Herald Sun on Sunday (Victoria State, Australia): Rape Threat to Our Women.
AUSTRALIAN survivors of Hurricane Katrina told last night of their dramatic escape from New Orleans and the unfolding civil disaster in city.
The group, joyful at fleeing the nightmare of the Louisiana city, lauded one of its members as a hero. Bud Hopes, of Brisbane, was praised for saving dozens of tourists as the supposed safe haven of the city's Superdome became a hellhole.
From the subtext of this report, it is clear that Mr Hope's genuine concern for people kicked in with a natural tribal instinct to look after 'one's own'.
Realising that foreigners were a target, Mr Hopes and the other Aussies gathered tourists from Europe, South America and elsewhere into one part of the building.
"There were 65 of us, so we were able to look after each other -- especially the girls who were being grabbed and threatened." Mr Hopes said.
He said they had organised escorts for the women when they had gone for food or to the toilet, and rosters to keep guard while others slept.
"We sat through the night just watching each other, not knowing if we would be alive in the morning."
It also looks like Americans aren't the only people that turn to prayer in times of crisis (i.e., there are no atheists in foxholes):
John McNeil, 20, of Brisbane, said the worst point had come after two days when soldiers had told them the power in the dome was failing and there was only 10 minutes worth of gas left.
"I looked at Bud and said, 'That will be the end of us'," Mr McNeil said.
"The gangs . . . knew where we were. If the lights had gone out we would have been in deep trouble. We prayed for a miracle and the lights stayed on."
In a related matter, Professor Ann Althouse, who is white, blogged after she had read about the National Guard rescuing white tourists from the Superdome:
My concern was with whether the National Guard were taking the problems of white people more seriously than those of black people.
Back at the Superdome - far from the ivory towers of Madiscon, Wisconsin - the Australians thank the National Guard for saving their lives:
Mr Hopes said the Australians owed their lives to a National Guard Staff Sgt Garland Ogden, who had broken the rules to get the tourists out of the dome, with 60 people being evacuated to a medical centre.
"We did some shifts at the hospital to help nurse the sick to say thank you. It was a real Aussie thing," he said.
The reality of the danger their son was in hit John MacNeil's parents very hard, but then Professor Althouse didn't have any of her family stuck in the Superdome:
Mrs McNeil broke down when she saw images of her son leaving New Orleans.
"There have been times during this past week when we didn't know if we would see him again," she said.
Mr McNeil said he could see a change in his son.
"They've been traumatised," he said. "I think they've witnessed several atrocities."
As for Althouse, I really don't know what to say. If there is one good thing out of this, it is unmasking people like her for what they really are, and blowing away their pious claims of caring about equality and justice.
Steve Den Beste used to say that an object is what it does. By that measure, Althouse is just Jesse Jackson hiding under a white sheet.
Posted by: Zach | 05 September 2005 at 08:53 AM