“After meeting with Louisiana officials last week, Rev. Jesse Jackson said, quote, ‘Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response.’ He continued, quote, ‘I’m not saying that myself.’ Then I’ll say it: If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water, forcing many to steal for mere survival. Their bodies would not have been left to float in putrid water....We’ve repeatedly given tax cuts to the wealthiest and left our most vulnerable American citizens to basically fend for themselves....The President has put himself at risk by visiting the troops in Iraq, but didn’t venture anywhere near the Superdome or the convention center, where thousands of victims, mostly black and poor, needed to see that he gave a damn.”
— Contributor Nancy Giles on CBS’s Sunday Morning, September 4, 2005.