While “the divers are still in the river looking”:
Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis said he has received at least a dozen telephone calls from law firms, most of them local, since it became public knowledge that a pregnant Somali woman, Sadiya Sahal, and her 2-year-old daughter, Hanah Mohamed, were among those missing after the collapse.
The calls started coming about 4 p.m. Thursday, less than 24 hours after the collapse, and haven’t stopped, Jamal said. Some of the attorneys have asked for telephone numbers and other personal information about Sahal’s family, Jamal said.
“This is the worst form of ambulance-chasing,” Jamal said. “The divers are still in the river looking, and the attorneys keep calling us.”
(Chris Serres and Matt McKinney, “Question of liability rises”, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Aug. 8)(via Ambrogi who got it from Minnesota Lawyer Blog).
8 Comments
I read this blog item and had the fleeting thought, “You know, in this day and age, someone will probably try to come up with a spin that the bridge collapse was racist or anti-immigrant somehow.”
But then I thought, nah, that’s too crazy, even for the forces of liberalism.
Then I read this.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070807bridge,0,1625840.story
AA, if hurricanes can be racist then why not bridges?
The family has become a symbol of how many Somalis feel the catastrophic collapse of the bridge seems to be hitting the Minneapolis Somali community particularly hard.
As the famous parody headline of the New York Times goes, “World Ends, Women and Minorities Hit Hardest.”
To Richard and Anonymous,
For the liife of me, I don’t know what you see in those articles that suggests somehow that the minority “card” is being pulled out. Its just an interesting story that Americans with other backgrounds (besides anglo-saxon protestants) have been affected as well. Whats the matter, you don’t have sympathy in your hearts for Somalis? Do all the victims have to look like you? Grow up.
Mustafa, the entire story is the “minority card.” Somalis hit “particularly hard”? How so? Did those tiresome, boring whites die or become injured in a manner less painful than the Somalis? No dramatic histories of oppression or colorful African rituals for them – so let’s spike that story. Talk about heartlessness! The story gets into great and fawning detail about the uniqueness of the Somalis and how they specifically were affected. Your characterization of it as “just an interesting story” about Americans with different backgrounds is way off. It’s deliberately crafted to make readers think that Somalis are wonderful, special people who suffer more than white Minnesotans.
Of course our hearts go out to all victims of the tragedy. But if you can find me a single media treatment in the last half-century about how Anglo-Saxon Protestants have been affected by anything, please pass it along. That’s not who the media writes about, ever. It’s always anything but.
“Deliberately crafted to make readers think that Somalis are wonderful, special people who suffer more than white Minnesotans.”
You’re reading way too much into the article. Firstly, I don’t think any objective, critical reader would come away from the article saying to themselves “Somalis are wonderful,”……it doesn’t have any judgements either way regarding the merits of Somalis as a group. I think people who might get that impression could well have some kind of bias against Somalis or immigrants.
As to your other points about nobody writing about anglo-saxons protestants and all their suffering, anglo saxons protestants control this country branch and root. The economy, the government, the media, their domination is overwhelming. And yet you’re flipping out over ONE article about Somalis. Give me a break.
Mustafa, as is quite plain to anyone who can read, I was making fun of the reporter and the news media for taking a tragedy and making it into a case of Somali victimhood. The only one here who seems to have problems with race and religion is you. The very next sentence after you deny that the reporter is pulling out the minority card you play it yourself.
It appears that you have a very big chip on your shoulder. You immediately jump to the conclusion that I must be an Anglo-Saxon Protestant (as a matter of fact I am neither) and therefore I must not like Somalis. So just who is the bigot here?
Anyone READING the Star-Tribune is reading too much of it.
And Mustafa, when you comment/complain that ASPs control the economy, are you advocating a more free market view so that there are no controls or are you in favor of it being controlled by some other group? Seems to me tat a Free Market has no one group controlling it.
“anglo saxons… control this country… their domination is overwhelming.”
Well, it’s like some Jewish folks say when Jews as a whole are accused of controlling the world: How come the other ones aren’t letting ME in on the fun?