American middle and high school students everywhere should be required to watch video tape of the poor people stranded by Hurricane Katrina. Teachers should point out that many U.S. citizens without the financial means to get out of New Orleans wound up floating face down in the water or, at the very least, were subject to gross indignities and suffering of all kinds.
The teachers should then tell the students that the local, state and federal government bureaucracies failed to protect those poor people, even though everybody knew the storm was coming days in advance. The lesson should then segue into how the most powerful nation in the world was powerless to stop 9/11, and scores of other natural and man made disasters throughout our history.

After presenting those undeniable facts, the teachers should then present two questions to the students: Do you want to be poor? And do you believe the U.S. government can protect you if you are poor?

For far too long, charlatan ideologues and dishonest politicians have sold the concept that government can and will make your life better. Well, if a cot in the Astrodome is the standard, maybe the promises are true. But if you expect the government to provide you comfort and protect you... P.T. Barnum had your number when he said "there's a sucker born every minute."

The affluent of New Orleans had options. Most of them got out ahead of the storm simply by turning their ignition key. But a professor friend of mine stayed. However, when things got rough and the levees breached, he was able to drive right out of town in his SUV.

But if you couldn't afford a vehicle, you might have wound up in the Superdome where there were few supplies and little security. With 20 thousand folks in the building, bathrooms quickly broke down, and so did civility. I covered the story almost non-stop for days. I didn't see one affluent person in the Superdome. Not one.

The Bible says "the poor, they will always be with us." But it doesn't have to be that way here in America. Here we have compulsory, free public schools, scholarships and aid galore for higher education. We also have affirmative action, job training, GED opportunities, military training, and options all over the place.

It is no accident that millions of poor people from all over the world sneak into America because they can make money here if they work hard. There are opportunities for people who can't even speak English.

Yet the racial hustlers and far-left demagogues continue to sell victimization to Americans living in the poor precincts. The poverty pimps can't blame the establishment fast enough for ghettos and deprivation and even hurricanes. But you rarely hear the words 'personal responsibility' when it comes to attacking the poverty problem.

Here's the end zone on this: the government can force your parents to send you to school but can't force you to learn. If you do not educate yourself or develop a marketable skill, the chances are you will be poor and powerless. If you react to that situation by committing crimes or becoming addicted, you will sink further into the swamp of hopelessness and your life will be largely meaningless.

Let the kids see the poor in New Orleans and the suffering they endured. Then prod the children to connect the dots and wise up. Educate yourself, work hard, and be honest. Then when disaster occurs you will have a fighting chance to beat it.

If you don't do those things, the odds are that you will be desperately standing on a symbolic rooftop someday yourself. And trust me, help will not be quick in coming.

Ever hear the phrase "Life isn't always fair"?  Sometimes, this black and white analogy (work hard...become rich and successful...live well) isn't that cut and dried.  A variety of factors, from family issues to health issues to financial decisions to responsibility issues to just plain luck of the draw can influence this equation more than you give it credit for, and an enlightened society will always some sympathy for these factors (especailly one that has so more millionaires and above than ever before).

My father was unfairly fired from his job when he was almost 60 years old (he was scapegoated for a labor dispute), and given his field of work, was not able to find work in his field again due to this (and his age), in spite of repeated attempts.  He had worked hard all of his life, been sole breadwinner, and raised six children.  The adjustments we had to make over the remaining years of my childhood were difficult at times, and I saw enough to have sympathy for people who struggle, and to know that many of them aren't just "lazy".

As such, I have never felt that it is so easy to just categorize this issue as "You either work hard and get ahead, or you are lazy", and I find that one aspect of many conservatives' outlook that bothers me more than most is that so often this position is the catch all for their life outlook.  It isn't that simple, but there is no way you can tell someone who takes that point and slowly develops a chip on their shoulder for those who are less able than they that it isn't.  Survival of the fittest becomes such a point of pride that it suffocates compassion.

There are always people at the bottom of the barrel - people whose intellectual, social and emotional capacity are well below average.  So, those people reading your post are likely above average, so you're already preaching to the choir.  

So the question is: what is our collective responsibility to the chronically stupid?  They exist because they exist.  It's just the way distribution curves work.  

I don't personally have an answer to this question - I see places like India where it's sink or swim for everyone and it creates entrepreneural spirit and strengthens family ties. I also wonder how the bottom 20% can make it through times like this in NO without help.

by paying your nanny and housekeeper $100K per year and you tip 50% everytime you go out to eat. Secondly, next time give O'Reilly credit when you rip off his myopic rants.

"Maybe a Martin Luther will rise up out of this mess and start to make societal changes so that this can happen? Who knows."

While your thoughts are well meaning, don't forget what happened to the last one.

he knew we would have responded to it like he responds to something from Michael Moore.  And here I went and shared something personal about myself to counter something by that loudmouth?

Shame on you, BK.  After you invalidate messengers of the left...

I love how BOR says at the end "This is the lesson of Katrina" (i.e., don't depend on the government).  In other words, don't work to make society better, every man for himself and survival of the fittest.  Nice to know we've come so far.

And people call ME cynical...

... how manipulated all the "impartial moderates" really are.  I don't believe you agreed so much to actually put O'Reilly's words into your muth.  

For many of the conservative guys here, I've determined that you could trace what they write back to some paid conservative mouth.  Some of it is word for word, even in the same use of cliches.  It's not that they expropriate the ideas, it's how little they think on them after they adopt them that bothers me.

