December 31, 2004
This is better
Yahoo! News - Bush Raises Tsunami Aid Tenfold to $350 Million
I am glad to see Bush respond better. I have been reading the blog world on this issue and see a wide ranging discussion. Many conservatives have been very angry at the criticism, and some of their points are not bad. The US does pony up a lot in disaster relief, though the percentages are still worth noting. We can be better about how we respond to the world. Too many conservatives treat global poverty as a result of weakness, rather than looking at the broader issues of the global economy. We should be far more active in addressing these issues. And Bush's lackluster response to this disaster is in contrast with his rhetoric of Christianity.
But $350 million is a much better response.
I also want to address my most recent post. Critics over at Chuck Curry's blog pointed out that many other websites including MoveOn.org and other lefty groups were also not advertising the tsunami. That is a good point. Unfortunately, it echoes with what seems like a standard conservative response to criticism--the other side is doing it (or not doing it) too. This works on the playground, but still obscures the point that people who wrap themselves in the mantle of Christianity are incredibly shallow. I know that many people on the right are doing good work and are actually putting up their own money to help out people in need. But make no mistake about it; Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy and James Dobson are not good people. Nor are they good models of Christian faith.
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2 comments:
MoveOn.org may not have put anything up on their Web site, but they did send an e-mail to members in the week after the tragedy asking people to give if they could. FaithfulAmerica.org did the same and also put something on its Web site, as did the Democratic Party (but not the GOP).
I'm not as hard on narrowly focused political groups that didn't update their Web sites (and it's important to remember, I think, that many people were on vacation and offices closed last week and thus updates might have been impossible). I'm not sure what the ACLU, for example, or the NRA might have to do with tsunami aid. But explicitly Christian groups are something else, especially those that use the faith as a tool to push their agenda, whatever it might be. For such groups (on either side of the aisle) to ignore the tragedy is more startling to me -- and more disappointing.
I agree. Christian groups hold themselves up as something superior and therefore can be held to a higher standard.
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