Our soft underbelly has finally been exposed for the whole world to see

[SoCalDem]

There are millions of poor people in most of our inner cities just like the people in NOLA. They are "under control" most of the time because they are either scrambling to make a living or are "pacified" by the meagre assistance they get.

All it takes is a stressor event to light the fuse.

It's the price we pay for neglecting the poorest of the poor. In normal times they are benignly ignored and they mostly just get on with their lives, but now that the whole world is truly watching, they can all see how our poor are treated.

they are offered shelter that turns into "corraling" and when that corral fails, they are loaded like cattle and shipped off to a different corral.

Their middle class counterparts are staying at motels and with family, but how long will they be able to do that? Soon, they may be reduced to begging for scraps as well.

How sad that we have refugees, dirty, hungry, hurt, homeless...wandering the streets , wading through sewage..begging for help, food, water..

Today a little girl stood in water crying and begging a roving news crew for help. They stopped, filmed her, and ...drove on..

Our "image" is further tainted.

[The Magistrate]

1. Well Said, Ma'am!

[Stephanie]

2. I don't think this would happen in my state

I really don't.

[SoCalDem]

5. It really all depends on how many poor you have, where they are housed

and how generous your state is.

[glarius]

19. I'm thinking about what you said about the film crew leaving the little

girl standing there after filming her....If that's true, it's horrible! Why couldn't they pick her up and take her somewhere for help?

[SoCalDem]

20. That was my question too..

She and her grandfather/dad just asked for a push (their car) to a higher spot up the road..he looked totally shellshocked..She looked destroyed

[bobbieinok]

43. hasn't this often occured? news people take pictures and move on

or take pictures of suffering when maybe they're the only help available????????

[Speck Tater]

36. I didn't think this would happen in my country.

I really didn't.

[karlrschneider]

39. I do not think it would, either!

...

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

46. it won't. if your state is Switzerland.

[Cleita]

3. You are absolutely right.

When this is over, we have to restart the War on Poverty program that has fallen by the wayside in the past decades.

[madeline_con]

4. Most of the world has all this and more.

The difference is, the "average" citizens turn away and let them starve. They see no problem with their attitude about the "untouchables".

[SoCalDem]

9. Some in the US see no problem with that attitude

and they are the ones running things

[madeline_con]

22. True dat, dog...

No doubt.

[VolcanoJen]

6. I thought I'd cry sooner. The little girl and the film crew...

... finally did it for me.

I kept screaming, "Turn around and get her! What are you thinking??!!"

Thoughtful, wrenching post, SoCal.

[faithnotgreed]

17. i have not heard of this before

is there any information about this despicable news crew

was it local and on what news channel did you see this

thanks for any information
its so stunning and i had not heard about this yet

[SoCalDem]

21. CNN showed it.. I guess it was their crew.. I'll try and capture

it next time it's shown.

[faithnotgreed]

24. thank you - i at least hope it was shown by cnn to be

the despicable act that it was
and i hope people got to see very clearly who it was

this is like every "outlandish" disaster movie combined into one

[SoCalDem]

25. It was shown without comment from filmer or host

they just ran it, and moved to the next piece of tape

[madeline_con]

23. Maybe they turned around after the camera was turned of?

I'm hoping here...

[Erika]

7. I've never agreed more with a post.

Our mercenary and selfish side has been put out there for the world to see. We live in a corrupt capitalism society where the individual has lost worth.

I also saw the little girl crying for help.

[SoCalDem]

12. Our "generosity" will never be seen in the same way

and we can no longer claim to be a compassionate nation.Our dirty laundry is waving proudly

[JaneGat]

8. I saw that little girl.

None of this has been easy, but it was demoralizing to witness that.

[ugarte]

10. Two Americas

Moynihan said it 40 years ago and it's still true.

[MnFats]

11. Gee, maybe if they shipped enough heroin to NOLA...

the populace would be easier to control.

(sarcasm)
But I wouldn't put anything past Bush. And since our wars have unleashed huge production of opium poppies heroin is bound to be cheap.

[Drum]

13. So true...homeland security indeed!

How's that poll question: "do you feel the war in Iraq has made you feel safer?" is gonna measure, not to mention how this is gonna look "deterring" to anyone up to serious intentional stuff?

[Khaotic]

14. The white middle class in the streets will be the breaking point

I think that will do it.

Families with combined incomes that exceeded $100,000 a year ... now jobless and homeless.

Their homes gone, their Hummers gone, but their bills will find them.

Their insurance companies will, however, disappear.

Many will roam the streets until ...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. Tonight Brain Williams had a colleague on from New Orleans

a fellow newscaster..I can't recall her name, but she gave a very poignant description of the poverty level in New Orleans and how a large part of the population lives in poverty, has no way out and really how disappointed and surprised she was that it was taking so long to get to them. It was probably the best commentary I had heard yet by any "newsie."

[MercutioATC]

16. Where are they SUPOSED to put all of these people?

Find a shelter for 30,000+ people and get back to me.

They're not TRYING to provide residences, just a roof and toilets and a place to distribute food and medical care.

A stadium works just fine.

