The Wrath of Ann

Here's a post I put on the myspace page. I went off a bit on my poor cousin (sorry Jen) but anyway - I am a passioante one, aren't I? She was not necessarily defending Bush/Rep actions in Katrina, did make a few remarks that hit my hot spots. SO here's one reply:

I know you would Jenny. It's all so broken but the solution is not to throw the babies out with the bathwater. Did you know the overwhleming majority of "welfare" receipients work close to or at full time? But $5.15 an hour does not meet poverty line standards, which are insanely out of whack anyway. As far as the 9th Ward, many, but not all, residents were black. Many, but not all, were poor. Many, but not all, received some form of government assistance. But so many that were poor, that were on the dole - were so desperately poor, so desperately unable to get out of the cycle of poverty, violence, and illiteracy that they had given up. Other members of that community, however, were doctors, lawyers, teachers, fireman. policemen, business owners, preachers - who CHOSE to live there, to try to help those less fortuante and because it was their home, their family and friends were there, their churches, their schools. Too many people equate poor with black and therefore with welfare queens and drug abuse when the TRUE picture is much closer to our own families than we'd like to admit. The economic and social playing field is so skewed in favor of the already rich that the poor have virtually no chance of advancement and the middle class is more likely to fall than to rise. And the solutions presented by the party in power? -Cut education funding, cut social services, lower taxes on the wealthiest while increasing them on the poorest, spend $300 BILLION on a war that orchestrated to up the profits of a select few companies that conveniently are tied closely to said administration while a major U.S. city DROWNS because the Corps has been starved for years in order to underwrite coporate tax cuts. (I could go on - but you get the point.)

I think what I meant by "Christians" are those who selectively use the Bible to advance/justify thier own personal agendas - and conveniently ignore the parts that don't mesh with their selfish interests. They're all about "Thou shalt not kill" unless its the death penalty. "Love thy neighbor," as long as they are just like you. "Do unto others," as long as it benefits you. Hypocrites, pharisees. A pox on their houses.

BTW - most Democrats are Christians as well. I really get pissed when the fountains of bile that pass for political commentators imply, or outright say, that Christianity and the Democratic Party are incompatible. Perfect example of selfish agendas - they KNOW it's a LIE, but say it anyway to fuel the flaming bigotry of their base. IMHO - what religion as person does or does not espouse is in no way reflective of their worth as a person or their ability to be a thoughtful, honest, ethical public servant. Our Constitution deliberately excluded a religious test as a qualification for office becuase the framers had witnessed first hand the decisive and destructive nature of religion in politics. Many of those framers, BTW, were deists, not Christians. Another common myth that's perpetuated by self-serving toads.

So yeah. That's what I think. :-)

Which I then followed with this:

one more thing - "these people" paid taxes, whether sales tax, property tax, income tax. "These people" are citizens of the United States, not refugees from some third-world country. "These people" are still people and deserving of help, sympathy and empathy. IMHO - the "Christian" thing to do is quit the speechifying and actually DO something. (like Jimmy Carter - a true Christian if I ever saw one and why, lookie there, a Democrat to boot!)I want to see the President with a mask on, crow bar in hand, pulling moldy sheet rock out of Lance's house, for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. I want to see Dick Cheny roofing the shoutgun that was home to an elderly black woman who raised 5 kids on a washer-woman wages and suffered through segregation. I wanna see Donald Rumsfeld shelping garbage off the streets of New Orleans for $5.15 an hour. I wanna see Condi Rice picking up the tattered remnants of people's lives along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

We all have dreams. Those are mine.

yeah well, so there you have it. My first soapbox blog. *sigh*

Oh wait I have another great picture of my brother, who OFFICIALLY passed his written PhD comps. Talk about a red-diaper baby - Woody is certainly getting his activist creds early!