National Day Of Prayer...Multi-Miraculous Or What?

Miracle #2 In Progress As I Type

Published on September 18, 2005 By kingbee In Politics

i very clearly remember the first time george bush proclaimed a national day of prayer.

it was also in september, just a few days after those planes smashed into the towers, the pentagon and a wooded area in pennsylvania.

prior to reading the official proclamation document and then hearing bush's address at the episcopal national cathedral, i disliked him both as a man and as president. by dislike, i mean exactly that. no less; no more. i didn't focus much effort or energy on him. if anything i saw him mostly as a source of quirky perverse amusement--one we really couldn't afford, but were stuck with for a couple more years.

his proclamation pushed dislike all the way to deplore; his address transformed deplore, converting it to despise.

so it was on thursday the very last thing i coulda envisioned myself doing today woulda been expressing any measure of approval for the message he delivered friday...the national day of prayer he proclaimed in response to the horrors of katrina.

Miracle #1

the thing about miracles is they always seem to manifest themselves to those who most want them to occur and are most eagerly willing to be convinced. that's where i am now. i truly wanna believe my president meant this exactly. no less; no more:

"The greatest hardship fell upon citizens already facing lives of struggle: the elderly, the vulnerable and the poor. And this poverty has roots in generations of segregation and discrimination that closed many doors of opportunity. As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality."

i doubt i really need to mention how amazed i was to read that this morning.

Miracle #3

i'm willing to give bush the benefit of the doubt.

(it's gonna be obvious if he tries to backpedal or wiggle outta that statement...or his commitment. i'm so hoping he wont. THAT should be more than enough to balance my wariness and prevent it from diminishing that last miracle in any way.)

Comments (Page 2)

ParaTed2k

on Sep 18, 2005

for years it was against the law for families with fathers to collect any kinda assistance.

Complete BS, I grew up with a few families on "welfare", all of them were 2 parent households.

joined by those determined to reduce black men to the equivalent of living ghosts...of no value to anyone including themselves.

Who said the projects I described were the homes of only Black people? Stereotype all you want, but most people on welfare are, in fact WHITE. However, your statement does have it's merits.

Your attempt to make your point actually reenforces mine. Yes, there have been policies in our country to marginalize the poor, and how have they been so successful? By convincing people that they somehow aren't as good as everyone else and will shrivel up and die if they don't give up and just let the government take care of everything.

The fact is "Rich" "Poor" and "Middle Class" are as much an attitude as an income level. Ask around sometime... ask a person who has been poor all their life why they don't do more to improve their lot and their answers can be boiled down to a few basic concepts.. one major one being, "I shouldn't have to..."

ParaTed2k

on Sep 18, 2005

Daiwa:

You missed my sarcasm, Ted. I'm just surprised a Newdow-type hasn't popped up (yet) to decry it.

Oops lol

ParaTed2k

on Sep 18, 2005

Kingbee, it just dawned on me that by "for years it was against the law for families with fathers to collect any kinda assistance" you meant long before my lifetime. If that is the case you might have a point, but that point would only fall on the side of the "being told you can't" part of the offense.

drmiler

on Sep 18, 2005

Besides, a National Day of Prayer is clearly unconstitutional.

Cheers,
Daiwa

And how do you figure that? Or were you just being sarcastic and I missed it?

Daiwa

on Sep 18, 2005

In your wet dreams, kingbee, but not in reality. You're too well-grounded, despite the psychosis you claim, to buy that.

drmiler - see above.

Cheers,
Daiwa

drmiler

on Sep 18, 2005

see how few men are there with their families

that didn't come about because of anyone advocating black men need not be responsible. for years it was against the law for families with fathers to collect any kinda assistance

And what years would they be? I can state for a fact that if you're talking about 1981-1983, that your reply is a complete falsehood. Why? Because I was living with my wife and children at the time. Fresh out of the navy and unable to find work (depressed area). I was getting AFDC (aid for families with dependant children). Just an FYI....that would qualify as assistance.

drmiler

on Sep 18, 2005

maybe...that's the difference between the right and left? the right don't expect, at best, its candidates/leaders to to achieve the higher functioning level you mention; the left don't expect anything less?

In your wet dreams, kingbee, but not in reality. You're too well-grounded, despite the psychosis you claim, to buy that.

drmiler - see above.