Well, Bill(kile), you are being manipulated by the propaganda machine covering up for the worst president ever.  

What you've argued here is a classic case.  Gut government for years, populate it with politicians and appointees who swear that it is ineffective but still collect their  paychecks,  put a corrupt, total incompetent at the top, and then when a catastrophe occurs, cite that as proof that government doesn't work.  Is that really your and O'reilly's argument?

You got incensed when I said that Bush is the first Latin American  POTUS.  Now that we have responded to a disaster like a Third World country, do I get points for prophecy too-- and  a non-self fulfilling one?   I think liberal misgivings about the Generalissimo have been borne out, totally.  In everything he and his allies and cronies have done.  

I'll one up you and O'Reilly: we're failing in Iraq, and we still have the highest murder rate of any industrialized country.  I would say this government isn't even living up to the functions conservatives say it should have: law and order, and defense.  I say, why just cut back big government?  What the hell is it doing now?  Let's just dissolve it and live in blissful anarchy.   No government interference anymore.  The poor will  know they have to fight to survive then.  

No, I don't think Kat-astrophe shows government doesnt' work: I think Little Georgie doesn't work. This is what sane people have said all along.  This is not a self-fulfilling prophecy, either.   And, yes, I still think Al Gore and John Kerry would have done a better job.

Race: African Americans have seen the racial angle on this right from the beginning, before so called "racial hustlers" had time to move in.  Now, African and Euro Americans do not even agree on their definition of racism.  If you listen to what is said, the incidents that African Americans bring up as racist are usually different ones than what the majority is willing to deal with.

Charges of racism during Katrina-NOLA are bolstered by stories like sheriff's deputies blocking the bridge leading to Slidell, and shooting over the heads of refugees who tried to escape the drowned city.  Maybe the deputies agreed that they didn't want the poor in Slidell lowering their property values, regardless of ethnicity.  Doubtful, but still, our restive African American population has noted the shocking, total lack of simple charity and compassion-- like sheriff's deputies were dealing with a lower-life forms.

This whole incident has certainly given "racial hustles" a lot of material.  In fact, it has probably created many more "racial hustlers."  Just another enemy of the people to be rounded up as enemy combatants.  

With the hardship I've had in my life, I have often reflected on the fact that if I had an African ethnicity, too, I would either be homeless or dead by now.

Finally, what I would tell my children: get some skills and emigrate.  Get the hell out of the US.  We have put the corrupt, the incompetent, the insane and the liars in power here, and there's no bottom to how far this country can fall until they're out.

I have a post that I'll make soon-- continuing a  conversation from March that I couldn't catch up to.

The topics you bring up are always interesting, but I'll confess that responding to them is difficult and more time consuming than anybody else's.  

I had forgotten that one.  When the last election neared, I mentioned to my family that if shrub was re-upped that I was leaving.  My conservative-leaning other half told me that I'd be on my own out there, as she waved her flag behind me.  I got out my passport as a show of seriousness.  While cleaning my office a couple days ago, I came upon it, expired, and I reminded her of the conversation.  I dropped the ball on that promise to myself, but I may have found a travelling companion.  She's not gone as far as turning liberal, but she is ready to trim the federal bush...

For the record I did'nt reveal the author of that for exactly the reason MSD cited. Sorry to those who would have prefered to shoot the messenger. Maybe next time.

I don't want to ruin my fine reputation here but I'm certain I know far more about both being poor and what it takes to no longer be poor than any of you could imagine. Preconceptions are funny things and some of you should just hold onto them. They make me laugh.

BK

It is NOT his responsibiliity to overpay his Nanny or Housekeeper. It is THEIR responsibility to enhance their skill sets to earn more money.

Pretty simple concept, think about it...

Sorry to say, but although "life isn't always fair". It is not everyone else's responsibility to try to fix it. Society should provide a safety net so no one goes all the way under, but it is up to the individual to get their ass off the dole as soon as possible and get back on their feet. If you can't find work in a field, develop skills in another field.

...or is it Memorex?

Are you channeling that libertarian fellow Robert Tracinski with the TIA Daily he flogs relentlessly?

PS. Out of curiosity I read a few of his offerings and I can't remember the last time i laughed so hard.  This man is on a planet all his own; I pray he stays there.

sounds like you'd like to keep him company.

so much for the No Spin Zone.

Fifty or so reviews does say something, but that's beside the point.  

Oreilly has set up a straw man.  Welfare was never about government improving people's lives: it was about maintenance, about rescue, about keeping people alive.  And since the poor are not known to turn out at the polls in significant numbers, you can't argue that it's all about getting votes.

Take down welfare, and some people will survive or even thrive, but others will die.  Some will survive by making a career in crime.  If it's sink or swim, then by description, some will sink.  

I don't mind if you want to dissolve welfare, but at least consider this.  Public assistance isn't inspiring, but look at some of the stories about poverty before it.  For me, I know seeing it would lower my quality of life-- a lot more than knowing people were on public assistance.    

BTW, we didn't shoot the messanger because of the message.  That particular messenger was to be shot on sight before he arrived.

They just dislike liberalism and liberal personalities much more.  It's not "anybody but Bush," it is really "anything but a liberal!"  Also, they feel the need to protect and support the Presidency-- if they are not too keen on supporting the president.    

That's where the propoganda has worked.  

It does make me cheerful to know you're on the same ship.  Come down and meet me in my cabin-- let's make some waves!