Sky, Not Falling?
What a disappointment. First, it started cooling off. Big problem no one’s quite ready to deal with yet.* Great Depression fears … Shiller at NYT, tell us something we haven’t heard before. Now this, swine flu … petering out?
Well, the great thing about impending doom, is it’s never too soon to panic … or to start capitalizing on on a good scare. Look at what great opportunities the virus known as H1N1 has offered to for advancement in the critical field of political correctness. AP:
“Using fears over a serious and ongoing public health issue to demonize immigrants is incredibly low and incredibly cynical, not to mention completely unsubstantiated,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. “Some of these comments are overtly racist and have no place in our public discourse.”
Liany Arroyo, director of the National Council of La Raza’s Institute for Hispanic Health, said some were trying to exploit the virus “as a mechanism to stir fear.”
“This situation is not about immigration, it’s about health,” she said. “We’re all in this together.”
But fear is not a rational beast. History is rife with unfounded health scares, some as recent as the 1980s, when Haitians were banned from donating blood in the United States during the early stages of the AIDS epidemic.
So, for anyone who looks Mexican, today’s casual cough can turn into humiliation.
In Wilmington, N.C., construction worker Juan Mendoza said he was “working for these rich people … the other day, and they kept asking me and my co-worker if we were sick. It made me feel bad. Like it’s our fault?”
Moises Fernandez, a Raleigh, N.C., resident originally from Tamaulipas, Mexico, said no Americans have openly offended him. “But I know what they’re thinking,” said the 24-year-old construction worker. “You can tell with how they look at you.”
That’s terrible. It’s almost like when you question rampant illegal activity or someone’s political inexperience and are immediately branded a racist.
The news agency that never misses a chance seize racism whether there is any or not, is now reveling in anti-illegal hatemongering, but is forced to concede there hasn’t been any actual flu-related discrimination against Hispanics.
Hey, wait a minute. If there’s no link between illegals and swine flu, then why did so many document-challenged Americans and their advocates shun Friday’s big May Day pro-illegalism rallies? AP again.
Crowds were dampened in many areas though, as the swine flu scare kept numerous people home Friday. The area hardest hit by the swine flu is Mexico, also the native home of many rally participants.
Only one possible explanation. They’re public-health conscious, exercising common sense, maybe a little scared … and racist!
Topics: impending doom!, medicine, racism
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:57 am on Sunday, May 3, 2009
6 Responses to “Sky, Not Falling?”
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May 3rd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I can just imagine Democrats wanting to be sensitive if there is ever an outbreak of Bubonic Plague again.
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Well, Rahmy did say, never waste a good crisis. The corollary to that is, if you haven’t got one, make one.
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 pm
[...] lastly, THE SKY IS FALLING! Or not. Jules is just too realistic. Share and [...]
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:31 pm
When a significant number of Mexicans got ill and died, then indeed it was sensible to get on the alert and prepare…belittling may be fun for you, but then try this:
when Bush warned about Al Qaeda when he assumed office, he did not panic. In fact he did nothing and we had 9/11.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
“… when Bush warned about Al Qaeda when he assumed office, he did not panic. In fact he did nothing and we had 9/11.”
The warning he received was along the lines of: “We have heard about this group called ‘Al Qaida’; it sounds really bad, and you might try to do something about it.”
And those who quote Richard Clarke are poseurs.
Cheers
May 4th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
This is a great piece. It’s amazing how sensationalized the recent swine flu (or, yes, H1N1 virus…whatever) has become in the popular media. Everyone is arguing his or her point as to what the virus means for Mexico, for the U.S., for other countries…as well as what it will look like in a year, etc. While these are all important things to give attention to, there are simply too many other issues (not to mention, death-inducing ones) that deserve national/international attention at this point and are not getting it. Everyone’s arguing whichever angle suits him/her best and forgetting to look at the big picture. I would say the repercussions from this whole H1N1 ordeal are some of the most noteworthy at this point–particularly from the economic side of things in an already bleak economic state. I watched a well-made video examining a few of such repercussions (like China-Mexico dealings, pork industry, etc.) at newsy.com. It’s worth looking at:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/viral_confusion/