On Heroes and Dignity and Slavery
      

A friend of mine posted something recently that I thought really hit the nail on the head.  I have pasted it below for your reading pleasure.

I would like to add my own thoughts to what she calls the "Katrina Problem."  Our reliance on 'heroes' also has an impact on our own perception of ourselves.  There are a lot of people out there who, in the name of love, stoop low to help others.  When you do this often enough in an all encompassing and pervasive way, the people cannot help themselves any longer.  (You could ask:  So, did you really help them?).   When people can't help themselves, they become demoralized.   When you tell them over and over again that they can't help themselves, and constantly reach in to 'help' them, all you've done is strip them of their dignity and enslaved them- to you.  If we want free men and women in this country we must actually treat them as free men and women.   When we help them, we must not enslave them.  And, as Americans, we must ask ourselves how much of the 'help' we are receiving actually has the net effect of enslaving us...

Here is my friend's post....

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I watched a special on Katrina a while ago--all this crazy behind the scenes footage of what was going on in the streets while all of that was happening.  People laying and dying on curbsides.  Bodies floating by.  People gathered into the big arena and not given enough food or supplies.  People stuck and no one helping them.  I tried to imagine how it would feel.  How helpless.  And how confused I would be at why no one was coming to help.  Where was the government or the armed services?  It would have boggled my mind if I had been there.

I know that scads of people blamed President Bush's administration for this because most people don't realize that he kept asking the governor to let the armed services come in and she kept putting him off.  
         

http://sntjohnny.com/front/on-heros-and-dignity-and-slavery/1181.html