Reverand Al Sharpton

[RyanLanane]

Things are bad enough in the current situation involving everything that is going on in New Orleans and all the other affected areas.. Today on the news everything I saw was people talking about how much better things got which is outstanding news. I was hearing stories of mothers and daughters reunited.. You name it. There was of course the occasional bad story but finally the news appeared to be focusing on what has and is being done rather than what isn't or hasn't been done.

Late last night I just happened to catch Rev. Al Sharpton on one of the radio stations talking about how the reason our federal government didn't act quickly enough was due to the fact that the areas most heavily affected were black/poor areas of the region. I was floored that he would even insinuate something like that.

Did you see our government fly in with special helicopters to rescue rich people? White, Black, Asian, Mixed, and Italians among with a ton of other nationalities were all involved in this horrible tragedy. To say the government was sitting there saying 'We have to rescure this area of New Orleans first as it is where all the multi-million dollar mansions are' is absolutely ludicrous.

Truth of the matter is people like that had the financial resources themselves to make sure everything was taken care of in time, and got out of town as quickly as possible when they realized what was coming.

I understand and have empathy for the people I am hearing who were trying to get out of town but didn't have the money to pay for gas so they could drive out of town. From the sounds of it people were declining any requests for help right and left... Some are talkign about how it is on their concious now - "Could I have saved that person's life?"

I think he is confusing the mentality of the PEOPLE in that area with the mentality of our national government. People were in survival mode when they were being approached - Worried strictly about their family and their own well-being. This is a touchy subject but and I don't want to start a debate about whether people fleeing should of offered more help because I can see good arguments for their cases on both sides.

Another thing I woudl like to point out is I am sure there are plenty of poor white Americans that were in that region that are also goign through everything the poor black americans are. It is a sad situation for everyone. Him playing the race card was a horrible thing to do - It completely disguisted me. I am not racist by any means and when I watched the news I didn't even pay attention to whether the stories we were hearing, people they were talkign to, etc .. were white or black or asian... I just saw a fellow American.

Sharpton went on and on and on about how if this was Palm Springs it would of been treated differently. The reporter agreed with him but said it was for political influential reasons and the power those people have due to their wealth.

What is everyone's take on this? God knows we were down in Florida quicker for the last hurricane but I do not think that the reason our reaction time was slower for this hurricane was because we thought "It's Poor Black Country". And to see people 'preach' that sickens me.. It really does.

Would love to hear others thoughts on this...