: Bloggers-of-the-World: UNITE and HELP

When everything that can be said has been said, when blame has been shifted around and the political finger-pointing has stopped, one fact still remains:
that of human SUFFERING and LOSS.

Amalgamated Perspectives asks you to join us in reaching out to the victims of Hurricane Katrina: Please reach into your wallets and donate generously to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund or to a Charity of your choice. Do it now.-

We thank you.

[Photo credit: John Makely/Sun]

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KATRINA: THE FLOODING OF IMAGES OF POVERTY IN AMERICA

An EDITORIAL by our French Correspondent, the Renaissance Man

"Hurricane Katrina has shattered the levees in New Orleans, and flooded that centuries-old city which was started by the French. Tens of thousands are displaced, homeless. Thousands are dead, floating in the muddy waters of the lake.

I won't comment or repeat the news which have been seen on the globe. But I would like to point out that a levee has also been breached in the American psyche; a levee that was keeping our society to forget, or avoiding us to see that poverty is alive and well in America in 2005.

Yes, the people who did not leave are black and poor. No, they could not afford to leave: with no car, or, for that matter, no future elsewhere, why bother?

The hurricane Katrina has shattered more than the walls and the levees of New Orleans. It has shattered the bold and egotistical "self-assurance" of a red, Republican America by showing to, and reminding all that tens of millions of people live in poverty.

In individual psychology like in the egos of Nations, it is when you become vulnerable - and admit that you are - that you open yourself up to being healed.

I hope that the U.S. will learn to pause for a second, and ask itself: how do we want to address poverty, which is the real question - instead of pointing fingers at why rescuers were late to arrive.

Ultimately, the voice of the Left has to make this question clear - and propose solutions. Maybe that now, the millions of poor or disadvantaged people who voted for the Right at the last elections (and thus against their own economic interest) will choose to see the real challenge: fixing poverty and the social and economic divide in America - instead of focusing on impeaching gay marriages and the crumbling of moral values in America.

With the levees crumbling in New Orleans, I hope that prejudice will also crumble, and help us focus on the real questions."

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[Discover WHO it is that PROFITS from Destruction and Loss]

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