 |
| |||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||
|
This Week with The Chicowitz: |
[Last week: "Information Misload"?]
| Each week our Boomer-in-Charge, Hershel Chicowitz, has something to say about life, society, or what's going on... from the perspective of a baby boomer. This is what's on his mind the week of September 19: |
|
|
A few weeks ago I tricked you into seeing some of the realities of how
the Democrats reacted to the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme
Court. I told you I had a dream about an extreme left-wing nominee
receiving a 96-3 vote. Only late in the essay did I reveal that it was
not a dream at all; I was describing the qualifications of and the vote
for Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993. OK, I am sorry I misled you. But I was
making a point. Anyway, today I want to tell you about a real dream I had. Honest. No, it was not that I was the father of Britney Spears' baby (actually, that would be more of a nightmare, huh?). No, it was a dream about the president's response to Hurricane Katrina. Republicans and Democrats alike, please bear with me. This is not THAT kind of wet dream. I dreamed that, as Hurricane Katrina intensified while traveling up the gulf, the White House reacted to the threat immediately and forcefully. I know; you Democrats are saying that it is a far-fetched notion. But, read on; it gets better. In my dream, the president's advisers predicted that a category four Katrina would hit New Orleans and that the levees would fail; tens of thousands of people would be stranded; thousands would die. Unlike the mayor of New Orleans, the White House research staff had read the articles published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune two years ago predicting exactly that. They read the detailed evacuation plans that were prepared by the local government, including the plan to use 250 school buses to help people escape from the storm. White House advisers did not trust that the local government would be capable of implementing the plan. They decided that the local government would do what it has done about the rising crime rate in New Orleans: nothing. In my dream, with the imminent threat of the loss of thousands of lives, the president's knee-jerk reaction was to order an evacuation of New Orleans and to use FEMA and the military to assist. Reminded by his attorney general that the president does not have the authority to do that, the president called Louisiana governor and implored her to call up the National Guard to evacuate people. Unlike what really happened, under great pressure from the president, Governor Blanco agreed, but only on the condition that she be removed from any responsibility from having done so. With that political hurdle overcome, the federal government took over. On the weekend before the storm hit, federal and National Guard troops moved 400,000 people away from New Orleans. It was an unprecedented evacuation, implemented by the federal government, one met with great resistance by nearly everyone. People actually shot at buses used to evacuate them! The government used transport planes and buses to move people to military bases in the area. By Monday morning, when the hurricane hit, New Orleans was a ghost town. The only problem is that, in my dream, at the last moment, the hurricane took a slight turn to the west and came ashore in a much less-populated area between New Orleans and Houston. It moved onto the coast and quickly weakened into just a lot of hard rain and wind. While there was great damage, it was not to New Orleans. And it was too late and too bad for many of the residents that George Bush had forced to leave their homes. Over 200 of them, mostly elderly people in their 90s and grossly obese people who had not been out of their homes in months.... over 200 of them died during the evacuation. Six patients from a single nursing home died while being evacuated (as opposed to the 34 who actually died because they were NOT evacuated). The battle cry throughout the southeast was "Where was the hurricane, Mr. Bush?" Many of those who lived complained from the moment they arrived in the safe, dry, yet sparse military barracks. They complained that they had been forcibly evicted from their homes for no reason. They were provided food, clothing, beds, cash and other necessities and niceties. Still they complained loudly that they were being held as slaves. The headline in the New York Times was "George Bush's Slaves." The gist of the story was that this is how George Bush was getting back at the people who did not support him in 2004. Like the removal of Saddam Hussein, it was all part of his plan for retribution; it had been for months. He was just waiting for an opportunity to strike. Well, that was all to took to get Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton into full, verbal combat mode, claiming that the president does not care about black people, of course. Meanwhile, in the nearly empty city, crooks looted stores, taking every thing they could carry. (Yes, apparently my dreams are sometimes filled with heartless cynicism.) In my dream, there was no cry from Celine Dion:
I donno; I guess there are limits to the absurdity of my dream... though apparently not to real life.
While the fire was still hot (and the governor was still muted), Congress went to work. Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid wrote and introduced articles of impeachment in Congress, shouting that the president was acting like a dictator. "George Bush is no better than Saddam Hussein! And most of the ones he killed were the people he hates: black people." The Democrats cited abuse of power, corruption, improper use of the military, usurpation of powers specifically vested in the governor and the mayor, humiliation and the illegal and coerced incarceration of citizens, not to mention that 200 people died on his watch as the basis for the articles of impeachment. Oh, and just for good measure and appetizing revenge, they threw in lying too. George Bush had LIED to the American people about the magnitude and threat posed by the hurricane. HE LIED TO THE PEOPLE! Just like the unjustified war in Iraq, this time the cowboy, war monger George Bush had acted without provocation and without justification. But this time, he was waging war against American citizens. And so it went. Within six weeks, 90% of the country believed that George Bush had lied, that he had exceeded his authority (just as the Democrats have been claiming for five years), and that he played a direct role in the death of 200 people... oh yes, mostly BLACK people.... 200 people who died during "George Bush's dirty, little hurricane."
The only part of this political maneuver that bothered the Democrats was that, in removing George Bush from office, they handed the presidency to Halliburton. Oh, but they had plans for that, too. Fortunately, for me, the dream ended before the sudden, unexpected and untimely death of President Dick Cheney. (Democrats figured that they could easily steamroll House Speaker Dennis Hastert, second in line to the presidency.)
Fortunately for George Bush (and Dick Cheney... and Dennis Hastert), it was only a dream. Unfortunately, for the folks of New Orleans, the hurricane did not take a turn to the west. And the local government did not implement the detailed evacuation plan that had been in place for years. And..... well, you know the rest. Fortunately, for the Democrats, they have trumped up plenty of baseless reasons to blame George Bush even though he did not enslave black folks before the hurricane. An impeachable offense? You just wait. (Whew! Now you see why I do not sleep much, huh?) (Nor share with you my dreams.) (It won't happen again, I promise.)
Post Script Oh.... in case you missed it.... while this essay is about George Bush.... it is NOT about Hurricane Katrina. Now, look at this satellite photo of Hurricane Rita taken this past Saturday morning:
 Scary, huh? That's one reason why, from now on, I am going to keep my dreams to myself.
|
Exploring My Roots: A Chicowitz History
Membership details here.
Terrific boomer memorabilia!!
Remember this?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hershel will have something else to say on September 26: mark your
calendar 
to
remind you to come back to BBHQ every Monday.
Did you miss last week's essay, "Information Misload"? You can still read it here.
We're open to offerings from visitors to BBHQ. If you have something to say of interest to boomers, write it as well as you can in 800 - 1,000 words, and send it to us. We can't guarantee we'll publish it, but we'll surely consider it.
If you like what we're doing here at BBHQ, please help us by buying stuff through our link to Amazon.com:
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
 |
|
The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
|
 | ||
 
|
|   |
Copyright © 2005-2008, Baby Boomer HeadQuarters - WWW.BBHQ.COM - All rights reserved.
