After the storm, the Bushes take a beating

Re “Noblesse oblige? Not our president,” Opinion, Sept. 8

The character Mrs. Malaprop in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedic play “The Rivals” is noted for constantly using a word with a sound resembling the right one. In a humorless but similarly misguided fashion, the president and Barbara Bush have fractured the language of human compassion in their responses to the hurricane victims. To suggest that those at the Astrodome are better off now than they were before or to compare the loss of Sen. Trent Lott’s (R-Miss.) house to the losses of the underclass reeks of insensitivity and a total disconnection from the realities of poverty.

MICHAEL SESKIN

Solana Beach

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I was stunned to read Barbara Bush’s comment that things are working out very well for the poor New Orleans evacuees at the Houston Astrodome because they are “underprivileged anyway.” What an ignorant, insensitive and racist statement. Just think -- she raised this president.

PATTY SALINAS

Helendale, Calif.