First Lady reads Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Laura Bush reads Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh with middle school students during Mrs. Hatty Drew’s reading lab at the Snowden School in Memphis, Tenn. Friday, April 23, 2004. White House photo by Tina Hager

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/images/20040423-12_lbmemphisreadingdsc-790v.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/images/20040423-12_lbdsc5546-515h.html

Full Story:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040423-12.html

Huh, well what do ya think about that. There's a fan in the white house. That's just cool.

I find it somewhat ironic that the First Lady chose this title to read to a group of middle school children. Don't get me wrong for I have no qualms with the book per say, but my point is this; Why would she choose a book that teaches about caring and understanding, about being kind to the environment, etc. when it is painfully obvious that she nor her husband haven't got a clue as to what these concepts are all about. If you should have any doubts about this, just ask any victim of Hurricane Katrina or Rita.

Peace :cry:
NIMHmaniac

I find it somewhat ironic that the First Lady chose this title to read to a group of middle school children. Don't get me wrong for I have no qualms with the book per say, but my point is this; Why would she choose a book that teaches about caring and understanding, about being kind to the environment, etc. when it is painfully obvious that she nor her husband haven't got a clue as to what these concepts are all about. If you should have any doubts about this, just ask any victim of Hurricane Katrina or Rita.

Without being too political--and no, I didn't vote for Bush--let me just say that my husband is WORKING on fixing up New Orleans and the reason there are so many "victims" of the hurricane is because the people down there have been leeching off the government for generations. They expect everything handed to them and take no personal responsibility.

Sure, there are some cases where people had no viable way to leave, but many did and chose not to--they were waiting for the government to come and bail them out. Down the road from my house is a new hotel where evacuees have been staying (for free) since the hurricane hit. Every once in awhile one of them gets on the news and whines about "not getting their FEMA check" but when asked, they also say they haven't bothered to get a job, either. The hotel, which was less than a year old, has also been trashed. The owners think it will take nearly $1M to clean up the messes that the Katrina "victims" made all over the hotel. Why? They didn't care about it--it was FREE!

Finally, the school I work at took in a number of Katrina victims as students. The kids in our school did a drive for them before they arrived and raised nearly $25K plus clothing, CD players, school supplies, etc. Do you know what one of them said after being given all of these things? "These clothes ain't (name brand)! I ain't wearin' em!" That's thanks for you.

So...yeah. Don't be all up in the Kool-aid if you don't know the real flavor.

To Robin,

First off, I'd like to tip my hat to your husband for the work he is doing in helping to rebuild homes for the victims of Katrina. However, I must take offense at your broad characterization of these very same people as nothing more than parasites who " have been leeching off the government for generations. They expect everything handed to them and take no personal responsibility." The simple facts are: while it is true that a good many of thes people were poor, they none the less owned their own homes, and worked to earn a living. The homes that they lived in might not have been Beverly Hills style mansions and the jobs that they worked at would not make the CEO of a Fortune 500 company blush with envy, but at least they had that much which is a far cry from being just a so called parasite. These were/are solid citizens of this country and as such, they deserved much better treatment than what they got as a whole.
I'd also like to remind you that Katrina was not some isolated incident in that no one knew what could happen if the levees were breached. Indeed just the opposite is true. The federal government and more specifically, the good folks at FEMA rehearsed for just such a possibility because they knew that those levees could only withstand up to a category three hurricane and Katrina peaked at a high four or a five. They knew how dire the situation was, yet nothing was done to upgrade those levees. Worse still, up to two days before the storm hit and it was clearly evident as to its size and power, nothing was done in terms of proper evacuation, the bringing in of food and medical supplies until after the storm had strck and the ensuing flooding had taken place. The Mayor of New Orleans as well as the Governor of Louisiana are to be commended for the part they played. At least these two individuals had the courage and forsight to initiate a response, whereas the federal government was falling flat on its face.
Also as you yourself stated, alot of these people simply had no place to go. Some were bedridden due to sickness or other reasons and could not be expected to just pick up and go to start anew somewhere else. For some of them, their homes and hence that community was their whole life and now that is all gone. I would ask you to seriously consider these facts the next time you feel like making such a broad characterization.

