Seeker Blog

The problem with anecdotal evidence is it that it is so … anecdotal. But that doesn’t stop the legacy media from exploiting sound bites that fit their narrative frame. Here are contra-anecdotes, oddly from the Star Tribune:

Jim Lodoen shakes his head at some of the news reports out of Houston. They feature angry Hurricane Katrina victims lodged at the Astrodome who insist they are receiving insufficient assistance. Lodoen, a Minneapolis attorney with the Lindquist & Vennum law firm, just got back from a week as a volunteer at the Astrodome complex.

“That’s not what I saw,” he says.

…

Once in Houston, Lodoen made his way to the Astrodome complex, which houses thousands of victims displaced from ravaged New Orleans. He was prepared to find chaos. Instead, he says, he was struck by how well-organized the massive operation was. “There was lots of food, and free stores stocked with clothing, personal items and games. Volunteers on laptops were helping people find family and friends.” FEMA, Social Security and other agencies were out in force.

Lodoen circulated among residents’ cots, striking up conversations. “Everyone has lost their possessions, their jobs, many friends and perhaps some family. No one knows what tomorrow holds.”

But to his surprise, he saw no resentment. People were eager to talk, he says — not about grievance, but about hope and gratitude.
He met a family that had slept in stadium seats for four nights. “I said, ‘That must have been terrible.’ ‘Oh, no,’ the woman said. Instead of focusing on what they lacked, they were deeply thankful for what they had: food, lights, a roof, each other.”

…

Back at his mother’s hospital room, Lodoen saw television reporters interviewing victims who appeared angry and indignant. “I thought, ‘Where are they coming up with these people? I’m not seeing them.’” He was also shocked at the shrill finger-pointing on the news. “All around us, politicians are focused on the blame game. Yet the victims themselves are blaming no one. I didn’t hear one complaint. In fact, I was overwhelmed by the love, faith, determination and compassion that everyone shared.”

One black woman, says Lodoen, pointedly rejected charges of racism: ” ‘There’s been no racism,’ she told me. ‘There are only kind people helping everyone, black or white.’ ”

(ht: James Taranto)