Letters to the Editor, September 11, 2005

To All Journalists: Give Us a Timeline for the Katrina Disaster By Steve Moyer (Al-Jazeerah, September 4, 2005)

A Katrina Timeline can be found at:

www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline

Katrina survivors, not refugees

I just heard a woman (on September 7, 2005) being interviewed on "All things Considered" on NPR say: "I'm not a refugee. That's a word for people who are sneaking into the country on a boat. I'm a United States citizen and proud of it. I'm a Katrina survivor." Yes. That's what we should call them. Katrina survivors.

I wonder who started using that term "refugees" to describe the people fleeing the disaster caused by hurricane Katrina. It's the wrong word. It's a word which conjures up feelings of racial prejudice for "those people." Was it perhaps introduced by FOX News, that bastion of ... propaganda and misinformation? I wonder... We have a lot of work to do on ourselves regarding racism in America.

Simply denying that we are racist is insufficient. Racism has become something which is incorporated into the economic system itself, seamlessly and silently, but with sinister effects nonetheless. I was thinking about it today and concluded that we should change the frame for our thinking from "race" to "fairness" because if everyone is being treated fairly, who cares about race?

Steven Moyer http://stevemoyer.us

Enemy Combatant, Padilla, denied Habeas Corpus & Bill of Rights is OUT

It must be Base Ball Season in the U.S. Courts also as our Constitution & the enabling Bill of Rights has been thrown a curve ball enabling W. on his throne & team W. an unpopular win by still free American Citizens watching team W. run roughshod over the lands. Referee, "Judge J. Michael Luttig" of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit wrote the decision. U.S Bill of Rights is History & now wants a chair on the Supreme Court. As a W. proven player in watching the bench for signals on playing this now un-American Game. Will the Sky Box call this Strike a Ball in the U.S Supreme Court & call W. team out? Before W. puts another Two of his personal players in the Sky Box to call the final outs on American Freedoms for her "INDIVIDUAL" Citizens?

(Washington Post. Jerry Markon- COURT RULES U.S. CAN INDEFINITELY DETAIN CITIZENS) story Below

Click here: Court Rules U.S. Can Indefinitely Detain Citizens

Click here: Conflict Terminology: Enemy Combatant By Hassan El-Najjar, and Ronald Douglas Kennedy

Ronald Douglas Kennedy

Driving America to Disaster (Al-Jazeerah, September 7, 2005)

Dear Editor,

Please tell Chris Hoppe, author of the article Driving America to Disaster, that this American is "with him".

Sincerely,

Robert Drury, Los Angeles, CA

Just a Bad Dream

More than a week after the storm has passed, the story of Katrina continues to flood the media with waves ineptitude and suffering and death. So riveting is its plot that far too Americans are clicking their way past a nightly fare of shallow TV sitcoms and “reality” programs in favor of a show all too real in its portrayal of life.

This brand of TV reality is dangerous; it loses votes.

To spare you any further unpleasantry, you will be relieved to know that the administration will now censor what you see. According to Reuters, FEMA, which is leading the rescue efforts, began rejecting requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they go out in search of storm victims. There are unconfirmed rumors that the military has also been instructed not to allow reporters along on missions. Much too unpleasant for our delicate sensibilities.

The government has decided we have had enough. Like a parent wishing to spare his child a premature glimpse of a cruel world, the administration is telling you to turn off the TV and go to bed. As soon as Poppa Bush Jr. tidies up the mess in kitchen he’ll be upstairs to tell you a fairy tale.

Tucked between clean white sheets, one can only imagine the tale Pop will weave. This one ought to be a whopper.

Chris Hoppe