From Small Minds

I should not have been surprised, but I was. Fred Barnes, on Fox News Channel's "Special Report w/Brit Hume" made such an asinine comment today (7 September 2005). He said that anyone who did not evacuate from New Orleans before Katrina hit should not be given any federal relief payments or support.

I should be obvious to a man of his alleged intellect that not everyone was capable of leaving. Not everyone in New Orleans owns a car or had enough money to leave and stay in a hotel somewhere. But aside from that, even if these people had evacuated, the damage to their homes would have occurred regardless. Why should assistance for rebuilding be denied to them because they didn't have the means to leave?

Granted, there were some people who stayed who probably could have left. There are always people who will attempt to ride such storms, as there were in New Orleans, other parts of Louisiana, and even in Alabama and Mississippi. But again, why should they be denied assistance? There loss was not in their realm to prevent any more than it was for the people who did evacuate.

Another point from tonight's talking heads. Brian Williams and Chris Matthews, on MSNBC's Hardball, characterized the poor who didn't evacuate as being afriad of losing their government welfare or social security checks. This characterization would be laughable if it weren't so offensive.

You might have had some rare instances in which someone, due to personal conditions, might have weighed their government checks more favorably than their own safety. If so, these were probably people with some mental debilitation.

However, if you know of an interview where someone in reasonably good health and frame of mine claimed to have ridden out the storm so his or her government check wouldn't get lost or stolen, give me a citation by posting a comment.