Cob Pile
Poor folks = black folks where you're from, I guess. Where I live, it could mean just about anyone. In N.O., most of the poor are black. Perhaps they're stealing guns to protect themselves from roving bands of criminals or perhaps they're stealing guns because they are criminals. The ready availability of guns, whether bought or stolen, does nothing to alleviate the situation, in fact it exacerbates it. Fortunately, for folks like you who consider looting a capital offense, most poor people left in that city are just trying to survive.
I don't condone theft, but I'll be damned if I think looting deserves quite the attention CNN is giving it. Hell, even Fox is giving more time to those suffering than the looters.
Maybe one day the looters will be on Dotty's street. She can comisserate with them all she wants if that makes her feel better while they're walking off with her food and water, plus anything else they feel like taking.
Lin, I don't equate being black with being poor. I use (read:____) as a device to say I suspect a mendacious, deceptive, politically correct, or, as in this case, euphemistic choice of words.
Lots of people wanted to ban "Saturday Night Specials" (read: inexpensive handguns) because they really thought it would reduce crime. But I know there were other, less pure, motives. Some of these were based in downright racist bigotry.
I agree with you about excess news coverage. I would add that I get sick of watching all the suffering as well. Wah-wah this and wahwah that, get a grip! I don't get cable TV at the Feedlot, so that helps.
I dunno. I don't commit crimes. Not that I know of anyway. But I'm just trying to imagine. I've got precious little money. My house just disappeared in a storm, along with those of my neighbours. The baby's crying for food. People nearby have drowned. There's water up to my knees. Doesn't look like anyone's coming to help...
I dunno. I don't know New Orleans, or its people. But I figure that if I was in that situation, I might become pretty interested in that Walmart over there, and no-one around to ask. I'm definitely not going to steal a gun (or carry one), and the last thing on my mind is the profit potential of a black market TV set. But food???
I'd take it, rather than watch it rot. And hope that people outside New Orleans wouldn't consider it looting, just common sense.
Just a little perspective, please, PTG?
For food, you say??? How about for a new TV set? For DVD movies? For rifles and ammo? New threads? Jewelry? All this stuff is being stolen by the looters I'm talking about. Getcher rosy glasses off, Mark. And, the last time I looked, stealing food is still stealing. But then, you are a moral equivocator, eh?
OK, if you take necessities in an emergency, you leave your name and pay for it later. I have some experience with the etiquette of trapper's cabins in the Frozen North. You may 'break into' one to save yourself from freezing, and you may avail yourself of the supplies to keep from starving. But you must make it right when you can.
Do you think the only thing being stolen in the hurricane aftermath is necessities? Do you think these rampaging scum are going to pay for their loot later? If so, you are delusional.
Once again, please re-read before you react. I'm quite sure there are 'rampaging scum' down there taking TV sets. Let's console ourselves with the thought that TVs don't work under three feet of water, with no electricity. But what my TV is showing right now are poor people without food. Maybe they SHOULD be leaving notes owning up to what they took. Your point about the trapper's cabins is well-taken - but this is a disaster zone, not an empty wilderness. Condemn them for the TVs, by all means, but cut them some slack for the food.
If that's moral equivocation, I'm proud to hold my hand up. IF you insist on seeing everything in black and white, you end up boxing yourself into a corner, which helps no-one.
I just re-read my post. My apologies for the mixed metaphors at the end.
:::closing arguements::::
Commenting by HaloScan
