Two Tragic AnniversariesPage 3 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig Leader- Thursday, September 7, 2006
As I write this column, the airwaves are saturated with documentaries and analysis of last year's hurricane Katrina. When you receive your copy of this paper, next Tuesday will be the fifth annual observation of "Patriot's Day."
Katrina left at least 1,605 fatalities, directly effected 5 states, and cost something in the neighborhood of $75 billion in damage.
Military, law enforcement and medical workers agree that there were about 30,000 evacuees at the New Orleans Superdome and somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 at the city's Convention Center.
America hasn't seen a natural disaster of such scale. When the levees broke, flood waters poured into the soup-bowl of a city- much of which is ten feet below sea level. Disease, starvation and exposure probably wreaked as much havoc as the storm itself.
It revealed much about America, both our strengths and our sin. Thousands of volunteers left the comfort of their homes all over the country to help. The city of Houston Texas, much to its credit stepped-up to offer refuge, shelter, and jobs to displaced Gulf citizens.
Katrina spurred some of the greatest demonstrations of love, compassion and sacrifice America has ever seen. There are still volunteers scooping trash and black mold out of houses and helping rebuild.
Needless to say, Katrina also revealed some huge faults in our country. Negligence and failure of leadership to plan and to act decisively and effectively were exposed on city, state, and Federal levels.
According to one report on National Public Radio, to date, 17,000 households from Biloxi Mississippi have applied for help in rebuilding, but a year later, the state of Mississippi have issued only 41 checks.
Like it or not, it did reveal our tacit, institutional racism. We wanted to believe that it hasn't been a problem since the 1960's, but while it may not be hot, angry and overt, it is still very real and very hurtful. Had those tens of thousands at the Superdome and Convention Center been middle class whites instead of poor blacks, there would've been busses, helicopters, doctors, fresh water and everything they needed.
But instead, lets face it, we middle class, comfortable, complacent, supposedly "compassionate-conservatives" look at Katrina as a form of welfare reform and urban renewal. The lower 9th Ward won't be rebuilt, but condos, resorts, and casinos are already being built. If you can't see Katrina as shedding light on racism, you can't escape that is tore the facade off of our indifference toward and aversion to poor people.
It would be too easy to level blame on agencies or administrations. When we lost our apartment in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, we had nothing but good experience with FEMA. Many have speculated that their problems came when they were placed under the auspices of Homeland Security or from incompetent political appointees.
I for one think that the City of New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi, and the Bush administration could all learn from what FDR did to help us out of the Great Depression, in the middle of major drought. Three simple steps; Relief, Recovery, and Reform.
FDR's New Deal took courage and risks, but it did so with intelligence and pragmatism. What worked kept working, what didn't was scrapped and replaced by something else. Either way, at least SOMETHING was being tried.
An estimated 3,000 people were killed in the World Trade Center attacks. If Katrina kicked America in our soft underbelly, 9/11 was like a surprise blow to the back of the head.
On that sapphire blue sky day in September, the world was shocked with us, grieved for us and wanted to come to our aid. Five years later, we have never been so feared, resented or loathed.
Maybe that's because, like a school kid who wants to get even on the playground, we lashed out spastically, indiscriminately, and frantically. Instead of carefully, patiently, and systematically.
Best case scenario, our leaders had the best intentions of "taking the war on terror to the terrorists," but their efforts were poorly planned and severely mismanaged. Worst case scenario, the tragedy of 9/11 was cynically exploited to advance some other agenda. Either way both Republicans and Democrats are frustrated with the results.
Worst of all, we are divided against ourselves as we haven't been since Vietnam. Rather than standing united as we did on September 12, 2001, our anger and partisanship and fear have begun to tear us apart.
We need to remember that patriotism is not when we say, "My Country, right or wrong, love it or leave it." True patriotism is when if we see our country and believe that it is wrong, we dare to speak up and help to make it right again.
Some think we should listen to the pleas of the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 and make the reforms called for in the 9/11 Commission's Report. Others believe nothing is so important as supporting our troops in Iraq, still others believe the best thing to do is to bring them home. Somehow we need to listen to each other even when we disagree.
As Lincoln once said, "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
If we don't the terrorists win.
