Should it take a world political body to tell Americans to stop being greedy and take care of their own?
(SALEM, Ore.) - It is a sad day in America when a world political body has to tell our government to stop screwing its poor people. Experts on housing and minority rights in the United Nations today called on the United States Government to halt the demolition of public housing and protect the human rights of African-Americans affected by Hurricane Katrina, which battered New Orleans in 2005.
Hurricane survivors like thisman say resources have been slimand life is increasingly difficultIn the waning years of the ultra right Bush Administration it is becoming increasingly clear that conservative and business related politics can be the most anti-American ideology on the floor. It is an unabating philosophy intended to divide the classes and punish the poverty stricken with more challenges than they can meet.
The notion that we as taxpayers are not responsible for helping the poor is a sentiment that feels like a blow to the gut of a nation itself, and walks with dirty shoes over the legacy of a country that survived a horrible economic depression in the 1930's when its people pulled together, and then used that momentum to win what should have been the war to end all wars.
The thing that has led us into other wars, spare maybe the Korean War, is prejudice. We are not too worried historically about the Palestinians, but we have been blindly supportive of Israel since its inception. When Ho Chi Minh offered to turn Vietnam over to the U.S. as a territory in the immediate years after WWII, President Harry Truman refused to return the communiques, instead opting to fund the French re-occupation of that country.
That decision by old Harry led to the eventual deaths of over 58,000 Americans. The war in Vietnam could have been completely avoided with a small amount of diplomacy and international respect and dialog.
If we listened, learned, and balanced the varying elements and interests, we would be far better off. But instead, the country elects a warmonger for not one but two terms, and he allows the people who suffered in Hurricane Katrina to suffer some more, needlessly. I wonder if these are the signs of a religious president, a personal claim of Bush's that lacks much evidence and merit.
I wonder if most people realize that the idea of the GOP being the party aligned with the Christian faith is a fairly new notion, one that has only existed since around the fall of the Nixon Administration. That is when shysters moved into the churches in the nation's most conservative communities and began preaching a different tune: one that has resulted in isolationism and prejudice.
So the enemy of our nation's leaders these days in addition to the ones we create overseas, are the poor. They are a nagging burr in the saddle of those who want it all, and have no compassion for those who have nothing at all. In the end it seems like any sentiment against the poor and underprivileged is a slap in the face of who we are. It is the same as a self inflicted wound if you love your country, and not just your idea of what your country should be.
United Nations housing expert Miloon Kothari and Gay McDougall, the Independent Expert on minority issues, made this joint statement: "We are deeply concerned about information we continue to receive about the housing situation of people in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region."
They say the demolition of the St. Bernard public housing development that started the week of February 18th and the destruction of three other complexes planned for the near future, are being carried out without meaningful consultation with the communities involved.
Citing reports that there are more than 12,000 homeless people in the greater New Orleans metropolitan area, they said that the demolition of public housing, in combination with the spiraling costs of private housing and rental units, are helping to drive people, primarily African-Americans, into destitution.
I guess we should be glad that somebody on a large political scale cares about poor Americans, even if it isn't our own countrymen, and we should remember this story as a sign of what may have happened under a continuing Republican Presidency.
It is also important to remember that the direction of the party in recent years is not necessarily a true reflection of GOP politics, as there are countless good republicans living among us who are just as confused as anybody over what has happened.
For now their ship is lost in the fog and the engines have nearly shut down. Of course that will not have anything to do with the massive load this ship carries, the wreckage will still be visible for years to come.
Oh and by the way, the two experts said they sent a letter stating their concerns to the US Government in December 2007, so it isn't like people weren't aware of the concerns.
"We understand that the new housing will not be available for a significant period of time nor will there be one for one replacement for housing units destroyed," they said.
"These demolitions, therefore, could effectively deny thousands of African-American residents their right to return to housing from which they were displaced by the hurricane."
They say that whether or not the demolitions were intentionally discriminatory, "the lack of consultation with those affected and the disproportionate impact on poorer and predominantly African-American residents and former residents would result in the denial of internationally recognized human rights," they maintained.
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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with almost twenty years experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist and reporter. Today, in addition to his role as a war correspondent in Afghanistan where he spent the winter of 2006/07, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated only with Google News. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
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