So everyone is up in arms about those “disgusting things Barbara Bush said.” I admit, I too am a bit disgusted. However, I’m not surprised. Barbara Bush lives in an “old money†fantasyland. What we find disgusting is that someone of such power and influence—that an entire family of such power and influence—can not only seem so ambivalent, but also be completely out of touch with reality.
Barbara Bush is the Marie Antoinette of our day. “They’re better off†may as well be the “let them eat cake†of American History, but she could also be an ugly reflection of America at large… wait, let me clarify: When I say “America at large,†I’m not referring to Republicans or Democrats, Red States or Blue States, Hummer-owners or hybrid enthusiasts, blacks or whites, Catholic or Protestants. I mean all of us. Every, last, fat-assed, overindulgent, reality-show-watching, Oprah-worshipping, PowerBook-toting, MTV-put-a-DVD-player-in-my-back-seat, Starbucks-sipping, Gucci-handbag coveting, Atkins-dieting, kickin’-it-up-a-notch, rockstar-wanna-be, pathetic loser one of us…
We have police guarding our suburbs to keep refugees (American citizens) out! Bush’s cronies are winning the contracts to clean up the mess and then there’s this dumbass mediocre rapper who seems to think it’s all about black folks. What makes Kanye West qualified to get on his soapbox? Is it the fact that he’s black, a celebrity and from New Orleans? Is it because he has a new album out? Something tells me he hasn’t been in the “old neighborhood†for some time. This isn’t a black issue. You know how I know? We didn’t lose Master P, The Marsalis Family, The Meters and heaven-forbid we didn’t lose Kanye West to that dreadful storm. Why? Because they can afford to drive their black asses somewhere else. New Orleans is 2/3rds African-American, and poor pretty much all the way around. Why those mostly-black neighborhoods are so poor is another topic all together. The Bush administration is all about money, plain and simple. Class is the biggest division in America, not race.
Like everyone else I have looked for the “conspiracy†underlying in this mayhem. In an effort to make sense of and find consolation in this disaster, I have tried to find that evil mastermind behind it all, the way we did during 9/11. I’ve tried to negotiate with myself the fact that our government has failed us once again. I’ve passed heavy-handed judgments on looters, much in the same way the Religious Right has passed judgment stating that Katrina was God’s punishment for the “sins of New Orleans.†If some guy wants to steal food for his family, more power to him. I would do the same. If some jackass wants to steal jewelry and electronics in the middle of a flood, that’s his problem. I’m not getting in the way of a man with priorities that far out of whack. He’s not going to plug that DVD player in anywhere, and since the banks are all shutdown no one will buy those diamond earrings from him. As a business-owner, the 5-foot water damage and lack of power and food would have been a priority; looters might even be welcome if my insurance policy doesn’t cover flooding.
The truth is, until we have evidence that Destro’s Weather Dominator Machine is in operation, there is no way our government could have planned to fuck over this many people at once. Apart from local corruption, pork spending, and the fact that all of our National Guard is out guarding someone else’s nation, complete and total incompetence is the only real cause.
My point is that we can all point at Barbara Bush and say “oh how insensitive†but we’re all just as ready to shove our heads in the sand, crank up our iPods and kick back with a Grande Latte and hypothesize and postulate about what the hell happened down there and do whatever we have to do to make ourselves feel ok about it. Barbara Bush is a patriotic idealist, she can’t believe America can do anything wrong. Most of the people reading this blog believe otherwise. We fill ourselves with righteous indignation. The number one refrain against the war in Iraq or any type of foreign aid is the “we have people starving here in America!†speech, Well, America, here’s your chance!! Help some of your own!
“Certainly,†you say. “I’d love to stick it to the man, and I want to see justice served in New Orleans, but just so long as it doesn’t involve me actually having to do anything, can’t I just give a buck to the Red Cross? Oh, and could you move those poor, poor, black people to some other place? We just don’t have any place for them here.â€
And, let’s be honest, Kanye doesn’t want those brothers in his house any more than Barbara does.
