I meant to post on this yesterday, but I'm glad I didn't. At the end of NBC's newscast yesterday, Brian Williams mentioned that they would be referring to the people left devastated and homeless after hurricane Katrina as "survivors" or "evacuees" rather than "refugees." Article here. Apparently, some people wrote in bothered by the word refugee.
Fuck Jesse Jackson and his belief that the word refugee has race implications!!
And fuck those right-wing, kumbayah singing, we're-all-gonna-make-it-through-this douche bags!
Oh my god, did I just say that?
Here's what I'm talking about.
From Dicitonary.com
evacuee - A person evacuated from a dangerous area.
refugee - One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution.
Now let's look at the verbs on which these nouns are based.
refuge -
Protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship.
A place providing protection or shelter.
A source of help, relief, or comfort in times of trouble.
evacuate -
To withdraw from or vacate a place or area, especially as a protective measure.
To excrete waste matter from the body.
Sorry for that second definition of evacuate, but I can't resist referencing poop.
Anyway, I know that those people are thinking, We don't have refugees in our country! Refugees are those poor people we don't care about in Africa.
Well, guess what? We do have refugees. Perhaps if there had been more preventitive measures taken, and these people weren't surrounded by death and disease for over five days, we would merely have evacuees. The government fucked up. Across the board--fucked up. And, unlike Harry S. Truman, Bush's buck starts at the President's desk and gets passed to just about everyone. I see the change in words as a way in which these blind people are continuing to pass the buck and lessen the severity of the disaster. And the fact that the "liberal media" kowtows to these cross-huggin', bigoted fuck-ups only exacerbates the matter (and validates their screwed up beliefs).
We have refugees. We are not above having refugees. We need to focus on providing refuge.
In other news, Arnold has decided to veto the CA gay marriage bill. Woohoo! One small step (backwards) for mankind! I could go on about the principles of equality and our founding fathers' belief in a secualr government, but I'm sure other people have already done a better job than me. So I just want to say "Fuck you" to people like BoiFromTroy (Sept. 7th entry) and other self-hating queers that actually believe they can have a voice in a party whose constituents wish they didn't exist.
So, "Fuck you!"
And, you, gentle reader, thanks for listening to me bitch.
refugee - One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution.
Now let's look at the verbs on which these nouns are based.
refuge -
Protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship.
A place providing protection or shelter.
A source of help, relief, or comfort in times of trouble.
evacuate -
To withdraw from or vacate a place or area, especially as a protective measure.
To excrete waste matter from the body.
Sorry for that second definition of evacuate, but I can't resist referencing poop.
Anyway, I know that those people are thinking, We don't have refugees in our country! Refugees are those poor people we don't care about in Africa.
Well, guess what? We do have refugees. Perhaps if there had been more preventitive measures taken, and these people weren't surrounded by death and disease for over five days, we would merely have evacuees. The government fucked up. Across the board--fucked up. And, unlike Harry S. Truman, Bush's buck starts at the President's desk and gets passed to just about everyone. I see the change in words as a way in which these blind people are continuing to pass the buck and lessen the severity of the disaster. And the fact that the "liberal media" kowtows to these cross-huggin', bigoted fuck-ups only exacerbates the matter (and validates their screwed up beliefs).
We have refugees. We are not above having refugees. We need to focus on providing refuge.
In other news, Arnold has decided to veto the CA gay marriage bill. Woohoo! One small step (backwards) for mankind! I could go on about the principles of equality and our founding fathers' belief in a secualr government, but I'm sure other people have already done a better job than me. So I just want to say "Fuck you" to people like BoiFromTroy (Sept. 7th entry) and other self-hating queers that actually believe they can have a voice in a party whose constituents wish they didn't exist.
So, "Fuck you!"
And, you, gentle reader, thanks for listening to me bitch.
2 comments:
Post a Comment