Doggedly searching for the crux of the biscuit.
Despite watching and reading flood news obsessively, I haven't felt any desire to write about it, because the sheer horror of it all is just so overwhelming and I don't have any thought that every one of you hasn't had as well. What comes next will be even worse: removing thousands of dead bodies (and god knows how many animal carcasses) that have been in water for weeks from houses and streets, the nightmare of trying identify the remains. You can't really bury bodies in New Orleans even when it's dry and it's hard to see how we will avoid mass graves, unless part of the reconstruction money goes right away to buy a couple plots of land in Mississippi and Louisiana for government-maintained cemeteries and memorials. Which it should.
That's just the dead, though, and at the risk of sounding ghoulish, they're much easier to handle than the living. Several hundred thousand people are homeless, jobless, and destitute. A good chunk of the middle class from that area will join them in a couple of months when the savings run out. Abandoned stadiums aren't even a medium-term solution. We should call in the UN, which has the most experience handling big refugee situations, but I can't see the administration that sent them John Bolton ever asking.
The federal response was criminally negligent. No excuses exist for such an enormously inept and unbelievably slow response, especially when compared to the four hurricanes that happened in his brother's state of Florida during a presidential election year. Oh, they got moving then, but I suspect Jeb was the brains behind that one. That Bush ruined FEMA is undeniable and Mike Brown should have been fired already. However, it has long been obvious that Bush isn't serious about anything; he's just another prop at the photo-op. I can't even be mad at him, because of course he fucked this up. I never suspected he wouldn't. In Bush's words, "it is my style." In Frank Rich's, "Katrina is déjà vu with a vengeance."
However, the reality is that the people of New Orleans were failed by everybody. The system broke down on every single level — federal, state, and municipal. By design, the buck stops with the federal government, of course, but I suspect the folks sitting in the Astrodome right now don't feel any more charitable to their city or state governments. They were left to die. By everybody. Not just by the government, but by the society. Over the coming months and years, as we try to relocate all these traumatized, desperately poor people into communities around the country, I'm afraid they will find themselves left behind again, resented and feared.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, though, people are talking about poverty. I endorsed John Edwards during the last race, and did so primarily because he was the first major candidate in decades to talk in depth about poverty and our obligation to each other. I want to believe that the images we've all seen over the past week will shock our national conscience and awaken people to the fact that we don't all live in the same country, that we don't afford the same dignity, respect, and care to all of our citizens, that allowing grinding poverty helps produce the violence we've witnessed.
I want to believe that will happen. But I'm saddened and frightened that, deep down, I don't think it will.
TrackBackPolice shot eight people on a New Orleans bridge Sunday, killing five or six, a deputy chief said. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal.
The contractors were walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to fix the 17th Street Canal, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Corps.
Earlier Sunday, New Orleans Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.
The shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, which spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/04/D8CDN1TG1.html
Speaking of nice shootin', Russert put a hurting on Chertoff yesterday, the likes of which I never done seen before. Transcript here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/
A good friend recently said to me, regarding a family member's reconcilliation with an emotionally abusive spouse, "What is it going to take? Beatings? Is that what we have to look forward to?"
What is it going to take, America?
Scott, the GOP base does not see it like you. Despite an increasing dip in approval, it is clear that, with 38% of America thinking George is on the job, that they will sign off on *anything* this clown does. These people are convinced God appointed George. These are people who believe in election, not elections. The victim blaming will go on and on because they believe in a ruthless, vengeful God and their own moral supremacy.
I agree with Apos: I'm saddened and frightened. And I also feel that we need to start a dialog- begining at the community level- about where the American dream has gone.
The GOP built their grassroots on the meme that big government is out to control your life. They are now out to control our lives, and assets, and turn them over to Pat Robertson for sale to Walmart.
Listening to the refrain of Edwards speech at the '04 convention made me feel like maybe hope was on the way.
Posted by: Sterling at September 5, 2005 02:42 PM"…I'm saddened and frightened that, deep down, I don't think it will."
Given the short attention span and consumption-driven nature of our society, I have no doubt that it'll be business as usual in just a few weeks.
I mean, you've got to think positively here, think in terms of real dollars and cents. Think of the effect on Wall Street. Think how this will really boost the housing sector!
Posted by: Alan at September 6, 2005 01:32 AMThe main problem I sense is one of jurisdiction. Which was the federal government not taking control as they should have.
Posted by: Erik at September 6, 2005 02:21 AM"...they believe in a ruthless, vengeful God and their own moral supremacy."
A self-proclaimed “conservative Christian” coworker commented last week that, “we got Gomorrah, now something needs to wipe out Vegas so we can get Sodom.”
