Not To Be All Critical And Shit

7 thoughts on Not To Be All Critical And Shit

1. What I was really hit by, while i was there – and these impressions are from both talking with my family, and from listening to call in radio programs and that sort of thing… is that… people seem to be at each other’s throats. I was really dismayed that there was not a greater sense of solidarity. Because like it or not, all the folks in the NOLA area are in this together. But I listened to a call in program where tempers were flaring over flood insurance, who had it, and who didn’t. Those who weren’t required to (based on Camille flood levels) often didn’t carry flood insurance. So they were getting $$ from the government, yet some were getting more than others, and people who had the insurance were mad those who didn’t were getting bailed out.

   Meanwhile there was a guy on the news whose FEMA trailer had finally arrived but it hadn’t been inspected so he still didn’t have the keys. He was still sleeping in his car. This was at Christmastime.

   And then there was the lady down the street from my aunt, who had her grown children and their families all crammed in her house and was sick of it. Their FEMA trailer was set up in the yard but not hooked up yet, so they couldn’t use it.

   There’s a lot of reasons. Basically that this government does not give a shit about people, and it’s a deliberate policy decision they’ve made to refuse to help. I don’t think we can hold any illusions on that point by now. Hell, we couldn’t the first week. Watching those people die on fucking national TV.

   You hear some about what ACORN and similar groups are doing. Maybe it makes a difference, I don’t know. I would guess it does, some. But when I was there I did not get the sense that most people had really pulled together in any meaningful way. There’s this huge trauma for all of them, I mean… it’s unbelievable how every single conversation was divided into “before” and “after” – if someone was telling a story, they had to specify which, before or after, for the story to make any sense. Yet there’s not been any pulling together, it’s still each man for himself (and forget the women) and… that’s the asshole Republican way of thinking that got us this administration and their craven, immoral refusal to do jack shit about the biggest humanitarian crisis this country has seen since the 1930s. Yet there’s no real movement to change that, and where… I mean where are OUR people? Fixing houses, yes, and god yes that’s got to be done, but there’s more than that. Please, please zuzu do not take this as a criticism, because even though I’ve moved away from Louisiana, those are my people and that’s why I thanked you for going, because they are my people and you helped and I’m glad. It’s just that something more, something bigger is required. Something that will create solidarity and… and begin to bring about some kind of justice for these people who have been ignored and shat on for close to three quarters of a year now.

2. We’ve got to organize them. She said, sitting on her ass in front of a computer in Virginia.

3. zuzu, you may already be aware, but scout over at firstdraft (and previously of scoutprime) has been non-stop blogging about NOLA and these same issues for a long time.

4. I’ve been blogging about Katrina since it occurred.
   I went down to NOLA about a month ago to blog from there. I was there 8 days.I continue to write about Katrina at First Draft.

   There was no media attention on this but the Army Corps of Engineers admitted to Congress late last week that their “design failure” caused the 17th St Canal levee to break. 588 people died as a result of that break alone.They are now checking ALL levees for same failures. They also said they need an additional estimated $6 billion to rebuild the levees to basically pre-Katrina standards. Bush is in the process of deciding on this. So we are trying to bring attention and pressure to bear.

   We began a campaign to pressure Bush to fund levee reconstruction called:
   Beads for Bush

   We’re asking people to send Mardi Gras beads (any beads will do) to the White House with a message to Take Responsibility and Set aside the necessary funds for levee re-construction. There are numerous posts on this at First Draft People are sending pictures of their beads and envelopes to Bush and we are posting them.

   I just wanted let you and your readers know. Throw some Beads at the White House and if we get more folks doing that perhaps we could bring the much needed attention to how important rebuilding the levees is to NOLA’s survival.
   Thanks

5. So many things you can do without having to travel to NOLA or St. Bernard (altho’ I don’t want to discourage anyone who will come):

   Visit: http://www.levees.org. Find out you can help bust the myths about the area. Example: except for on tract in far New Orleans East, the only part of the city that is 10′ below sea level is the bottom of the drainage canal system.

   People all across the country need to understand that the catastrophe in the core city, and to some extend in St. Benard, was due to engineering mistakes made by the Corps of Engineers which led to the levee failures.

   Demand that the federal government step up to its obligation to make the people of this area whole, and to provide them protection from future catastrophic flooding, including not just levees but restoration of coastal wetlands ravaged by generations of oil-and-gas exploitation and the channelization of the Mississippi.

   Human, while sitting on your ass in front of your computer, you can go to http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov and write your representatives and demand they support compensation, protection and coastal restoration. Look at the stuff on levees.org for some suggestions.

   You can type a letter to the editor of your local paper pointing out the city is not 10′ below sea level, and most of the destruction was the result of bad engineering by the Corps of Engineers, and call for appropriate compensation.

   When 9-11 struck New York, the nation emptied the federal purse into that city’s lap, and declared a war on terror. What are we going to do for the people of New Orleans in a disaster of far greater proportions? Twenty-three thousand square miles devestated, inlcuding eighty percent of a major American city. Hundreds of thousands still out of their homes with their jobs lost and facing how to pay a mortgage on a ruin.

   You don’t have to come (but you’re welcome if you do). There is so much you can do in the hour after you read this.

   We Are Not OK

6. My friend Ben Greenberg guest-edited the latest issue of Dollars & Sense and has an article and 3 interviews on the Mississippi aspect of Katrina. He’s collected a lot of good stuff, and it’s worth looking at.

   One of the most interesting and confusing things I read in his writing was that FEMA has/had a standard in MIss. where a home would be condemned if it sustained more than 50% damage. Except that if a house flooded, it was automatically declared as having 51% damage and therefore condemned, even if the water receeded and there was no other reason it was unlivable.

   Disclaimer: There’s a definite possibility I’m remembering the above assertions wrong.

7. B-u-r-e-a-u-c-r-a-c-y.

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