Please help me process my lingering anger over Katrina

[Vox_Reason]

It's been about a year and a half now, but I still can't get over what happened to New Orleans.

I've only been to New Orleans once, in 2000. I spent a week there for an anniversary trip. It was one of the best vacations I've ever had. I have many friends and relatives who have spent quite a bit of time there over the years--my oldest brother goes for Jazzfest every year--but I had never visited, despite their insistence that I should. Boy, I wish I'd taken their advice earlier.

I was completely charmed by the diversity, artsiness, and time-tested substance that made New Orleans what it was. Walking out of a waterfront restaurant and being able to walk across the street to attend an Al Gore rally in the closing days of the 2000 campaign might have helped, but...

I was in church a few months back (I know, it's a relatively liberal church, bear with me) and one of the pastors talked about the service trip they had made to New Orleans more than a year after Katrina.

He talked about piles of uncollected debris, whole sections of the city without working streetlights, eerie ghost-town scenes, etc. I became more and more angry as I heard about this.

I'm still angry today.

We're supposed to be the most powerful, richest country in the world.

An historic natural disaster made a direct hit on one of the most unique and culturally rich cities in America.

More than a year later, basic services have still not been fully restored, and only a fraction of New Orleans residents have returned because the situation is so dire.

I can only imagine what my feelings would be if my own Raleigh, NC were similarly decimated and things in Raleigh were like they are in New Orleans more than a year later. Hell, it could happen this summer. It could happen any summer. Most of the time, if it doesn't hit Florida, it hits us.

If people don't give a damn about the destruction of New Orleans, what would they give a damn about? If they don't care about New Orleans, they certainly wouldn't care about Raleigh. Would they care about where you live?

I'm very angry that more has not been done to restore New Orleans, particularly as billions have been spent weekly for a disastrous, fallacious, deadly misadventure in Iraq.

If your town/city experienced a Katrina and you were treated like New Orleans has been, how would you feel?

Perhaps you might feel like I do about New Orleans--VERY ANGRY.

[malaise]

1. We're all angry about Katrina

TIme for the Dems to make a lot of noise and demand action.

[billybob537]

2. Demand impeachment

nothing else will do.

[Virginia Dare]

3. I definitely feel like you do...

it was a crime against humanity, I won't ever forget it.

[Sequoia]

4. Yes, I'm still upset about all of the Gulf Coast.

Not New Orleans, but just as bad. Here is a bookmark of mine from that time. Very sad. Grab some kleenex, you'll need it.


Biloxi: Before & After Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina wiped clean some areas of Biloxi's beach front. In other places, she lifted massive casino barges onto the land. Here's a look at Biloxi before and after.

http://www.wlox.com/Global/category.asp?C=63035&nav=menu40_1_1

[Nevilledog]

13. That video just breaks my heart.

Every couple of years my husband and I would go spend a week in New Orleans (a beautiful bed & breakfast in the Garden District which survived the hurricane) and then we would go spend a week in Biloxi to recover from our week in New Orleans. We always stayed at the Father Ryan House, right across from the gulf. Our favorite room was the attic where the bed was located in a sort of alcove surrounded by windows looking at the gulf. It was like floating on air. It was totally destroyed.

http://fatherryanhouse.com/Tour_room09.php

[Sequoia]

17. What a lovely room that must've been.

[jilln]

5. All you can do is turn it into action.

Several people from my city went to help after the hurricane, and with few exceptions they all came back in shock and depressed. Most have ceased to be active in the community because of it.

Don't let that happen to you. There are horrors going on all over the country and world. Take your anger about Katrina and channel it into action to reduce some of the suffering you see in your own area.

[ceile]

6. I still cry.

I don't know what to say, other than our government is an utter failure in the compassion dept. They just don't care!

[KamaAina]

7. If I could process my lingering anger, the entire energy crisis would be solved

then again, I once lived there, if only for two years from '89-'91.

As it happens, I just returned from there last weekend. Despite all that they've been through -- and that Bush**co has put them through :grr: -- they still deliver at least as much city per square inch as anyplace on the map. So go! See if you can tag along with your brother to Jazz Fest!

only a fraction of New Orleans residents have returned because the situation is so dire.

That fraction is anywhere from half to 60 percent. Still not where we need to be, but improving. Most counts you see in the MSM have been lowballed. The truth of the matter is, no one really knows who's back in; many people are doubling up with relatives, others have found places elsewhere in the area, still others are in "FEMAnsions" either in front of their still-ruined houses or in impromptu trailer parks set up in parking lots, and so forth.

An historic natural disaster made a direct hit on one of the most unique and culturally rich cities in America.

The storm itself made landfall just east of the city. It was the failure of the woefully inadequate levee and floodwall system, chronically underfunded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that brought the city to its knees.

If people don't give a damn about the destruction of New Orleans, what would they give a damn about?

Beats me. This level of apathy is precisely what the Bushies are counting on across the board. What would they care about, indeed? How about an impending invasion of Iran? :scared:

I'm very angry that more has not been done to restore New Orleans, particularly as billions have been spent weekly for a disastrous, fallacious, deadly misadventure in Iraq.

While I was in the city, I participated in a march against violent crime (N.O. had nine murders in the first nine days of 2007). Quite a few marchers had signs that drew explicit parallels between the violence in New Orleans and that in Iraq.

We're supposed to be the most powerful, richest country in the world.

