There Is No "Out of Proportion"
I've had it with the right-wing talking points:
"This is not the time for placing blame."
"This is not the time for divisiveness."
I'll tell you what. Here's what time it is. It's time for righteous anger. Yep.
We've been trained by our overseers to believe that getting mad only stands in the way of "progress" or "teamwork". Well, maybe in some cases that's true. When somebody is just flying off the handle, responding in a manner that is all out of proportion, then, yeah, I suppose just getting angry is pretty unhelpful.
But, see, with the entirely predictable disaster in New Orleans... one whole major American city wiped out... dead bodies everywhere... going on a week now... given all that, there is no such thing as "out of proportion". There is no ratio here by which we can temper our righteous anger at our leaders.
They have failed us. They have talked the talk for decades now, meanwhile selling out the public interest to the private. Just do a little research on the question of the disappearing wetlands of the Mississippi delta, if you don't believe me.
The time is always right for legitimately righteous anger. Righteous anger is, you know, righteous.
Do you think anything less will help this country remake itself into what it hopes to be?
I don't. We've been too cowed. We've been too stupid. We've been too deaf and blind. And because of it, our overseers have taken whatever they wanted, and now the people of the Gulf are paying the price.
Sorry. Yes. The time for placing blame is right now. The time for rage at those who've failed us is now.
And, too, sorry... the time is ripe for a righteous divisiveness between the people and their leaders.
Ask yourself: even now... would the help the Gulf so desperately needs now finally be on its way, however inadequately, if people had not started expressing their righteous anger?
No. Go for it. The time is now to smite them with your anger. Dispense it in Biblical proportions, which is the closest we can come when there is no such thing as "out of proportion".
And do not stop until you have driven the money-changers from the temple.
Amen, brother.
Posted by: Chris | September 03, 2005 at 09:45 AM
"Ask yourself: even now... would the help the Gulf so desperately needs now finally be on its way, however inadequately, if people had not started expressing their righteous anger?"
Probably not, Bush took one look at the desperate faces of refugees on the screen and thought: Hell I bet most of them can't even read, let alone vote. Fuck 'em. The world will be a better place without so many poor people in it.
Posted by: James Goodman | September 03, 2005 at 10:07 AM
Word.
I don't ever remember being this pissed off at people I don't actually know personally. And fuck judge not lest ye be judged. I feel very comfortable right now handing heaping helpings of judgment all around: first to my government and in particular this loathsome excuse for an Administration, and then to those callous, greedy and self-centered individuals that insist upon heaping blame and recriminations on the victims of this massive clusterfuck.
Posted by: punkrockhockeymom | September 03, 2005 at 01:24 PM
I'm just heartbroken over this whole fiasco. It's hard to imagine that the response could have been more bungled if they'd *tried* to bungle it. It seems that as each hour goes by, I read yet another report of some nonsensical decision making or flabbergasting stupidity on the part of the people allegedly in charge.
I think anger is entirely appropriate right now. The callousness displayed at the upper levels of the federal government is simply outrageous. Everything from Bush claiming that no one could have anticipated the breaching of the levees to Chertoff accusing NPR of spreading harmful rumors about the crisis at the Convention Center (when the NPR reporter was standing there looking right at it) to the head of FEMA blaming the victims for not evacuating (they're spectacularly poor, you dumb country club fuck - they don't have cars).
I hope to god that the press keeps alive its anger over this disaster and doesn't go back to acting like the administration's press release redistribution mechanism. I hope that everyone is the country is mad as a hornet and writes to their elected representatives encouraging them to demand answers. I certainly plan to do so. I hope that the Democrats somehow emerge from their somnambulant state and start acting like the populists they claim to be.
This is a spectacular disaster of almost unimaginable proportions, but it's not so unique that something like it won't happen again in our lifetimes. Will they be ready if a major earthquake strikes a city in California? What about a major terror attack in a large city? Can they deal with an outbreak of a new flu strain? The time for anger and hard questions is *now*.
Posted by: Bob Dively | September 03, 2005 at 05:58 PM
Yeah, let's get angry. I think it's time to get angry. In fact, it is past time to get angry. It is very convenient that the people who we're angry at are in a position where they can lecture others about their inappropriate reactions. What is inappropriate about being mad that the lone superpower in the world cannot rescue its own people from a flood? And that the decision makers in this superpower have the gall to blame the victims?
Posted by: Anna in Cairo | September 05, 2005 at 04:33 AM