New Orleans- because I also read newspapers

The best and the worst.

The best are the people - ones I know and many whom I do not- who go there to help dig people's houses (and sometimes people) out. They are the ones who keep me from just giving up entirely on the idea that humanity is absolutely doomed. And they are normal, and they are like you and me, except that they do these things which are amazing.

The worst are the ones who have the means but not the will- or who have the means and use their will to keep things from getting done. They make me wish there was a hell. That's not very charitable, I know, but neither are they. I am talking about people who have private helicopters and used them during Katrina not to pluck people off the roofs, but to import their own private armies to patroll their neighbourhoods. They are the people who were vacationing and claimed to have no warning and no news of the situation until three days into the hell that these people lived through- or died in.
No names, I think we all know of whom I speak.


from the article:
***"We never reached out to anyone to tell our story, because there's no ending to our story," said Wanda Jackson, 40, whose family is still waiting for word of her 6-year-old nephew, swept away by floodwaters as his mother clung to his 3-year-old brother. "Because we haven't found our deceased. Being honest with you, in my opinion, they forgot about us."

She continued, "They did not build nothing on 9/11 until they were sure that the damn dust was not human dust; so how you go on and build things in our city?"

In October and November, the special operations team of the New Orleans Fire Department searched the Lower Ninth Ward for remains until they ran out of overtime money.

Half a dozen officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency rebuffed requests to pay the bill, said Chief Steve Glynn, the team commander. When reporters inquired, FEMA officials said the required paperwork had not been filed.****
(NYT april 11)

my hands just sit on the keyboard at this point- what can be said that has not already been said? yet it is so very important not to let the conversation die out. How can these people be forgotten? How is it that they are so callously brushed aside? I well remember 9/11- and who could forget, with the constant intonation of "everything changed on 9/11" and the flags flags flags? Two big buildings go down and we are Standing United or the Terrorists Win.

A region is deluged, a city destroyed and it is unknown how many are dead, and we are asked to turn away as the deadlines for hotel accomodations pass, as the leaders drag along and offer excuses about paperwork not being filed and funds being limited and all the while we are asked to look away.

Do not think about this- do not talk about this- do not note that those who suffered most and continue to suffer most are those who were suffering in dire poverty to begin with. They must have somehow brought it upon themselves- they should have just left- never mind that they had no means to go- no money for fares, no cars. Never mind that they've been in poverty for generations while others sit on the high ground, with their guards in place- imported at great cost.

More than conversation- it is imperative that we not let actions die out.