Sage Lewis

How to Observe Labor Day - eHow.com

Ever since 9/11 the media has been floundering to determine exactly who it is. This week big media came into its own. It presented the situation in the best way it could. Without the media attention given to Katrina, things would likely still be languishing.

In a Democracy the people dictate policy. But the only way we can do that is if we are given a very blunt, in-your-face presentation of the world. We can make our own decisions as to how we will react. But we must know the truth.

Every leader must be held to the highest level of expectation in our greatest times of need. I believe President Bush has a greater sense of urgency because the media, and ultimately the people, demanded more of him. When you are in a leadership role in a Democracy the only way you know how to react is to hear the desires of the public in the current situation and in past situations. Our government - all of them - know exactly how we feel. And consequently, they are acting strongly now.

I suspect that in future American tragedies there will be a much quicker, shock-and-awe spectacle to save Americans. There will likely be polictical fall out from the initial slow response of Katrina. The lessons learned here will not be forgotten any time soon.

All of this I attribute to the response of American media. The musical montages and yelling at officials could probably be toned down a bit in our next inevitable American tragedy. But the idea is right. I realized, and I suspect the media realized, that ultimately it’s not your elected official that’s on your side. It’s your media that’s on your side. Even if you don’t agree with their presentation of a situation, they are the people investigating and digging to find as much truth as they can. You can determine at that point if you agree or disagree with what they find. You can determine if their findings are credible and actionable.

Even if you disagree with the media, they are truly the people who are your workhorse. Without them, the people who you respect and have placed in elected positions get free reign. It hurts when the media finds something that puts your elected official in a negative light. But you need to know. You need to know the truth so you can decide what to do about it.

The truth is, the landscape is less like “Democtrats versus Republicans” and more like, “the people, with the help of the media, versus the government”.

9/11 made me stronger, more aware, and societally mature. Katrina made me realize that the entire government, Republicans and Democrats, with their polorization, back stabbing, political-speak are all playing us. They are all intentionally keeping us off balance and divided. They do that to make their lives easier come election time. By dividing us we all just vote down party lines. In truth, we the people are a single body and our media is our tool to constantly inspect our elected officials. Once we realize that the separation, the us versus them, is really the people versus the government then we will get a much great, honest response from all of our officials.

Kartina made me realize that we need to come together. “Democrats versus Republicans” is just a illusion to control us. The media is truly on our side. They have been all along. They’ll do anything we tell them to. This week they hunted down the Katrina relief effort, we saw it, and it got better.

Here is to the start of the new uniting… The people and the media. Nice work Akron Beacon Journal. Nice work New York Times. Nice work CNN. Thank you Tim Russert. Thank you all of you for your tireless effort this week.

“I, the formerly un-jaundiced human rights advocate, have finally come to see my country for what it really is. A monstrous fraud.”

I agree. The symbolism of this event is very telling of the truth of our country. We have failed our black and our poor. We have always failed them. This week it is staring us right in the face.

The Blog | Randall Robinson: New Orleans | The Huffington Post

Being British gets you a hotel in Texas:
BBC NEWS | UK | Katrina Britons ‘moved from dome’

“Not a single tourist caught in the tsunami was mugged. Now with all this happening in the U.S. we can easily see where the civilized part of the world’s population is.”
BREITBART.COM - World stunned as US struggles with Katrina

We are such a hurt, divided, injured country. Please empathize with these people in our South.

This whole gross scene is just exposing us for who we really are. What you are seeing is the truth of America.

We are just an exposed, sensitive nerve… our entire country.

We are in such need for a leader who will love us. No one loves us. We are all just manipulated pieces in a giant politcal game for our leaders. The humanity is sacrificed.

We are now about to depart on a seperating, political path of Katrina. Nothing seems to bring us together. We all just keep moving further and further apart.

Whenever there is a stereotype, the stereotyped person always has to work harder disproving his stereotype than someone who does not carry the same stereotype.

The stereotype I’m talking about here is in reference to white people not caring about black people. You can debate all you want if we are working hard enough down in our South after Katrina. But whether we are or we aren’t… either way, it looks terrible. We are failing them as a society.

There are black people all over the world we ignore. Darfur is a current tragedy. But we cannot allow this kind of ignorance and passive stance go on in our country. GET THOSE PEOPLE OUT OF THERE!

This is an article about this in the New York Times: (you’ll need to register, if you haven’t.)

From Margins of Society to Center of the Tragedy - New York Times

Also, here’s a link to Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you have never read this, it is a crucial document in the civil rights movement in our country.

I wanted to point out one part that came to mind this morning. Dr. King writes:

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

The reason this came to mind is because it is always the moderate who does nothing. They just assume other people will take care of the situation. The moderate is also the majority. Devestating things can happen when the majority lets someone else handle our societal injustices.