in medias res

People forget, and they forget quickly. That’s what those in power rely on. It’s not too far-fetched an idea to think that the kind of mind control seen in 1984 could actually occur. As long as the information that’s out there says one thing and no one objects, the few that think otherwise begin to question their own memory. But to persuade most people, it’s not even that hard. You need only a common focus for disdain and a rally cry. (Their problem, of course, is that if you don’t already hate him, then you probably won’t be joining a group that consistently proves itself irrelevant with routine calls for impeachment.) And unfortunately for this particular group, the public seems less and less willing to blame Bush for every problem America encounters. Could that be because they’ve complained that he’s been given carte blanche, then following a disaster, whine that he should have the power to sweep into a disaster area and kiss-and-make-it-better. Could you imagine the fallout if the President had forced his way into Louisiana and taken control of the relief efforts from the female Governor of the opposition party!?

I say all that to bring us to this: since people have this tendency to forget, that allows various windbags of media to manipulate people’s actions by rewriting history for them. (Apparently, the damage in New Orleans was entirely caused by Bush’s negligence over the past four years or so, and had nothing to do with local leadership funneling to other pet projects federal money that had been earmarked for the levees.) But people’s short memories also allow guests on Fox News to say ridiculous things like, “If these were white people in Florida during an election year, this kind of thing would not have happened!” (Not an exact quote, I’m still trying to find the transcript.)

Now, I don’t exactly know why this fella chose those specifics, but he happened to be 180 degrees wrong. It was only 13 years ago that such a thing happened; in fact, it happened with a Bush! Doesn’t anyone else remember hurricane Andrew? There was a whole slew of white folks in the Miami-Dade area that were stranded for 4 days waiting for FEMA to send relief only a few months before the ‘92 Presidential election.

Update: Here’s a Knight Ridder article with a scant supply of information on FEMA’s response during Andrew, though the sub-headline suggests otherwise. There’s more information from an Andrew survivor with his first-hand account here. Take note:

For ten long days, we were roped-off from the outside world by United States military forces, leaving us stranded with no food, no water, no medical supplies or shelter. Suffering from severe shell-shock, we waited and waited for rescue teams to arrive but that just never happened. None of the injured in the roped-off areas were ever rescued from the devastation. It was the worst gut-wrenching betrayal I have ever experienced.

And from the American Press:

Many of the problems FEMA is being criticized for now occurred in similar relief efforts in 1989 for Hurricane Hugo, in 1992 for Hurricane Iniki and in 1993 for Hurricane Andrew.