[titoresque]

27. huh?

are you there? We're not talkig about a crowd of happy people watching a game.....these are mentally ill, drug addicts (jonesing drug addicts) sick, crippled, devasted......and they're packed like sardines! Please explain..."a stadium works just fine"

[MercutioATC]

29. As a temporary shelter, it's the best that can be done for that number

of people. You have alternatives?

[titoresque]

32. sorry no, I have no

alternatives.....I think if I were the Prez, with the resources he has at his command; yes I think I might be able to rattle off a few more options. But you said "a stadium works just fine" Im just saying,...it doesnt seem to be working just fine under these circumstances.

[MercutioATC]

34. You're right, I misspoke.

"Fine" really wasn't an appropriate word. I just haven't seen any workable alternatives yet.

[applegrove]

18. America is close to Mexico & Russia on the "distribution of wealth"

scale. That is wrong.

[wli]

28. Worse than both.

The US' Gini coefficient was worse than Turkmenistan's in 2000 and worse than Cote d'Ivoire's in 2004.

[applegrove]

35. Worse? I cannot remember the original stat. Or which one it was.

[wli]

38. Here's the Gini coefficient URL

Here is the list of countries by income equality.

A higher Gini coefficient means worse income inequality.

[donheld]

26. Their God has also seen

Our leaders insist this is a "christian nation." Now the whole world sees how a "Christian nation" treats its people.

[cire4]

30. The world has known about our soft underbelly for a long time

The only people that are still blind to it and surprised by it are Americans themselves.

[SoCalDem]

31. But until the Iraq fiasco, the tsunami , and now this, we could at least

pretend to be benevolent..The ineptness of our leaders is so "out there" now..it's dangerous.

[cire4]

33. CCTV has just reported that China has evacuated 280,000

people ahead of a deadly typhoon that is supposed to strike a Chinese coastal city tommorrow.

If true, it would prove that a one-party Communist state can do a better job at protecting its citizens from natural disasters than the * misAdministration.

[earth mom]

37. Well said-Nominated! eom

[Swamp Rat]

40. .

:cry:

[mom cat]

41. Some of the media have been heroic. Others have been despicable.

[expatriate]

42. I have lived in poverty in the USA

in New Orleans, and in other places. As the poster, ugarte, said, there are indeed "two Americas".

When you're poor, most people think it's through your own fault. You're "lazy". If you only make minimum wage, that's supposed to "encourage" you to "pull up your bootstraps" and "improve your lot". Of course, no-one can tell you how, particularly when you're spending your entire waking hours working two jobs, but then, they don't want to spend any time messing with the likes of you anyway, because your poverty is just a judgement on you for your laziness and sloth.

I've known poor people who worked so hard - so hard. They had jobs almost round the clock, and barely survived. I've heard so many terrible things said about the residents of the housing projects in New Orleans, but many of them are working people. They have the jobs for minimum wage or less, waiting tables, shucking oysters for those oyster bars in the Quarter. And yet, if you're poor in America, you are so often treated as a pariah - because of course, in the "greatest nation on earth" if you're poor, you just must not be trying hard enough, right?

How tragic when people become so emotionally divorced from their fellow men that they can treat other people as refuse. Or just film a crying child for the viewing pleasure of the reality TV watchers and leave her standing in the floodwaters, crying.

If you're poor, you know all about that attitude. You see people recoil, you hear the remarks, you get subjected to the diatribes about how you're an "underachiever" and just don't try hard enough. And should you have a child who requires medical care or other services - well, then you get to go through a whole new crucible of being treated like something less than worthy.

Now I live in another country. And yes, other places in the world have seen the USA's nasty underside for a long time. People often ask, when they realize that I'm from America, how it is that in the greatest nation on earth, people live under overpasses in cardboard boxes. The country I live in has its warts too, yes, plenty - there is nowhere on earth that doesn't - but that really finishes people, when they've heard through the media, TV shows, movies, celebrity worship, that America is this golden medina of brotherhood and plenty. Where people have no health care because they have no insurance. Where people who work hard cannot have decent housing and must live in dangerous public housing projects, like the Iberville and Bienville and Desire projects in New Orleans. Where the literacy level and general education level seems to fall lower with each school generation.

And now they see how the federal government of America does not help people who are drowning and dying of exposure on overpasses.

[SoCalDem]

45. Exactly.. It's ONE thing to cut corners on aid to poor prople

BUT it's quite another to literally leave people to DIE...because they were too poor to afford a car that didn't break down...or too poor to evacuate earlier and stay in a motel.. I get the feeling that lots of these people died because this hurricane came at the end of the month , when they were broke..Had the hurricane happened on the 4th or 5th of the month, these poor might have had the money to get out.. Timing may have killed them

[SoCalDem]

47. Cutting back on food stamps is one thing, but letting people

die in a major metro area of the richest country is pathetic

[dave123williams]

44. It's grist for the mill...

[SoCalDem]

48. I wonder if the stopped showing that little girl

I saw it several times yesterday, and then never again.. they still keep showing the other clips.. I wonder if they were bombarded with complaints and pulled it:shrug: