TRIBES: I would like you all to read this.

[MikeKAY]

TRIBES <Click (http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html)

Just read it, it's rather long and it has some profanity but I would like everyone to read it.

[coldcut]

Ugh. Pseudophilosophy about the hurricane written by a guy who doesn't have the foggiest idea of what's going on in the New Orleans area.

All week I've been watching people make excuses on every damn level of government. I'm not a resident of New Orleans, so there's nothing I can do about Mayor Nagin. I'm not a resident of Louisiana, so there's nothing I can do about Gov. Blanco. But I am a citizen of the United States, so there is something I can do about a federal government who put an incompetent horse judge in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has apparently pissed away billions of dollars on a fictional Homeland Security office and seems to have been generally clueless about the situation in general. There's a reason people were screaming at Bush and the federal government for those first five days: nobody from the federal government seemed to have a clue about what they were doing, unless they were making excuses, which they seemed to be quite adept at.

We've already addressed the sheep/wolf/sheepdog thing. Of course he sees himself as a sheepdog. Everyone sees themself as a sheepdog. Just like nobody identifies with the cowardly translator in Saving Private Ryan. Generally, the louder somebody proclaims something like this, the more I'm inclined to suspect he's hiding something.

And I have no idea what point he was trying to make about "Tribes." You could have made this essay about the video game and it would have made about as much sense.

[coldcut]

Oh, and I missed this part:

Hundreds of New York firemen and policemen never came home, never came home, but New Orleans Police Chief P. Edwin Compass III said, of his men, “If I put you out on the street and made you get into gun battles all day with no place to urinate and no place to defecate, I don’t think you’d be too happy either… Our vehicles can’t get any gas. The water in the street is contaminated. My officers are walking around in wet shoes.”

Well, Chief, I’m sorry your men’s feet are wet, but getting their feet wet is part of their ****ing job. New York’s Finest aren’t complaining about wet feet or places to pee because they died doing their jobs. They were sheepdogs.

Please, Mr. Television Producer, tell me about how much of a ****ing dog you are after criticizing the whole of New Orleans emergency response system. I got a few stories I've been hearing, stories about cops who've been shooting themselves because they haven't been able to handle the magnitude of the disaster. Cops and firefighters who still haven't heard from their families, guys who stayed behind so that they could protect their city. You and your tribe can go blow themselves.

[ChairLegOfTruth]

Well speaking as someone who uses the Wolves & Sheep model myself, and as an affirmed Sheepdog, I can catagorically say that moron doesn't have a ****ing clue.

Firstly sheepdogs are not warriors any more than wolves are. A warrior is a warrior; however wolves and sheepdogs have better temperments for warriorhood.

Secondly there is no rule that sheepdogs can't complain about things. I'm pretty sure that the rescue workers who died in the Twin Towers would have complained about it if they hadn't died.

Thirdly any civilised society is only two square meals away from anarchy. Those poor bastards who were in the superbowl and convention centre started off with next to nothing and ended up with less than nothing. Truth is if they had been white middle class people they would have been rescued by day 2.

Personally I'm still reeling from the revelation that the US government stopped the agents of other nations from going in to rescue their own citizens. Hmm I wonder what would have happened if it had been the other way around...

[Solario]

I swear to God, when I saw this I thought it was about the video game.

Meanwhile concerning the article. The guy's idealistic about his own "tribe", I'll give him that, but he has no utter concept of what these sorts of horrors do to people. Not to mention the fact, that it seems like he neglects the fact that the people in the area, who are still there, did not have the resources to get away from the hurricane and that the government provided zero help for them, until long after the diaster had struck. He also seems to contradict himself, when he says: "My Tribe doesn’t curse such people because they arrived on Day Four, when we felt they should have been here before breakfast on Day One. We are grateful, not to say indebted, that they have come at all", but later on states that "Well, Chief, I’m sorry your men’s feet are wet, but getting their feet wet is part of their ****ing job. New York’s Finest aren’t complaining about wet feet or places to pee because they died doing their jobs. They were sheepdogs." Seems like he's moving the blame from the leader down to the lowly "soldier" (and later on the governor), who actually has to do something about it. He also seems to state that he himself is a part of both world, both pink and gray, but somehow presidents and politicians aren't.

Also Magrete Thatcher would have left the people down there to their own demise, and posted a fully armed riotsquad around the city of New Orleans, so the "looters" couldn't escape their watery demise.

His mentioning of how the war isn't George Bush's war, but his war because he voted for him, is down right odd, considering I highly doubt more than the majority of americans today agree with every single statement the president makes. Voting for him is an indication that you support the majority of his ideas, not automatically all of them. I might also add, that if it's true that George Bush was voted in with the largest number of votes ever, he was also voted against by the largest number of votes ever.

What we need is a decent balance between the "pink" and the "grey" and the "sheep dog" and the "sheep", not some crazy extremist group, that most of all, had they been of another religion, be called fanatics.

Incidentally from reading some of the commentaries, it sounds like they are completely misunderstanding the majority of the article with stuff like the assumption that helping the children "find themselves" as one puts it, isn't going to lead to becoming a decent adult and talks of making a bumpersticker that says "Which side are you on? Sheep or Sheepdog", because that seems like what the whole freakin' Western hemisphere is about, "Either or", you can't be both.

[Druid]

I want to say just this one thing, and I'll let you all hound/curse/berate me for ti later.

This whole situation in New Orleans is not our national goverments fault. Rather it is due to the sheer incompetence of the mayor of New Orleans. He had more then enough resources to get those people he labels. "Unable to flee" out of New Orleans. He could have done so much more then sit and curse the federal government for not being there sooner.

