I chose a Van Gogh because he cut off his ear. Surely his hearing wasn't 100% after the incident. He probably thought it would make the little voices go away, but it didn't. The post worked on many levels, conscious and sub-conscious.
Sure, I have used the words "stupid" and "ignorant" in excess of my recommended daily recommended allowance when I made the post, and subsequently on this thread. To help put it in context and define thise stupidity may help.
I had just heard of a woman who was being shot at in one of the Parrishes, while she was rescuing babies from a hospital. She was African American and after two babies were rescued they could rescue no more because of the shooters.
Shooting at a women rescuer carrying babies meets my "stupid" tolerance threshold and the levee burst, issuing forth a torrent of adjectives for extreme ignorance.
She was in tears because they could not rescue more while being shot at. My heart reached out to her. Not because she was black, white, rich or poor - but because here was a woman trying to save babies and was being thwarted by hate.
Poverty is not an excuse for acting like "scum of the earth". These shooters don't even have the excuse of a fanatical religion which spurred their actions. All we can assume is animalistic intelligence, armed with stolen weapons.
How many will die because of stupidity? How many could not be rescued in a timely manner because of same?
Bush is not to blame for the problems going on in Orleans. From all I've seen and heard, the mayor gave an evacuation notice on the radio at 10:19 am, when he should've given it at 7:00 in the morning. As a result, precious reaction time was lost, trapping many and making them unable to leave. The NO mayor and the LA governor seem to have a very poor working relationship.
Maturity comes with perspective. Its impossible not to look at this disaster and see that untold suffering has been brought about by the actions of a few.
When I read posts like I've read here which jump for Bush's jugular, when all this other evidence that points to local ignorance as the root of a majority of the suffering, I see the compounding of this ignorance and how it propagates throughout the world.
I see the same hate evident in Buck's post that the snipers shooting at the rescuers and the babies must have possessed.
the fact of the matter is people are suffering and dying because our fearless leader FUCKED UP AGAIN by failing to plan for the aftermath
Part of Robert's response to Buck's outburst:
There were also clips of Chertoff and the FEMA Director congratulating themselves on what a goddamn fucking great job they're doing...shit, my fingers are cramping up I'm so tense trying to stay calm.
See how the hate spreads? Reinforces itself? It's a carrier wave. Hate has a specific signal payload. Buck channels it into a post, but all who read it pick up the charge. How they react to it will vary. Gary's post about "scumbags" on community was a direct result of Fox's F-off in Farsi line. Posts may be words on a screen but those words form thoughts and emotions when translated by our brains. If one puts hate into a post it doesn't just stay there. It spreads.
That's how mobs are formed, that's how bands of hoodlums egg eachother on to do acts of unspeakable violence.
Believe me, I understand the hostile reaction to my post. It's easy to read what I posted and, when read out of context, appears like someone ranting who hates the poor, blames the poor for their own predicament and somehow must be motivated by latent racism.
Well Bush and Robert aren't black and I think their posts demonstrated stupidity and ignorance. Ignorance is an equal opportunity employer and will recruit any race to spread hatred.
Hatred of Bush, of FEMA, of inhuman "rightwingers" is the order of the day. The democratic mayor and governor, who are largely responsible for the mess Buck & Robert were lamenting, are leftwingers.
I don't hate the poor any more than you do. My banner has been distorted by partisans who read my words with their own hearts filled with hate.
The poor have suffered in New Orleans because of the left - not the right - and because of the reactions, distortions and HATE propagated by the left they will continue to suffer.
On the plus side, this is about as much table tennis as I have played in a long while. It exercises the arms and keeps ones reflexes sharp.
;-)