Tel-Chai Nation

An interesting topic on how there have ended up being two different Americas in the wake of Katrina, from Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated. A rabbi from Louisiana sent an e-mail to the blogger presenting his thoughts on what's happened to the US following the disaster. As he tells here:

In New Orleans, beginning Tuesday morning, August 30, I saw men in helicopters risking their lives to save stranded flood victims from rooftops. The rescuers were white, the stranded black. I saw Caucasians navigating their small, private boats in violent, swirling, toxic floodwaters to find fellow citizens trapped in their houses. Those they saved were black.

I saw brotherhood. New York Congressman Charlie Rangel saw racism.

Yes, there are Two Americas. One is the real America, where virtually every White person I know sends money, food or clothes to those in need now and in other crises — regardless of color. This America is colorblind.

The other is the America fantasized and manufactured by Charlie Rangel, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who constantly cry “racism!” even in situations where it does not exist, even when undeniable images illustrate love, compassion and concern.

These three men, together with today’s NAACP, want to continue the notion of racist America. It is their mantra, their calling card. Their power, money, and continued media appearances depend on it.

He's right. Rangel, Jackson, and Sharpton are all just simply opportunists. They are interested in nothing more than getting more political influence than in helping the helpless, and in gaining more media attention. But making appearance on TV or on the radio alone isn't helping people in need. Going out there and helping to save lives, as the helicopter pilots were, that's what counts as helping people in need.

There is only one real America. Beginning Friday morning in Houston, thousands of regular citizens poured into the astrodome offering water, food, clean clothes, personal items, baby diapers and toys, love and even their homes to the evacuees who had been bused in from New Orleans. Most of the givers were white, most of those being helped were black. But there was Jesse Jackson, busy on TV, accusing the country of not putting blacks–i.e., him — on some type of commission he is demanding. Where was he early in the week? Not sweating with others from around the country who had scraped their last dollar to come help. With Jesse, it’s always about Jesse.

After decades of hearing accusations from Jesse, Al, Charlie, the NAACP and certain elitists about how racist America is, it would have been refreshing to hear them for once give thanks to those they for years have been maligning. These self-anointed spokesmen for the black community lead only when it comes to foisting guilt and condemnation, and not when it comes to acknowledging the good in those they have made a career in castigating.

And what have these three would-be representatives of the US done to actually go down there and meet with these people who've ended up stranded away from their homes, and in danger of poverty? As the rabbi points out, Jackson for one was doing nothing more than to go around making TV appearances and pandering to the utterly shameless media moonbats eager to lap up an interview with another moonbat like Jackson himself is, all for the sake of his own personal gain. In fact, what Sharpton, Jackson, and Rangel are doing is similar in some ways to how Ariel Sharon has shown no genuine love for the people he drove out of their homes in Gaza, leaving them stranded, and it was up to volunteer groups to help give them relief aid.*

I saw brotherhood on Fox News, where 24/7 reporters used their perch as a clearing-house for search-and-rescue missions and communication between the stranded and those in position to save. In contrast, the old-line networks continued with their usual foolish, brain-numbing programming. Those who always preach “compassion” chose profit over people.

The New York Times has utterly failed America. Its columnists could have used their talents and word skills to inspire and unite a nation.

Columnists such as Frank Rich and Paul Krugman, however, revealed their true colors by evading their once-in-a-lifetime chance to help and instead chose to divide, condemn, and fuel the fires and poison the waters of Louisiana. In them, I saw no brotherhood. The newspaper always preaching “compassion” verifies Shakespeare’s “They protest too much.”

Here's a picture perfect example of why FOX News does so well with the public, because they do their best to show that they're on their side, whereas the NY Times, by contrast, does little more than to show why they're on their way to becoming a dying newspaper.

How sanctimonious life becomes when proving you are not a racist depends not on living in a truly integrated neighborhood, but by simply calling others racist.

Like so often in history, facts trump platitudes. Reality reigns. Those who always preach brotherhood, thus far have acted devoid of it.

Those who for decades have been accused by elitists of not having compassion are the ones living it. They are: the churches, the military, and the sons and daughters of the South.

Amen. And a similar argument could also be made about here in Israel.

* This also shows how, in ways similar to the situation in America, there are also two Israels.

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