Bill O’Reilly usually annoys the heck out of me, but I thought he made some good points on his show Wednesday night. I made my daughter read this transcript.
The government cannot protect us, part two: that is the subject of this evening’s “Talking Points Memo”.
Earlier this week, I debated Newt Gingrich about my thesis that self reliance, not reliance on government, is the key to self protection. If you’re poor, you’re powerless. That’s why the poor got smashed in the hurricane zone.
Today, syndicated columnist Liz Smith.
writes, “FOX News emperor Bill O’Reilly (I guess that’s me) tells us in Katrina’s wake that if we — Americans —depend on the United States government for any reason, we are certain to be disappointed. Always. Bill’s advice to America (to the poor of New Orleans, especially) is educate yourself and get a well-paying job. Only then can you avoid standing on a ‘metaphorical rooftop’ when the next disaster rolls around. Bill did not give the poor any advice on how one finds a proper education or a job. Remember, the government can’t help.”
Now up front, I have to tell you that Liz Smith is a liberal woman, but an honest one. She’s extremely fair and accurate in her reporting and has a dignity many in the print press lack. So I am pleased to respond to her on this issue.
The USA has mandatory education. You have to go to school or pass exams if home-schooled. But nobody can force you to learn while you’re in school.
If you refuse to do the hard work that education requires, and millions of kids do, you’re going to be ill equipped to compete in the marketplace. And all the government programs in the world are not going to change that.
So every American kid should be required to watch videotape of the poor in New Orleans and see how they suffered, because they couldn’t get out of town. And then, every teacher should tell the students, “If you refuse to learn, if you refuse to work hard, if you become addicted, if you live a gangsta-life, you will be poor and powerless just like many of those in New Orleans.”
That’s the truth. And one does not find an education. This country provides every citizen a chance to get one. Public education’s free. Public libraries are free. Many community colleges are basically free. And scholarships of all kinds are everywhere. But no politician can make you learn or develop a skill.
Now for centuries, charlatans have been telling Americans that the government can provide, will provide and you deserve to be provided for. Bull. Terrorists killed 3,000 on 9/11. Poverty stands at 12 percent, despite trillions spent on Great Society programs over the last 40 years. And acts of nature can kill you if you can’t get out of the way.
Hurricane Katrina (search) once again showed the world that government is fallible and indeed can be overwhelmed. Depend on yourself. Get educated. Get smart. Get personal resources. That is the lesson of Katrina.
And that’s “The Memo.”
Well it isn’t a Catholic virtue to blame the poor for their poverty. It is a Protestant virtue, and therefore an American one. What about the children and the old people, those people who can not work and make money? The article you link to has a very cold hearted attitude. It comes accross saying “if you are poor it is your fault”. If you were stranded in New Orleans it is your fault and you didn’t deserve help because you didn’t get an education. It neglects the elderly, the children, the single mothers, and the sick.
Surely Jesus never said anything of the sort. It is the great American herisy–to blame the poor for their state in life.
Hi Panys
I am Australian and am an outsider looking in at your recent disaster. However I do find that many Americans have a much more callous attitude towrds the poor and down and outs than we do. Americans call people down on their luck losers whereas we refer to them as battlers and we seem to have a better up to a point safety net that your country does for people on welfare. When we had bushfires in Canberra, those who were untouched rallied around as many of us think that next time it mght be me. Being unemployed, a single mother or generally without anything can happen to anyone, I always think there but for the grace of God go I.
To be honest I did think all your governments could have done a better job of looking after th3 victimes of the New Orleans floods both at the state and federal level. It did not reflect well on your nation. Your country is the richest nation in the world at the moment and could do much more to look after your own as
charity really begins at home whether the victims are black, white or brindle. the developing contries who suffered from the Tsumai did a better job of looking after their own citizens and most lack your infrastrucuture, resources and wealth. Those countires did not have the civil disorder that New Orleans has had, this I suspect may be due to the fact as a nation too many Americans seem to pack a gun.
CatholicGuy,
For the most part, I do not like Bill O’Reilly because he is a political commentator without religion. His conservative observations are usually without charity, while his moral opinions are too liberal for my taste (i.e. he promotoes birth control).
That said, I never got out of this article “the poor derserved to die in the hurricane”. If that is what you got (and we all read different things because we come from different experiences), you are correct, that is not Catholic and kind of gross.
What I got out of it that I thought was worth repeating was:
1. The government is made out of human beings, and human beings are not perfect, hence the government is not perfect, you need to do what you can to rely on yourself. The government is not to have power and distribute it, but to keep people from walking all over each other and to help when it can.
2. Do not waste your potential.Yes, I think Mr. O’Reilly is oversimplifying things.I think it is a fallacy that a child being able to learn in this country is a matter of determination because many inner city schools suck and are incapable of educating.But I also know people who had to work harder to find opportunities, but they did and took advantage of them.
Again, I do not get at all from Mr. O’Reilly that he is saying the poor deserved to die in the hurricane. Who would say such a thing? But I do have a question:
Surely Jesus never said anything of the sort. It is the great American herisy–to blame the poor for their state in life.
I do have a question though. When someone is poor, it is not hard to understand why someone is in a certain scenario, and it is not hard to understand that you were blessed enough to not have been put in that string of events that would have you making the same choices. But is it anti-Catholic to say someone “…made these choices and they were bad ones, this is why they only make this much money? I understand why they did that, I would have done it too, but it was the worng decision?”