Hedges on Sandy's persistant & disproportionate impacts on poor people

[99th_Monkey]

...and how Occupy Sandy is providing for many basic needs of those being pretty much abandoned otherwise.

Katrina, All Over Again
Tuesday, 04 December 2012 13:46
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig | News Analysis

"Food distribution centers, most of them set up by volunteers from Occupy Sandy Recovery, hastily close before dark every day because of the danger of looting and robbery. And storm victims who remain in their damaged homes, often without heat, electricity or running water, clutch knives against the threat of gangs that prowl at night through the wreckage.
~snip~
This is the new America. It is an America where economic and environmental catastrophes converge to trigger systems breakdown and collapse. It is an America divided between corporate predators and their prey. It is an America that, as things unravel, increasingly sacrifices its own.
~snip~
Lauren Ferebee, originally from Dallas and now living in Greenpoint in Brooklyn, sits behind a table in the chilly basement of the 123-year-old St. Jacobi Evangelical Lutheran Church, founded by German immigrants. On large pieces of cardboard hanging from the ceiling are the words “Occupy Sandy Relief.” The basement is filled with donated supplies including pet food, diapers, infant formula, canned goods, cereal and pasta. The church was converted two days after the storm into a food bank and distribution center for the victims of the hurricane. Hundreds of people converge daily on the church to work. Volunteers with cars or vans deliver supplies to distribution points in other parts of New York and in New Jersey."
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13141-chris-hedges-katrina-all-over-again

[graham4anything]

1. there was no looting and robbery in Katrina, nor is there any in NY

the article loses me when they use rightwing talking points proven 100% untrue in Katrina
to further their supposed leftwing talking points above.
The writer of this excels at that. Making him indistinguisable from the most rightwing of rightwing writers.

it provides menacing images, alas that don't exist.

There comes a point when property beyond repair does need to be torn down and the land cleaned and made safe from toxins, after which new can be rebuilt.

Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity would not be able to build on condemmed land.
And the sooner it happens, the sooner it can be rebuilt.
With winter fast approaching, waiting too long will only mean waiting for spring when it thaws if it is a bad winter.

Temporary shelter is meant for just that. Temporary.

btw, Katrina was an ethnic cleansing, and really it belittles what happened there to attempt to use Katrina's coattails for other events.

Mother nature will have more storms.

The irony is New Jersey did it right this time. And you gotta give kudos to the wrong party governor in NJ for doing a helleva lot better than the correct party gov. of NY who was a dismal failure, wasn't Andrew? Hate to say it, but it's true.
NJ will be rebuilt by summer. And the same people will enhabit the rebuilding as were there before.

so negatory on the writer of that op-ed(Hodges). The more I read his work, the less I want to read anything further from him. Sad to say, but then of course that is how he makes his living.
Just like the same opposite view types on the right do. It's his angle. But it's still a hit job
either way.

(by the way-I always wondered because this is what people did in our neck of NJ when Sandy left us dark and without food or water for more than a week-why don't those in those areas provide a room in their own house for a family each. Those with generators did just that in our little town. If you have x number of displaced people, all you need is x number of people who can share a room or floor of their home til people are back on their feet. Just a suggestion.And in the area.
One of the horrors of Katrina was the forced removal of Blacks at gunpoint into helicopters or planes, in the dead of night to a distance of thousand miles north. Removing from a warm climate to an extreme cold climate.
When there was dry land just feet away from wet land in New Orleans and other towns.
(just across Danzinger bridge for one. All it took was to get across that bridge.)

the more I think about it- it Really irks me that Hodges above is piggybacking off of one of the most disgusting events in our nation's history since slavery (Katrina's cleansing & Danzinger Bridge),to write his article filled with horror word images that well, are just not true. Hodges is better than a hatchet job I thought.

and that's the rest of the story. (IMHO).

[99th_Monkey]

2. Whatever.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, which is very different from
Chris Hedges' opinion obviously.

Hope you have a nice day