Asian relief effort

[jaxvid]

Maybe it's just me but I do not understand the US sending millions ($350 at last count) to help with the disaster in Asia. Why should the US taxpayer foot this bill? I feel bad for those people and would encourage others to donate to private charities to help. But I do not understand the government rushing in. Bush has just appointed his father and Bill Clinton to oversee the relief effort. Baloney! Why help those people. Many of them are Muslims who hate us. And now we should help?

We need help right here in the US of A. Our deficit is enourmous, which means there is NO spare cash lying around to give to somebody else. And if the US armed forces have all these bulldozers and relief equipment sitting around doing nothing send it to "war-torn" Detroit which could use full time disaster relief, or anyone of another hundred US cities that need to have destroyed buildings taken down so new ones can go up. It just makes me sick that so many people in the US can watch the news and be brain-washed into thinking that it is the duty of the US to help everyone else in the world out!

End of rant.

 

[white lightning]

It's a pride and ego thing.We started off small and then countries like France out bid us.The good ole USA could
not let that happen.We always want to be the best and
help out the most.Except when it comes to helping out
our own country.Then we just ignore it.I believe if the
politicians in Washinton D.C. really wanted to clean up
the ghetto's and stop a good portion of drugs/illegal
aliens,we could.They don't care enough.They would rather
go fight in places like Grenada and the Faulklands.

 

[IceSpeed]

Don't forget Iraq.

 

[JD074]

Maybe it's just me but I do not understand the US sending
millions ($350 at last count) to help with the disaster in Asia.
Why should the US taxpayer foot this bill?

I emphatically agree. People in politics just don't understand
that money has to come from somewhere. Mom is right. It
really doesn't grow on trees.

Whatever the
"good-sounding" purpose of government spending- whether it's
foreign aid, subsidies, or whatever- somebody has to pay for it.

I feel bad for those people and would encourage others to
donate to private charities to help. But I do not understand the
government rushing in.

Right. It's natural to feel sympathy for someone who's
suffering- including non-white people. They're human, after all.
But we can't save everybody. People in other countries have
to take care of themselves. We have to devote our resources
to solving our own problems. As you said, revitalizing the "war
zones" we call American cities would be a huge step. And what
about all the poor rural white people, like in the Appalachias,
that are forgotten about because it's not "trendy" to help them?
Let's give them opportunities to better themselves before we
throw around hundreds of millions of dollars in other countries.
Disasters are terrible, but every day is a disaster for some
people right here in the US.

And as for people donating to private charities, well, that's just
not the government's way of doing things! Letting individuals
have the say in what their money is used for? Heresy! We
must dictate how their money is used! We can't trust in the
goodness of people to help out.

 

[Charlie]

The calculation is the same employed in Kosovo. We're pissing off the Muslims with one-sided support of Israel. By siding with the KLF over Christian Serbs we can balance the scales. By sending rice to Indonesians we can balance the scales. By insisting the EU admit Turkey we can balance the scales. By calling the Chechens 'freedom fighters' we can...

The paradox is by making Islam stronger we ultimately weaken Israel and ourselves. The Front Nationale approach is best. Admiration for the toughness and resolve of the Likudniks. Support for Arab and Muslim self-determination. Before America's recent adventure there the FN sent two humanitarian aid missions to Iraq, one led by Le Pen's wife. Odd stuff for supposedly Arab-hating fascists.

Giveaways of public money point to an eternally weak dollar. But all currencies (save the CHF?) suffer the same fate.

 

[bjan]

Recently in Pittsburgh,many people lost everything due to severe flooding.Very little help was extended to "our own people" No telethons were held,school children did not collect money for these victims.

They were told by the state that they were own their own!Then tragedy strikes South Asia and people are falling all over themselves to help.Our society again responds as "pavlovian Dogs"Because the government dictates that they should!

I wonder if this type of "Altruism" would have been extended if the people were of Irish,German,or Nordic etc.extraction!

 

[Don Wassall]

Excellent points, bjan. Almost all the people affected by the severe hurricane-related flooding in Pittsburgh, and throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and quite a few other states were lower middle class whites. Why? Because the wealthier white neighborhoods were taken care of with proper flood control measures. Working class neighborhoods weren't.

It was the same thing after that horrible nightclub fire in Rhode Island last year that killed 100 people. No telethons, not even by rock groups, minimal media interest, no government help. Those that perished and those that survived were working class people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who did not have health insurance. But people like them have no standing in America today. There is no heartfelt empathy for them even under the most tragic of circumstances.

 

[IceSpeed]

Good point Don, but what you said about The Station fire is not
entirely true. There were several relief funds and many schools
held fairs for the fire victims. A lot of money was raised for
all of the victims of the Station fire in Rhode Island 2 years
ago. I did not know it got national attention.

 

[Don Wassall]

I guess I shouldn't have said no telethons. Maybe no major relief efforts would have been better. But the reality is that these are forgotten people. Here's a link to an excellent article in Rolling Stone (2/10/04) about the aftermath of The Station fire:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/5940025

Here's a short excerpt from the end of this article:

"Last fall, wildfires ravaged Southern California -- a state that Republican strategists are targeting in the 2004 election -- destroying thousands of homes and killing twenty-two people. President Bush rushed to the scene. In December, an earthquake in central California caused $200 million in damage and killed two people. A short while later, at the request of the new governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bush declared the region a federal disaster area, making federal funds available to augment state and local recovery efforts. Much of the money includes grants for buildings -- to repair and rebuild them. A Hell's Angel stabs a fan at a free Rolling Stones concert, at California's Altamont Raceway in 1969, and the culture shakes, and the 1960s end. Fans are trampled and die at concerts by the Who and Pearl Jam, and sweeping evaluations of concert security and crowd control take place. One hundred people die watching a minor rock outfit in a rundown town in a small, poor state, and American politicians and musicians yawn. "This thing," Donovan Williams complains, "is a lot bigger than Altamont."

"Did the fog of war provoke this silence? A cultural bias against metal music? Callow revenge by Bush Republicans? Or had the public, too, moved on? As Rhode Island continued to heal and tried to pay its bills, Foreigner's Lou Gramm and Starship, featuring Mickey Thomas, made plans to play a January benefit concert at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence. In terms of "name" acts, this gig looked to be the biggest Station-fire benefit to date, put on by Providence native Brian McKinnon, a concert promoter who was deeply disappointed that no A-list acts would sign on.

"The concert never happened. McKinnon was forced to call it off a week before show-time, able to sell only fifteen tickets."
_________

Obviously there is white apathy involved, too, but that is epidemic all over America after decades of middle class whites having no leadership.
Edited by: Don Wassall