might speculate, unless some wish to discuss these matters there. I

simply look forward to having a laid-back rockin' party with lots of amazingly

delicious raw vegan dishes to whet our appetites while we dance to any music

your hearts desire, or just sit around & chat as you wish.

 

Namaste,

David

 

consciousculture wrote:

 

>Nancy:

>

>I'm glad you commented about how people of different ethnic groups have

>perceived this disaster. Polls have shown that blacks and whites do see it

differently. Speaking for myself, I was profoundly depressed and horrified

during that first week after Katrina hit. As I and many blacks saw it, once

again, our people were left high and dry. I knew that could have easily been me

and my family.

 

<snip>

 

>Althea Hughes Wills

> " The Psychic Housewife " http://www.altheahugheswills.com/

>and

>join my ! group to receive once-a-month angel messages:

>MochaAngels-

 

--

" Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the

president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he

himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he

efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact

extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the

country. "

--Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, 1908

 

 

 

________________

Switch to Netscape Internet Service.

As low as $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register

 

Netscape. Just the Net You Need.

 

New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet Explorer

Search from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups.

Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp

[Guest guest]

This is coming from a white American. I have kept quiet but thought I would speak. I have had my eyes opened up over the last year as far as to what is going on in our country. I went to a lecture on wildlife conservation in Africa. They spoke a lot on how there is the equivalent of a tsunami there every month due to the deaths from starvation and "wars." I was amazed and astonished to find out how if our country put just a little money into Africa building roads/transportation and an education system, that the economy could easily be built up and poverty could be greatly eliminated. The wildlife would be a great source of economic wealth too via tourism!! However, we spend practically nothing on it.

 

I still didn't see it 100% but after Katrina, I was really sad and upset over our lack of priority over helping these victims. I am very much against prejudists of all sorts. No, I am not black, but I do have many friends that are, including a black-African step mother and certainly don't think any different of them because of their race. I judge a person from within, period. I just hope one day others will be enlightened to realize that we are all basically the same inside regardless of race, religion, beliefs, abilities, economic status or lifestyle. I don't mean to intrude, but I thought I would validate and let others know that other non-black Americans don't think much differently.

 

Peace!

Claudine

[Guest guest]

Welcome!! We are all more alike than different......... ;-)

[Guest guest]

thanks Claudine