Two Years Later

I was at a gathering last night for the "premiere" of their new short film When The Saints. Here it is:



Two years ago, a massive levee failure drowned the city of New Orleans and a federal government turned its back. Greedy insurance companies fought tooth and nail against living up to their responsibilities, and the work of FEMA was so continuously incompetent that they almost were better off not showing up at all. If you had the money you could rebuild; if not, good luck to you, you're probably living in a trailer filled with formaldehyde. Conservatives have tried to turn the city into an incubator for right-wing economic policies, which have contributed to leaving the poor in the dust as the most cruel elements of capitalism proliferate. The labor shortage (because there's no housing for lower-wage workers) have led to things like actual slavery on the Gulf Coast. And just 60-70% of the population has returned to New Orleans, which is part of the grand plan to scatter the black population around the country and dilute its political power, turning Louisiana deep red.

I'm ashamed that I have to post this today. The worst thing that has happened in the Bush years is our abdication of our collective responsibility in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. One of the speakers last night, who was in New Orleans for the storm and the flood, said that regular people, the ones who volunteered and donated their time, were the only ones keeping the city going. Those dark days that played out on television (and the TV stations didn't provide food or water either, just shot the tragedy) made me physically sick. The only time I took an extended break from this blog since I started it in April 2004 was after Hurricane Katrina. I couldn't take it anymore. If you read my posts from that week, relief gives way to measured criticism gives way to outrage. Here's one on the edge of outrage:

I can't believe this was just said:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we're having to deal with it and will," (President Bush) said.

I'm absolutely flabbergasted. FOUR FUCKING YEARS AGO, in December 2001, FEMA listed a potential New Orleans flood as one of the three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters facing the nation. Only a San Francisco earthquake and another terror attack in New York were listed as likely or as deadly.

These boobs actually sound angry that anyone would question their leadership, (constant quotes of "I know everyone's frustrated, but we're trying,") and then they come out with nonsensical statements like this. Incidentally, does it sound like anything else we might remember?

"I don't think anyone could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center." -Condoleezza Rice, May 2002

So it goes. The accountability Adminstration desperately tries to spin and shirk repsonsibility while defensively calling for nobody to "play politics" with the disaster. Nobody's playing politics, they're asking questions. If you want to talk about playing politics with a disaster, think about this: four years later, this Administration STILL recalls 9/11 every chance they get. They're STILL planning a commemorative country music concert while New Orleans is under water and more people are dying by the day. There are reports of a shark swimming through the streets of a major American city. The Convention Center is slowly turning into a mausoleum. The government's planning a fucking concert. They're also, because of some insane kind of foolish pride I guess, refusing international aid.

In the media they're starting to ask questions with unusual forcefulness, shaken by the reality on the ground. Where are the airlifts? Where are the food drops? Where are the troops? Why weren't they all pre-positioned? Why did this happen? America is starving for leadership and receiving none. Fuck, the Secretary of State is still on vacation.

I'm so angry I could spit. Give if you can.

I'm reading through it all, the blame-shifting, saying things like "that was a mistake" for people without transportation not to leave the city, responding to an environmental disaster by lifting pollution restrictions so that oil companies could drill more, and on and on. It's got me almost as depressed as I was back then.

Here's something you can do. Sign the petition at WhenTheSaints.org urging the Senate to pass Chris Dodd's Gulf Coast Recovery Bill of 2007 (S.1668), which would send funds directly to aid rebuilding efforts.