And that may be the whole problem. In New Orleans, your bank account does not necessarily determine your value to the community. Someone living just above the poverty level might be a respected brass-band musician or a Mardi Gras Indian "Big Chief". Those who worship Mammon (I'm calling you out, Cheney!) can never understand that. And now they think they can make it go away. :grr:

That is all, for now. It is lunch time out here in Paradise, a paradise I would leave if someone were to offer me a career opportuinity in urban redevelopment...

[qwlauren35]

8. I love New Orleans.

I'm thinking of buying a timeshare down there. Kinda like a small-scale version of the Pitt-Jolie flag-waving.

In fact, I find myself surprised that more of us who LOVE New Orleans haven't been able to do more, but maybe everyone has tried and its just not enough.

New Orleans needs a "Tele-thon". Like Comic Relief. An outpouring of money from the large and small, but especially from the large.

My hypothesis is that there aren't enough corporations that have investments in New Orleans to get the influx of funds and support that's truly needed. It's a convention town, with a lot of local businesses, and hospitality corporations - who aren't rolling in dough right now - but no industries that I can think of.

BTW, I would also fault the Vatican on this one. New Orleans and Louisiana represent some of the most devoutly Catholic areas in the US. There should have been massive funds from Rome.

I have a sick sense that there are other parts of the US where this could happen with NO effect: Cape Cod and San Francisco come to mind, possibly even Las Vegas. They are cultural icons of our country. But if struck by natural disaster, I don't know if they would be rebuilt.

[KamaAina]

12. Comic Relief just did that!

New Orleans needs a "Tele-thon". Like Comic Relief.

http://www.comicrelief.org/this_years_show/default.htm

I don't know what they were thinking, doing it from Vegas, though :shrug: They only had snippets from the city, roughly equivalent to those you might see during the Sugar Bowl. Not a very good N.O. fix! :P

[qwlauren35]

19. Actually, perhaps Comic Relief

wasn't the right analogy.

Think Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.

[Double T]

9. Katrina is just another one of hundreds of bushco lies and failed promises.....

Like EVERYTHING else, I'm mad as hell about the failures of this administration to help the people of New Orleans. I can't even imagine going through the hell YOU ALL have endured, during and specially long after the storm. bushco is an incompetent disgrace.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

10. Terrible. Just terrible this could happen in this country. Al Gore SHOWED he cares!

Al Gore is our true hero! I wish there were more pictures! 'Gore responds to Hurricane Katrina -
09/03/2005
Inside the New Orleans airport, Gore organizes the rescue of Hurricane Katrina victims with urgent medical problems. Gore chartered and paid for two planes full of medical equipment and staff, fought his way through FEMA and military resistance in order to airlift 270 people to Tennessee. http://www.algore.org/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=15&pos=3
Gore has refused to publicize the flights or discuss them with the media.
"Hurricane Katrina Tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mblyh5Nuew The river rose all day, the river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood,
some people got away alright
The river has busted through clear down to Plackermine
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
Oh Louisiana, oh Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away,
they're trying to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, oh Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away,
they're trying to wash us away
President Coolidge come down, in a railroad train
Little fat man with a note pad in his hand
President say little fat man, oh isn't it a shame,
What the river has done to this poor people's land
Oh Louisiana, oh Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away,
you're trying to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away,
they're trying to wash us away
They're trying to wash us away,
they're trying to wash us away"

[RB TexLa]

11. If it helps, we in Louisiana never expected America to do anything for us

and don't now.

[Jacobin]

16. As a fellow Louisianian, I never expected much either

The coastal areas are used by petrochemical concerns and we have become a dumping ground for the rest of the country, but with the complicity of our people and our politicians.

There has been a plan in place for 10 years to rebuild the estuaries by diverting parts of the Mississippi River flow, but of course congress won't fund it and it makes the entire southern portion of the state far more hurricane prone. If we were able to obtain a small fraction of the offshore production which has created this mess to help rebuild the estuaries, I would be happy.

I won't hold my breath.

As for New Orleans and the other affected areas, we just have to battle the corrupt insurance companies and rebuild ourselves.

I thank all volunteers who have come to help our state. It is appreciated. As for the federal government under Bush, they made a bad situation worse.

[Zodiak]

14. The picture of the drowned girl...

in the water, face down left a burning impression in my brain that will never go away. The horrible loss of human dignity and the resounding lack of concern from the rest of the country (and especially the government and talking heads) will never be forgotten.

I bring up New Orleans often....especially to those that are concerned that we will lose an American city to terrorists. I tell them "well, we already lost a city to Republican indifference and greed and you don't seemed so concerned about that".

I am deeply sorry that so many Americans don't care. They find excuses not to and then spiel off on "personal responsibility". It is like a disease, blaming the victim.

[KamaAina]

15. The city has an important new voice through the blogosphere

or rather, a (mostly) harmonious chorus of new voices. They even had a blogger convention, Rising Tide, a few months ago!

Try some of these:

http://wetbankguide.blogspot.com (written by a former DUer who is now focusing on this fine blog)

http://peoplegetready.wordpress.com (excellent coverage of politics and media)

http://ashleymorris.typepad.com (one of the great N.O. characters; I'm not even gonna tell you the alternate domain he registered for it!)

http://theamericanzombie.blogspot.com (an only-in-N.O. mix of investigative reporting and Afro-Caribbean spirituality!)

http://b.rox.com (Editor B was the star speaker at the Jan. 11 march. Some are semi-seriously thinking about running him for mayor!)

edit: P.S. You will note the name "KamaAina" appearing occasionally in the comments. Guess who? :-)

[EFerrari]

18. We are on our own. And the White House KNEW the levees were breached

and they alerted NO ONE. They let old ladies drown in their attics.

THAT'S MURDER.

:nuke: