and a dark magic indeed
Still battling the shadows of the Liberal in your head, aren't you?
Despite your attempt to evade responsibility with a lame countersalvo:
If you discuss personal responsibility you are a racist brownshirt!
...the question of the economic status of the people left behind in New Orleans is certainly germane to the issue. There have been reports that most of those people were stuck because they had no transportation. An assertion backed up by Census figures revealing that 27.3% of NO households did not have access to an automobile. "Let them walk!" you say. Yes, right, and how far would that be? Carrying how much of their worldly goods? But I digress...
You bring up the standard RightWing blame-the-victim rap when you mentioned dependency. And in this case we're talking welfare dependency, because the demographics of the city make it very clear that that is exactly what we're talking about.
We've all seen the people being interviewed, noticed the preponderance of black faces (another impression backed up by demographics), but more important, we've heard many of them use the language of welfare dependency. They're adrift and bewildered that their government isn't taking care of them.
We're on the same page so far, aren't we?
Where we differ a bit is your recitation of the standard Rightist spiel that they choose to be poor, and thus deserve whatever happens to them. Yes, of course, it must be a sin to be poor, here in America, the land of abundant investment opportunities (National motto: "Let them eat dividends!"). Especially in New Orleans with its vibrant and diverse economy with so many opportunities for all in the hotel and tourism and food service industries.
But regardless of why they're poor, because in fact that isn't really the issue, here is where we really differ: "Dependency" means that, right or wrong, the government's attempts to help them, with the consent of a majority of the people over a number of decades, has established a bond of responsibility between welfare recipients and the government. Until we can figure out how to end welfare dependency, we have a responsibility that we cannot shirk.
I disagree with you, SDAI-Tech1, that this disaster is a convenient excuse to purge the welfare roles. Those people do not deserve to die wretched deaths for the sin of being poor.