Finally, we have discovered the roots of George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism.”
On the heels of the president’s “What, me worry?” response to the death, destruction and dislocation that followed upon Hurricane Katrina comes the news of his mother’s Labor Day visit with hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston.
Commenting on the facilities that have been set up for the evacuees — cots crammed side-by-side in a huge stadium where the lights never go out and the sound of sobbing children never completely ceases — former First Lady Barbara Bush concluded that the poor people of New Orleans had lucked out.
“Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them,” Mrs. Bush told American Public Media’s “Marketplace” program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.
On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever. Perhaps the former first lady was amusing herself with the notion that evacuees without bread could eat cake.
9 comments on “Squalor is Good Enough for the Poor”
Just another ignorant statement by another ignorant rich, narrow-minded person. It is only too bad that this group of people happen to be running a whole country.
It’s a terrible shame people like this have power in so much of the world.
I would love to ask Bush and his family how they would feel if their family members were in New Orleands at the time. I wonder if they would still consider these people “lucky.”
The people are lucky to have their lives, surely, but in the context Mrs. Bush used this, they certainly aren’t fortunate, having lost so much in their lives.
see, this is how they think:
“my family would have had the sense to leave”
b/c of course, all the families stuck in the city had the money and the resources to leave.
bush can’t even IMAGINE a life like that. he hasn’t even TRIED.
/bitter
It is very sickening. There’s just so much suffering and too many still living with apathy or willful capitalization (like, for instance, Bush’s good friends at Haliburton once again profiting off tragedy, having already been rewarded contracts for rebuilding).
Bush has said HE will lead the commission. That’s not going to uncover any of the deep wrongdoing. We do need to focus on helping the needy, but I believe it is never the time to turn our backs on the powerful, especially seeing that doing so allowed the Bush administration to do so much harm following 9/11.
I hope something will come from this that will put focus on the failings of the Bush administration. An independant investigation would be better than one headed by Bush, but I still fear it being soft on many of those responsible for the worsening of this tragedy.
Christ on a cracker.
I hadn’t heard it before last evening, when Mom called me and told me about it. I headed to Google News and found it. :S