Honorary Canadian: DNC Chairman Howard Dean

BREITBART.COM - Just The News:

"'We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not,' Dean said."

As I said a few days ago in reference to Celine Dion, the principal export of Canada to the US seems to be "unhelpful, not to say ignorant, comments." It seems the former Vermont governor had some of that sort of Canadianness rub off on him across our northern frontier, so I am hereby naming Dr. Dean an "honorary" Canadian for his remarks on race and the hurricane.

There is no doubt that economics and age play a role in crises like this one, but is racism really an independent factor? I think not. When Hurricane Camille worked its way up the Blue Ridge there was massive flooding. Lots of folks were wiped out, especially the poor and elderly. But the victims were mostly white. Ditto with Hurricane Agnes. The difference is that, unlike the hill country of the Carolinas and Virginias, New Orleans was a city over two-thirds non-white.

Age is related to poverty, slightly, but it has independent factors which impact on evacuation. Some folks won't leave their property even in the face of certain death because they can't conceive of life anywhere else. Remember Harry Trueman? I believe he was in his late 70s when he refused to leave his cabin in the path of the Mt. St. Helens eruption. He made his choice, one younger people may find hard to understand, and he died where he chose to be. Some are just too tired to consider starting over somewhere else. Look at Hunter Thompson's suicide note which hit the news wires today. Thompson was only 67 but he wrote that he was just tired of living - and he wasn't even in the path of a storm.

To add racism to the mix is simply the height of irresponsibility. Better to ask why the Mayor Ray Nagin, a black man, did not do more to evacuate his mostly black constituents? Certainly the answer to that question is not racism. Or ask why Governor Blanco, another Democrat, just assumed the mayor was getting the job done even though a recent mock evacuation exercise had shown serious defects in the city's capabilities? That couldn't be due to racism.

There's going to be plenty of blame to go around when the situation is stabilized and we can afford the luxury of taking the responsible officials to task. But, when the fog clears, I seriously doubt that race will be a significant factor, at least not in the way Chairman Dean means.