Peace NIMHmaniac :)

FEMA failed and there is no question there,
the days after, we sent our two rescue hueys and gave up our only means of rescue here if anything should go wrong at the flight test center.
Also we flew a UAV to check and map the horror.
As it seems the military was first to be there, the air and army reserves was on the job. Our boss at Edwards AFB made the call on our side.
BTW when our brave men and women returned with the choppers there where some bad stories on how they where shot at , I would put it off as bull krap, but I put my finger thru a hole in one of the choppers, one out of six holes between the two craft, I knew then that americans can act like the VC .

To Robin,

First off, I'd like to tip my hat to your husband for the work he is doing in helping to rebuild homes for the victims of Katrina. However, I must take offense at your broad characterization of these very same people as nothing more than parasites who " have been leeching off the government for generations. They expect everything handed to them and take no personal responsibility." The simple facts are: while it is true that a good many of thes people were poor, they none the less owned their own homes, and worked to earn a living. The homes that they lived in might not have been Beverly Hills style mansions and the jobs that they worked at would not make the CEO of a Fortune 500 company blush with envy, but at least they had that much which is a far cry from being just a so called parasite. These were/are solid citizens of this country and as such, they deserved much better treatment than what they got as a whole.
I'd also like to remind you that Katrina was not some isolated incident in that no one knew what could happen if the levees were breached. Indeed just the opposite is true. The federal government and more specifically, the good folks at FEMA rehearsed for just such a possibility because they knew that those levees could only withstand up to a category three hurricane and Katrina peaked at a high four or a five. They knew how dire the situation was, yet nothing was done to upgrade those levees. Worse still, up to two days before the storm hit and it was clearly evident as to its size and power, nothing was done in terms of proper evacuation, the bringing in of food and medical supplies until after the storm had strck and the ensuing flooding had taken place. The Mayor of New Orleans as well as the Governor of Louisiana are to be commended for the part they played. At least these two individuals had the courage and forsight to initiate a response, whereas the federal government was falling flat on its face.
Also as you yourself stated, alot of these people simply had no place to go. Some were bedridden due to sickness or other reasons and could not be expected to just pick up and go to start anew somewhere else. For some of them, their homes and hence that community was their whole life and now that is all gone. I would ask you to seriously consider these facts the next time you feel like making such a broad characterization.

Peace NIMHmaniac :)

Actually, you "mustn't" take offense at anything, as, technically, unless you're a New Orleans evacuee, it's not your offense to take up. Enter our society's big problem numero uno: Taking up offenses for other people as the holy judge on all matters elect.

Hmm. The statement involving reference to parasitical characteristics has little or nothing to do with whether or not these people own homes or not. Neither has it anything to do with whether or not they're poor. Rich people leech off the government, too, and some people who aren't demanding their next loly-pop from good old Uncle Sam live in the pits of despair. I wouldn't be too "hasty" to assume on that matter.

"These were/are solid citizens of this country and as such, they deserved much better treatment than what they got as a whole." Speaking of broad characterizations, let's analyze this. I hate to go elementary on you, but the assumption that any one or one-million people do or do not deserve something is not a judgment that you as a human being can make. No one can. The law surely is supposed to judge without bias, but that judges actions, not people. You and no one else can condemn or raise an individual, but you can condemn or raise an action/deed. Let's not place value on human beings as if some people deserve better and some deserve worse. Maybe they do, but unless you've run across some omniscience that I'm not aware of, you'll never know that for sure.

Haha, do you know how long it takes to "upgrade" a seriese of levees that size? Two days or two weeks or two months would not be enough. Furthermore, if there was supposed to be an issue with the location of New Orleans and a threat of damage by hurricane that could be corrected by our federal government, don't you think they would know better than to build their society on the settling sediment of the Mississippi river? Correct me if I'm wrong, but they don't say the foolish man built his house upon the sand for no reason.

