My View on 'Polls'

I saw the latest CNN poll today... Is it me, or do we really need a poll to tell us that the black community and the white community view the calamity in New Orleans differently?

Why is it that CNN and other stations think this is news? Why are we bombarded with the items that divide us, and very little reporting is done on the things that bring us together? I find CNN and others, in their polls, to be practicing the age-old practice of race-baiting. Polls such as the latest one by CNN do nothing to unite the country, but are self-serving and pandering. The racists on both sides of the coin use this as fodder to fuel their furnaces of lies, hate and mistrust!

I think that the tragedy in New Orleans was painfully one-sided, not only within the black community, but specifically the poor black community. Yes, that is a travesty, but we should use this as a time for FIXING the problem, not for polls that will only further heat the simmering pot of race.

I found it interesting as I examined this disaster that much less reporting was done on the damaged Mississippi and Alabama coasts, where they actually had hundreds of deaths as well, and they suffered from the same lack of assistance from the US Government. And I hate to say this, but I believe this is because the 'picture' of the tragedy was not the one that media outlets wanted to present. That is, that these were also low-income and poor people, but many of them were white.

The reality is this; the problem that the US has is with the disparity between the haves and have-nots, NOT simply with issues between black and white. That is slavish pandering, and it does not address POVERTY; it creates tensions within the very peoples that need to be working together to create a solution! Yes, there is a disproportionate number of blacks in major cities which suffer from abject poverty, but within the hill and country communities it is a predominately white issue, and within the valley in Texas it is predominately a Hispanic issue... POVERTY is the enemy, not another race!

And the politicians use these polls to 'prove' their positions. Quite frankly, all politicians are pretty much the same, they care little about their constituency unless it is election year. New Orleans is a city with a black mayor, in a state with a female Democratic governor, yet their problems seem to be no less than those in the states where there are white, male, and/or Republican governments. We need to start getting knowledgeable on the issues that affect us and vote for the right person; not the right color, or right party! And that means ALL SIDES!

The truth be known, it is time for the people in this country to turn off the news outlets, ignoring their polls, turn off the TV and the vicarious living through reality junk, and begin to get smart on the issues in this country that affect all of us as a nation. It is time for us to find out who our neighbor really is. I recall a parable called the Good Samaritan, where a person was taking a poll of who his neighbor was, and Jesus set him straight. You will find this in Luke 10, and I highly recommend reading it! Our neighbors are those who show care and concern, regardless of race. The Samaritan and Jew, in Jesus' day, were bitterly divided over race, and religion; but Jesus went to the heart of the matter: our neighbor is the person who stands with us, and shows mercy... Let us begin to reach our hands across the racial, cultural, and economic boundaries that have, for too long, separated us. Let us shut down the politicians, and news outlets on ALL sides, who would try and divide, and let us take our country back, and let it be ruled by a UNITED PEOPLE... And let us care for, and love, our sick, poor, elderly and dispossessed regardless of race!