It's weird how some figures on the right -- Limbaugh, Robertson, Brooks -- have seemed eager to turn this act of God against Haiti into some kind of "See, I told you so"/teachable moment.
It's shades of post-Katrina: instead of, "You only drowned if you deserved it," it's "That building only fell on your head because you didn't fully embrace capitalism."
My prediction is that we'll continue to hear such sanctimonious sermons from The Rich to The Poor whenever a natural disaster strikes a country that is not sufficiently Christian and/or doing its sweaty best to live out the received wisdom of neo-liberal globalist agenda.
By Tom Walsh December 12, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug. 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the gulf coast should have been better prepared.
They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.
General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000 more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to the stricken area for use in relief work.
Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee donations up to $50,000.
The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached.
The U.S. Senate's most adamant naysayers about whether Detroit deserves rescue loans should have thought about that before now. It might have made Thursday's futile wrangling over a compromise to get $14 billion in emergency rescue loans for GM and Chrysler a bit less tortuous.
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for one, might have dialed down his earlier rhetoric.
Vitter said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the rescue because, in his words, it is "ass-backwards" to give money to the distressed companies before Congress sees more detailed survival plans.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., should think about Hurricane Katrina, too. He has threatened a filibuster against the bill, calling it "a bridge loan to nowhere" and stating that Detroit's automakers should undergo a fundamental restructuring before they ask Congress for money.
None of the logical arguments made by, or on behalf of, Detroit's auto industry seem to resonate with certain congressional critics.
Not the fact that GM, Ford and Chrysler have slashed billions of dollars in costs. Not the fact that they have the nation's top-selling pickups and minivans. Not the fact that they have lots of high-mileage vehicles and more on the way. Not the fact an auto company bankruptcy would have a horrible ripple effect, wiping out scores of suppliers and making hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers jobless.
No, to the most adamant auto-rescue opponents in the Senate, Detroit doesn't make cars people want. It's a dinosaur not worth preserving.
Could the opinions of these senators be colored by the fact that the foreign-owned plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen -- which compete with the Detroit Three -- are located in their states?
Nah, let's not even go there.
Let's just say that since logic hasn't worked, we should fall back on a simple moral argument.
If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you quiz him for a while about whether he's drunk or why he never learned to swim better? Or do you throw him a life buoy and ask questions later?
That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.
You have done nothing and failed them, senators.
So now it's up to President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to, hopefully, rush in with emergency aid from the $700-billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.
They could still hold the Detroit Three's feet to the fire afterward, empowering a strong auto czar to bring all stakeholders together to forge business models for these companies that can withstand future shocks.
The following is an e-mail reply to a conservative colleague on Jan. 24. His name, and his friend's whose e-mail he forwarded, have been deleted. -- J
You've got some real "rugged individualists" for friends! You're right, a snowstorm's damage doesn't compare to Katrina: the raw sewage & environmental hazard, complete loss of people's homes and all utilities, loss of police, surrounding communities preventing refugees from entering their towns at gunpoint, etc., etc. It's hard to "work or die," or rather, just die, when you're neck deep in water, and the only place you an your neighbors can seek refuge is your roof.
Also, I imagine it's difficult to loot in 4 feet of snow when the roads are out.
George Bush didn't go to NOLA either. He did a flyover.
Your buddy has an axe to grind, and he picked a bad example to do it with.
"The world does not owe you a living," but your government does have an obligation to come to your aid during emergencies and "acts of God." Otherwise, what the heck is gov't for? Even diehard conservatives say govt's main job is protecting the people. Why have we spent $400 billion halfway around the world in Iraq, if not to protect Americans back home? (And I'm 110% positive your friend support the Iraq war). So, to turn around and say "screw you, you're on your own" to Americans in distress seems mighty hypocritical, or at least illogical.
I would have no problem if FEMA came to Coloradans' aid, if they needed it. And if they really did need help, I'm sure they'd eventually ask for it. And if they asked and didn't get help, I'm sure they'd criticize the gov't, just as NOLA residents did.
Incidentally, Boston (42 N), Detroit (42 N) New York City (40 N) are all at a higher North latitude than Denver (39 N), so I'm not sure what he means about "90% of the world's social problems evaporating" above 48 degrees North Latitude. Well, I do know: he means once you get into the sparsely populated, mostly white U.S. Northwest, you have fewer social problems.
On 1/24/07 (name and e-mail deleted) wrote:
Obviously the damage wrought by Katrina was worse, but still ...
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: (name and e-mail deleted) Date: Jan 23, 2007 7:08 PM Subject: Fw: Weather bulletin: Denver To: Undisclosed-Recipient
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here, in the " Mile-Hi City ", we just recovered from an Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with an historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.
And now we have braced and are involved with #2 in less than 2 weeks!
FYI: George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody - I mean Nobody - demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.
Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."
It does seem that way, at least to me.
I hope this gets passed on.
Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.