You organize the military and disaster releif forces for large scale on-site evacuation someday and let me know how well that goes. Besides, if the governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans had done their job, they would have forseen the possibility of something like this and had a host of state-wide disaster relief prepared. And do they? Texas has it's own militia, and other organizations in Louisiana like the Air Land Emergency Resource Team acted as soon as they could. A lot of people evacuated, and of those who didn't, not as many as you think were too debilitated to find transport out.

Finally, the United States government is not the society's wetnurse. Anyone foolish enough to expect our federal government to cure all ails and ward off every attack is doomed to disappointment. No body can do that. If we focused more on restoration instead of condemnation we'd be in better shape here. I disagree with our president and his administration on many issues, and I disagree with their opposition on many issues. What's sad is that people think they have the luxury to pout and whine and do nothing themselves, all the while buying into the disgusting ploys of yellow journalism. I'm a grief support counselor, and I've counseled several of the evacuees since Katrina hit. The last one in my facility left three weeks back, and I'll tell you this with surety: They are human beings, and it's tragic what happened to them, and we're working very hard at our own expense for their benefit; but I've never had to deal with a group of people less appreciative, less grateful. Don't be so "hasty" to blast Robin or me or anyone with the guts and bravado to expect better of people. Detriment and tragedy is no excuse for criminal activity and ungrateful behavior.

Let's keep this thread on-topic, please. I don't think discussion of Katrina refugees and so forth have much to do with the original post, nor with the general theme of this forum.

To Simon,

I apologize for letting things stray so far from the main subject at hand. As this will be my last post for this thread, I'll do my damndest to not let this happen again. That said, there are some issues that I feel should be addressed...


Tortillian... You stated in your reply that "You mustn't take offense at anything, as, technically, unless you're a New Orleans evacuee, it's not your offense to take up. Enter our society's big problem numero uno: Taking up offenses for other people as the holy judge on all matters elect." To this I could not disagree more. I think that the entire country, if not the whole world should be deeply offended by the actions taken (or in some cases, the lack of action taken) by FEMA and the rest of the federal government with regards to the victims of Katrina. To not show some form of displeasure only increases the possibility that the next time a storm like Katrina hits the Gulf or Atlantic coast, FEMA iwill react the same way it did before with the same catastrphic results simply because no one gave a damn. Maybe, just maybe with the amount of displeasure being shown, something might be done to "fix" FEMA so that something like this will never happen again.
The statement that I made about these peop[le being solid citizens and as such deserved much better treatment than they received was not meant to imply that they are somehow "better" than anyone else. What I did mean was (and I think that you'll agree) that the treatment that they did receive at the hands of FEMA was nothing short of absolutely deplorable. They should have been treated with dignity and respect. Instead what a lot of them got was callousness and uncaring.
In closing, I just want to say that while I fully understand that Katrina was a force that could not have been stopped by anything known to mankind, the aftermath could have been mitigated through better preparation and communication.
To Robin, If I hurt your feelings in any way, please accept my humble apology. My Intent was not to hurt you or anyone for that matter. My posts on this forum are my means of expressing my feelings on the subject matter at hand for the most part and I would never dream of deliberately "offending" anyone out there. I'll admit that sometimes my feelings on a particular subject may be quite strong, even passionate if you will, but in the end, I'd like to think that I helped to educate as well as experess my feelings.

Peace :D
NIMHmaniac

Sorry Simon,
Man we sure did get off track on this thread, and I gave my oats also, I never gave an answer to the main post :roll:

It is nice to see that the book "Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" is still alive and and may (hopefuly) stay in schools also, I never heard of it back then, but then I rememberd that I left high school in 1973 I may have missed it.
I`m amazed of the fans all over the world (tho small in number as we know), but young new fans to a great book and movie no less.

And we can make a new thread on the Katrina subject if need be.