Living like a refugee

Why it doesn't pay to be poor and black in America.

Watching news coverage of the refugees trying to enter the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans for safety from the approaching force-five Hurricane Katrina, I was incredulous how the people attempting to enter the stadium were being treated by the national guard troops and local police. The people were made to stand for hours outside in the awful Louisiana climate while they were admitted one or two adults at a time so they could be searched "for firearms and alcohol."

There were thousands of poor, mostly black citizens of the lower Louisiana area, many of them little children and sickly elderly, being forced to stand for hours while the government violated their civil rights with forced searches that were patently unconstitutional, unjust and unreasonable under the dire circumstances. 'Don't want to be searched? That's okay....now turn around, go outside and die!' Big choice.

Is the "freedom" that Bush tells us the terrorists hate? Free to be subjected to humiliating and inhumane treatment before one is allowed to receive relief services in a disaster? I'm surprised they didn't write numbers on their foreheads like they do to Iraqi captives.