Cheers,
Daiwa

I guess I was right! It was sarcasm and I "MISSED" it! Bummer.

kingbee

on Sep 19, 2005

"for years it was against the law for families with fathers to collect any kinda assistance" you meant long before my lifetime

you were born before or after 1968?

kingbee

on Sep 19, 2005

Heh, I just heard that part of Bush's plan includes giving vast tracts of federal land to the 'poor' to build houses on, and also giving each victim a $5000 "Individual Recovery Account."

i heard something the other day bout urban homesteading...something that should be done lots of places.

if he's only focusing on new orleans, it's meaningless. property values are rising faster than all that water did when the dyke gave way in the lower 9th ward. the sharks are in the shallows with millions to invest in anticipation of the new new orleans (i understand the same thing happened in the area around the wtc in september 2001)

last thursday the la times reported about a guy who bought a 4-unit apt building in plaquemines parish 6 months before katrina hit. that would put it about 55 miles east of the city along the 27 miles of the connecting highway (la 23) which remains under water as of sunday.

this was a $59k deal (are there other cities in the us where one can buy 4-unit income property for $59k?). he had $10k into the deal and no insurance. not to worry, even tho the property is still so flooded he don't know whether the building still exists, he's gettin offers for it from investors in la, nyc and vegas.

kingbee

on Sep 19, 2005

I was getting AFDC (aid for families with dependant children).

if rightwinger should happen across this, i hope it will inspire a new fantasy...this time with dabe as drmiler's worker.

bakerstreet

on Sep 19, 2005

You see, the problem is this happened in an urban area. They were all like, "How do you call Dominos without a phone?"

Now, we hicks have been watching cheap, post-apocalyptic cinema for years. The power goes off for a few hours in third world America and we start welding big spikes on our cars and wearing football pads.

You wanna know real Chaos? Podunk USA when the Wal Mart is never going to open again. Looting? *Snort*, we'll be swooping down on yuppie vacation communities like locusts. Adaptation, baby. Too much is a bad thing. Your world becomes redlights and office hours and soon you're useless without them.

Sure, we hillbillies clean up nice, we "pass", but we can see-our-enemies-driven-before-us-and-rejoice-in-the-lamentation-of-their-women with the best of them.

You'll WISH it was your high-end sneakers we were after...

...just as an aside... to, well, people who think all this politics stuff means, well, dick...

kingbee

on Sep 19, 2005

...just as an aside... to, well, people who think all this politics stuff means, well, dick...

i love the smell of fried okrah in the morning

dabe

on Sep 19, 2005

if rightwinger should happen across this, i hope it will inspire a new fantasy...this time with dabe as drmiler's worker.

Yeah, that sure would be fun, in an excrutiating kind of way. But, I'm no masochist, like others here.

dabe

on Sep 19, 2005

Heh, I just heard that part of Bush's plan includes giving vast tracts of federal land to the 'poor' to build houses on, and also giving each victim a $5000 "Individual Recovery Account."

Now, this is so compassionately conservatively stupid. Farm out the poor onto federal tracts away from the city. $5K will accomplish nothing but pay 'em off so they have no complaints when the corporate money bags buy up their damaged houses and properties for a song, then reap profits hand over fist. Katrina was really so convenient for those fat cats. Gentrification by way of a hurricane. And, the poor? Well, who cares? They're out in those federal La La Land tracts. I wonder if they plan on fencing them in?

Just like the Red Cross debit cards, it will be interesting to see how the poor choose to spend this money. Im sure some will make wise use of it, but I'm equally sure that most will squander it on fancy clothes, lottery tickets, and other unneccessary bullshit.

And, what the hell are these people supposed to spend their money on, whip? They're living in the Astrodome, have no house, no cars, nothing. They don't even have kitchens to cook good food. No windows to buy curtains. Nothing. They have nothing. Maybe they bought some shoes and/or clothing. I don't know. But, with some of the rest of the money, fast food and lottery tickets seems pretty damned appropriate, given the circumstances.

What is it about the poor that you hate so much? Are they like looking into a mirror for you? Are most of them people of color? Are they reflective of white trash? What? What is it about poor people that you so thoroughly disdain? I know....... you just think you're so much better than them. What a joke.

kingbee

on Sep 19, 2005

This 5k and 'homesteading' act is a useless waste of government funds, a pander to the black vote, an appeasement to the lefties

i seem to have missed the part where karl rove said, "dammit mr bush you charismatic sex bomb sir. last election we didn't get enuff black and leftwing votes. as you know, my usual approach to this kinda thing would be round up some of the guys, dress em to look like ordinary citizens and have em form like the 'swift ton-ton macoutes for good ol straight-only voodoo' and have em each make a few calls to anyone who's taken evacuees into their homes just to kinda warn em these people may turn into zombies on election day and maybe discreetly suggest they chain em to a basement wall from monday thru wednesday that week.

seein as how we now find ourselves facing the likelihood of an all red louisiana thanks to that cleansin storm pat robertson arranged, it just don't seem like it's worth the effort. maybe i'm losin my edge but what's the fun in winning an election without doin somethin really shitty to the other guys?

instead, let's just abandon everything you claim to have stood for and let's toss out some entitlement cash so them poor bastards can find their ummm slot? nawww. their groove! that's it. send em out to buy some really loud rap music, maybe a faux-tiffany glass crackpipe and some martha stewart potscrubbers...that kinda stuff. hell, why not go the whole 11 yards or whatever the hell real men say atta time like this and give each and every one of em his or her own free crackhouse. then all we gotta do is wait for their feets not to fail em during the journey back to da big easy.

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