Comments on: “A Stinking Cesspool”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:30:13 +0000

I think he’s dead on and I spent 3 months doing reconstruction here after the storm.

By: Gene Ha

Gene Ha — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 15:02:36 +0000

I decided to Google the terms “David E. Carson” & Bloomington. Here’s some other stuff he wrote.

“IU’s Chancellor and the university’s designated homosexual person in charge do not have the authority to control free speech…. We are not required to celebrate diversity. We are not obligated to prostrate ourselves before icons of Martin Luther King or any other designated idol of the so-called civil rights movement.”

So I think you’re right: he’s got issues.

By: Morris

Morris — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 05:34:28 +0000

This letter is nothing but racist garbage. Period.

By: Daniel L. Burton

Daniel L. Burton — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 23:03:26 +0000

This letter really upset me. I sent the following to the H-T:

In response to David Carson’s letter to the editor.

It would be my pleasure to drive Mr. Carson and any others sharing his ‘viewpoint’ on a trip through a few of New Orleans’ once beautiful, now devastated, middle-class neighborhoods. Lakeview, Broadmoor, Metairie and Gentilly come to my mind only because these sections of town reflect a lifestyle I assume Mr. Carson would approve of.

He would certainly understand more clearly the scope of the catastrophe at hand. The neighborhoods - each one the size of downtown Bloomington, gone. Schools, playgrounds, shopping centers - vacant.

New Orleanians are not the ‘work does not seem to be part of their vocabulary’ people portrayed in his letter. He may be dismayed to learn that they too have families, pay taxes, go grocery shopping. In fact, in every way they’re almost exactly like Bloomingtonians.

As much as American’s continually enjoy portraying New Orleans’ as a corrupt, crime-ridden, backwards, ‘cesspool’, the fact is it’s not much different than any other American city. Ask yourself Mr. Carson, if a natural disaster of this scale hit say Cincinnatti, would things really be any different?

These are ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances. Please spare them some empathy.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 22:59:23 +0000

There’s been a lot of questionable letters to the editor and Op Ed pieces here in Baltimore as well. I think that papers around the country just want to print things that will encite people to react because papers have nothing else going for them.

I don’t think I agree that letters like this need to be responded to…I don’t know, I go back and forth. When you respond you lend it legitimacy, like it’s worth responding to, and it really isn’t.

It’s like responding to spam.

By: lemming

lemming — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 13:51:28 +0000

The H-T editorial pages are nothing if not entertaining. I’m still partial to the debate over the inerrancy of the Bible a few years back. One fellow wrote in to say that the Bible needs no translation, so someone else wrote in to say that he was happy fellow #1 could read ancient Greek and Latin, but he rather liked having the Bible translated into English.

I’m surprised that this letter appeared at all - Katina truly (and sadly) seems to have fallen out of the national mind-set, as witness the SOTU speech.

By: MF

MF — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:21:18 +0000

My dad has said stuff like that, because he believe New Orleans gov’t is corrupt and would waste the money, and because NO was built below sea level. But, Buffalo has gotten federal assistance after several large storms. How would he like it if people said, “You chose to live in Buffalo even thought it’s snowy, so why should WE pay to dig you out?”

By: Mike The Mathematician

Mike The Mathematician — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 22:27:23 +0000

What’s interesting about this, to me at least, is that while in Btown a couple weeks ago, aside from what little was on the national news, there wasn’t squat mentioned about Nola on TeeeeVeeee. I read the Btown paper every day online and there ain’t squat about Nola there, either. So, seems to me that this isn’t about what this guy’s seeing in the media, it’s about this guy not liking Nola.

So, hey, get off yer lazy welfare ass and get to work!

By: Sophmom

Sophmom — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:20:40 +0000

I think Magic makes a great point. I am not so surprised that this ignorant person wrote the letter, but I am a bit surprised that the paper printed it. That is of great concern. I heard more comments along these lines early on after the storm (up here in Atlanta), but, whether because anyone who was likely to say such things by now knows not to say them to me, or if the perception has changed, I do not know. I do suspect that this attitude is rooted in racial prejudice. JMHO.

By: a

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 18:16:01 +0000

What TV is Mr. Carson watching? These days media coverage seems minimal at best.