Gov't type people have been scrambling for the last several days to figure out where to place blame in regards to Katrina, the hurricane that cut a swath of devastation through New Orleans. Blame. It's the gift that just keeps giving. I mean, aside from the forces of nature (or the Smiting Hand of God), who's really to blame for what's happened to the thousands of people who've died over the last week? Or thousands of others who are now homeless, starving and left with nothing of their own but memories?

Must be their own fault, right?

The head of FEMA thinks so, after all. If they'd just left, gone to high ground when they were given the warning, they'd all be fine. The government wouldn't be scrambling to feed and house them and put down anarchy in the vicinity, right?

Right?

But if being poor means not only that you'll lose everything you own if you bug out when the weather's rough, but also that you don't even have the means to get out--no car or gas money or anywhere to go--well, then it's still your own fault, isn't it? I can personally identify with at least a dozen items on that list, but someone who can't, who never will, who was born into priveledge and has bought everything with other people's money, well, someone like that will say almost anything, even that no one anticipated the levees breaking, which many in fact did so, just to keep their own hands clean, won't they?

The poor in this country have been condescended to, mocked and beaten down every step of the way. And this administration has an aversion to poverty like none I've seen before. They've diverted funds away from almost every program that there is to assist the poor and working poor, funds that have gone to companies like Haliburton, one of the most corrupt war machines to ever grace the planet. Not to mention, they've been eroding federal programs like FEMA that would have actually been able to do some good, if their hands had not been cut off at the wrists. They'll speak words that have nothing to do with facts-- blaming those who have the least amount of control and thoroughly washing their hands of the issue and then close down the photo-op sets.

Sure, blame the poor, once again, for not having money. Makes me sick.