I'll bet there are a lot of "family value" Americans that feel the same way.
apostrophe, the most frightenting thing about all of this is the undeniable conclusion to be drawn from the lack of response and ensuing propaganda. unpleasant facts are no longer the impetus for change because propaganda and the republican noise machine simply change the facts after the fact. it's never been more clear that this administration simply creates its own reality if it doesn't like the one we have. change for the better has ended; this is the logical triumph of concervatism which seeks only to maintain the status quo.
Posted by: chris from boca at September 6, 2005 04:04 PMI hope you checked the statement by John Edwards in the aftermath of Katrina. It is an outstanding essay that brings perspective and some hope to the realities displayed by this horrible hurricane.
It's available here: John Edwards' statement
Posted by: Tim at September 8, 2005 12:51 AMBLAME, FEAR AND NEW ORLEANS
What do we do immediately when one of our children are hurt?
Take them to the ER.
What do we do after they have been treated?
Hug them, and talk to them about how much we were scared for them, and how much we love them.
What do we do after they hear how much we love them and we are sure they are happy and safe?
Yell at them! About how NOT to do whatever they did again, and perhaps blame them (or someone else) out of our own anger and desire to help them, right?
Anyone who has kids can relate.
Whenever our world seems to have a crisis, we turn immediately to blame. Why? Because we are angry! But after we realize this response is an emotional release for ourselves, and helps nothing, we simply go back to life as normal.
So, after the yelling and blaming subsides, which it will, perhaps we can talk to ourselves about this horrifying disaster of human suffering, in New Orleans.
But, what should we say?
That the event was, in hindsight, a wake up call for us all. Not just President Bush, or the Mayor of New Orleans, or the Director of FEMA. Being the richest nation in the world, does not make us the most prepared, most compassionate, or most capable country in the world.
As in all things, I think it helps to take it down to the level of the family unit. We know that making sure our kids have all the comforts of life and the education they need does not make them capable of handling life’s tragedies, emotionally, and physically, any more than anyone else. It doesn’t just take money; it takes a lot of love, faith, wisdom, courage, discipline and hard work to handle an average life of ups and downs and so, it will undoubtedly also take the same qualities as these to re build a city, and re build our faith in our country’s ability to handle a crisis, no matter how prepared we were or are. But, money will certainly enable us to put the structure and plan into place that will provide protection, and make the recovery process faster.
I think the wake up call, for one thing, was one for the citizens to realize our government offices are run by the officials and the officials are not putting our country first, if they agree to cut the budget on FEMA, and the Army Corp of Engineers in a time of ‘high alert.’ Again, just as in our own home, we would be willing to spend more money, more time on securing our children’s health, if there were a threat to it. This high alert should cause more funding to be available to such places, not less. The high alert is not only due to recent terrorist threats on our nation, but also the increased frequency of Mother Nature’s wrath, in the form of Hurricanes and such. I won’t even attempt to suggest that mostly Republicans cut budgets or mostly Democrats. I am sure, without a doubt, we could find plenty of fault in both!
In the same spirit, regardless of who agrees or disagrees with our presence in Iraq, the truth remains that if we are capable of spending billions of dollars, not to even mention precious, young lives, to stabilize another government in another country, we most definitely can be completely prepared (or at least BETTER prepared) for the devastation of one of our own cities in our own country if we put our resources and intentions there.
The way I see it, the only real effort would be time and money spent NOW, before the disasters hit. A one time, multi-national program to equip major cities with ample ancillary water supplies, rescue boats for cities on the water to be available for use by the National Guard, or FEMA and available at the drop of a hat, non perishable food in storage, designated shelters, etc. FEMA in such a scenario, would be enabled immediately upon any sort of threat of any sort of pending disaster and immediately backed up with the National Guard, waiting at the gates, so to speak. Especially the ‘gates’ of city below sea level with a level 4 hurricane on its way. From this, we can eventually learn more about how to educate the citizens of large cities, and small cities at risk as well.
This is not to ridicule anyone, nor blame any one person, but to point out our own ignorance, in hindsight, which of course, is the easiest way to point out ignorance! Cutting the budget on these government agencies is equivalent to an average citizen not buying car insurance. We have no choice whether or not we can drive without insurance, and for good reason.
So, let’s all hope the blame game ends soon, and we can gather ourselves once more to unite as a nation and to realize the errors made by our country’s leaders and our country’s organizations, and be sure not to make the same mistakes again. Once we admit the errors instead of denying them as is the first response of most groups and of most individuals, or continuing to shoot daggers at each other like natives on a war path, we can then change some major ways of handling disasters, especially in cities.
If not, we will end up like a 3rd world country in our ability to handle terrorists and natural disasters, as well as war and economic issues of poverty and destitution. The richest nation in the world saw the poorest of the poor in this event, and we were astonished at their isolation, their helplessness.
There is much to be learned about this, as well as we all struggle to understand how we live side by side and have not found a way to share the wealth, the education and even food, with our own people, black or white.
Diane L. Perretto