In all truth, the Federal aid was there in perfect time to help. Unfortunately as the situation occured, once the storm was over the damage wasn't nearly as bad as they had expected. So only a fraction of the relief forces in the area were sent in. When the levi broke the next day, the relief forces were suddenly caught in a much nastier situation then expected. For lack of a better term, they were "caught with their pants down" This unfortunate incident sent rescue efforts way back as they didn't have the sort of equiptment needed to get in their with all this water.

The federal government is not there to make sure every single county is prepared for these storms. That is why we have state governments, and local governments. They are there to micromanage. The federal government is only capable of offering help after the fact. The mayor of New Orleans and the gov of Louisiana could have done a hell of a lot more to prevent this situation. The fact of the matter is they didn't. And now we are scrambling to save as many as we can. So for Christ sakes quit this damn blame game and worry about what the hell you can do to fix this situation. What can you do to help. I don't care if you think the federal government is to blame, or if you agree with me about the state and city governments. All I want to know at this point is. "Well what are you going to do about it?" "How are you going to help solve this horrible problem?" "What are you going to give to help your fellow american?"

Dammit I hate these pointless debates. What's done is done. Worry about how to fix it and prevent it from happening again. I apologize before hand if anyone takes affront to this. It is my opinion and next time I'll try not to be so vehement about it.

[WingedAvenger]

His mentioning of how the war isn't George Bush's war, but his war because he voted for him, is down right odd, considering I highly doubt more than the majority of americans today agree with every single statement the president makes. Voting for him is an indication that you support the majority of his ideas, not automatically all of them.Point taken, although it is very difficult these days to find a certified Republican who doesn't accept everything Bush does at face value, and who doesn't spin whatever backtrack justifications are necessary to support everything he says or does.

[Solario]

The mayor of New Orleans is taking a lot of heat lately, and honestly I think he deserves everything he's getting. I also agreed that most of the fault lies with him, but GWB should have done more than do nothing for four days.

[Graphite]

To judge a person based on the prediges and sterotypes of the majority is just plain wrong. While I do tend to agree with the first paragraph about one universal clay we all stem from, I stopped reading at the eigth paragraph. Its just smut, and won't give these people the time of day.

And the only comment I will make about the whole "Race Issue" and Katrina, is that this is not a problem of Race its a problem of Class. These people are poor and we have a rather impotent Government that tends not to care.

[Jade_Dragon]

Well, the nice thing about the people who rammed airplanes into the World Trade Center is that it gave us someone to blame.

I'm sorry, the biggest assumption in that article is that if that had been white, middle class businessmen in that shelter, it wouldn't have devolved like that. And the second biggest assumption is that, as stated in a lot of these replies, they would have been gotten out in two days. We don't know that. The people who made mistakes likely would have made the same mistakes no matter who was in the Superdome.

The biggest assumption being made here, the biggest assumption everyone is making here, because they don't want to face this fact, is that "There but for the grace of God go I." CLOT said it best. "Any civilized society is only two square meals away from anarchy". I've said it myself, about our fascination with serial killers, and kids shooting other kids in the schools. No one wants to admit that, with the right pressure, in the right conditions, they could snap, in exactly the same way.

You are looking into the face of madness. And you're flinching away from your reflection.

I agree with the people who have come afterwards, and said, look, the media is making a big deal about the failure on the part of a lot of people. But there are so many other people who are right there, holding the line. Those are the people you need to be talking about, not the mistakes of the past. If that's what that guy was trying to say with that tirade, then in that, at least, I can agree with him. I think he's a pompous jerk to say that only conservatives in this country are capable of bravery, and I think he's an insensitive fool to claim that the people stranded in New Orleans are not. But none of us can really say what we would do in such a situation.

Certainly the government at all levels has made some mistakes, and they will have to be called to task for that, at some time. But at least they seem to be trying to admit the mistake, and fix it. Even in the best of all possible situations, with everyone reacting perfectly, this still would have been a disaster. You just have to pick yourself up and move on.

[Joe Schmoe]

Point taken, although it is very difficult these days to find a certified Republican who doesn't accept everything Bush does at face value, and who doesn't spin whatever backtrack justifications are necessary to support everything he says or does.

I agree with you, but don't forget its the same with the left side too. That political name tag either spells out "un-deniable support" or "absolute hatred" no matter what a politician's stances or, what good he does, or what mistakes he does, for everyone.

Sorry, I couldn't read through this. You can't just be so sure what your behavior is in a disaster like this, you just can't until it happens to you. "Oh my friends and I wouldn't do this or that, we'd be good!" Please, you never know, so stop pretending you do.

[Graphite]

Your right, there is alot of finger pointing with a strong politcal point of view. With the disaster still at hand, action speaks larger than words and our country needs to deal with the situation first.

But there also need to be accountablity. Those who messed in positions of power should realise they screwed up, need to fess up, and except the ramifications. The problem with a disaster of this size, whos to blame? Everyone. We are a nation of laws with the strong belief that Justice will be served. The truely sad thing is that I do not believe this disaster will change anything. There will still be poor. The government will still bicker. The people will only help as much as it suits them, with any true sense of sacrifice belonging to the minority. Worse still, we will not properly prepare for the next catastrophic event.

This is a failure at the national, state, and local levels of government. But perhaps the Citizens (meaning you and me not directly involved) themselves are not doing enough, or perhaps Corperations are not helping enough. There are many ways to avoid anarchy outside of just relying on the government. It is only so big and can only do so much. When it comes down to it, I feel at least, that the desission comes from You. Am I going to help or hurt the situation. Good people doing nothing can be just as evil as the evil act itself.

Huboy, here I go.
I didn't want to get involved cause I knew I'd just get more preocupied with the issue and more emotional over what has occured.
:rolleyes: