[Recently by Donald A. Collins: The Immigration Enthusiasts Are Coming! McCain, Kennedy Launch Spring Offensive]
It is very obvious that our Federal Bureaucracy simply doesn't, can't or won't do the job for which it is being handsomely compensated by its taxpaying citizens. It has cloaked itself in such power that it can't be advised even by its voters, since after the last election many observers have reasonably postulated that it now can cleverly fix its electronic ballot boxes. Outsourcing, tax cuts for the rich, the horror of Iraq...
The level of frustration among many average citizens had already reached the boiling point.
Then Katrina hits and not only do we find that there is complete chaos, but we get the usual baloney press conferences denying the truth.
Fortunately many average American citizens have stepped up with offers of help which are indeed heartwarming. Huge sacrifices were made by many just to reach the disaffected along the Gulf Coast, not just in New Orleans, but in unheralded places where the PR for Bush and his henchmen are not visible. Some small towns along that coast are reported completely wiped out. The death toll will not reach the 200,000 sustained by the recent Asian tsunami, but by U.S. standards it will probably be huge.
The hard questions will need answers. One, of course, is why rebuild New Orleans in the same low lying areas? That, of course, would be folly, but I would bet that is what will happen.
Second, that bureaucratic behemoth now called the Homeland Security Department shows the utter nonsense of putting it together in the first place. And then to put an unqualified person in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency...
Third, what will really happen to all those truly hurt by this tragedy? Not the ones with insurance policies and the capacity to rebuild, but those who didn't have anything to begin with and somehow survived the hurricane but are now sitting in holding pens waiting for—what?
Let's get this part really straight, Folks. Katrina disclosed a vast underbelly of poverty, true needs, and the blatant neglect. The arrogant longstanding failure to help these citizens with job training, educational opportunity, and health care, long before this disaster shows just how much our out of touch national government is with its neediest citizens.
In the fact of this fact, how can we continue to allow our elites, the government, business, and their spin doctor apologists to import some 4 million more uneducated, poor people per year into our country, many illegal, and some doubtless terrorists?
The stunning inequity of what these elites are allowing must at last hit home to even those who don't read the news or follow public issues.
Those TV pictures and the commentaries of all the networks have put the matter square in the faces of these elected officials. This time they know voters will overcome all the chicanery the voting machines may offer. There could well be, at the midterm election, a tidal wave of anger from us little people who see now more than ever what the elites are doing to steal our freedoms, our property and our children.
Spending billions on a war in Iraq which can no longer be justified, while our country is being invaded by illegal immigrants, our infrastructure is falling apart, and our young people are dying for a phony cause seemed impossible before 9/11. But that's where we are now.
And now that the banking lobby has put personal bankruptcy into a dangerous cul de sac from which a poor person with bad luck like Katrina can't escape, we really have pushed a large segment of the population into a mutinous posture.
Keep going and we will have such a breakdown where the rich will claim legal authority to oppress the poor and the country will go into chaos.
As Texas Guinan used to say in her famous 1920's nightclub (and speakeasy), "Hello, Suckers! Come and leave your wallet on the bar." This Administration is the Texas Guinan of today!
Katrina has exposed the vast underbelly of poverty while our leaders still close a blind eye to the importing of millions of slaves–mostly illegally—because our leaders are bought and paid for by businesses that want cheap labor that can then turn around and offer these illegals bank accounts, housing mortgages, and all the public services that we taxpayers pay for!!!
If we can't fix the out of control immigration situation now, it may never get fixed.
We will be a billion people by mid century and a second-class country like India, which by then will be passing us as an economic power.
Your call, Folks, to be winners or Suckers!
Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
