News

My mother and I were watched “Dateline” last night after the telethon and saw some of the positive stories coming out of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. I also viewed CNN a great deal throughout the day.

This is what bothers me the most. There aren’t any positive stories about black families. Yes, many blame the lack of immediate response on racism, class division and prejudice, but we are not seeing any stories on how blacks are making it past ground zero. There are stories of other races being able to walk 15 miles to find an ambulance, make-shift families forming together to make it to dry land and families in Houston opening their doors to let strangers live with them.

I remember seeing a TV broadcast Thursday on how an elderly lady in good health was able to get herself and her two small dogs to safety. Yet, the best news I have heard about blacks would be of those who were able to evacuate before the storm and how they are rebuilding their lives with relatives. Those that are left behind are apparently the ones causing the most trouble. They are the ones that are stranded on rooftops with multiple health ailments.

Media needs to balance these stories out. The coverage we see of blacks now is the activity they deem as looting. They are showing the cursing. There are some bursts of coverage that show how children are affected by this, but those are lost in the negative.

I know that there has to be some family reunion waiting to be reported.

So, Bill O’Reilly last night criticizes those that stayed behind, saying that they should have evacuated when the officials said they should have. That’s a very easy thing to say without doing so. Where the people who left their homes for the Superdome stupid? Could these people simply have $300 in hand just to spend a week at hotels that quickly filled up? That estimate is being frugal. I bet that a hotel stay costed more than that. If there are those who didn’t have enough money to have medication to keep them healthy, how would they have it for transportation or lodging?

permalink | | | 09/03/2005

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