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On this eve of September 11, we
would do well to keep in mind the poignant words of Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld relative to our bungled effort in Iraq: “Stuff happens.” Yes, stuff does happen, and
lots of stuff happened on August 29, when Katrina got it into her head to
wipe out a good chunk of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans along with it. Five days after the hurricane,
the New York Times printed on its front page a large picture taken by a photographer
for Agence France Presse. On the
right side of the photo stands a black woman on an overpass, pouring precious
water into a container for a bedraggled dog to drink. Below her, on the left,
runs a grime-laden river in which, among the detritus, is floating the dead
body of another woman, face down in the mucky water. Stuff happens. As we all know by now, the
stuff that happened after the hurricane was far more horrifying than the
hurricane itself. In fact, so heart-wrenching has it been that many of us
have come face to face with a shame so all-encompassing that its presence is
almost overwhelming. I suppose such manifestations of anger and embarrassment derive
from the utter helplessness we all feel as individuals to do something
meaningful in a disaster of this magnitude. We, who are citizens of the most
resourceful and richest nation on earth, quite naturally feel that our
government’s primary task is to secure our welfare, even in the midst of
overwhelming odds. But stuff happens. Stuff like Katrina is totally
beyond our control. Stuff that involves preparing for a Katrina or picking up
the pieces after Katrina is not. In both these instances we have failed
miserably. And that, I suppose, is the source of my shame. I am ashamed of a government
that, instead of heeding the warnings of its own Army Corps of Engineers,
slashed over $60 million from the Corps’ request to fortify levees and
enhance flood control in New Orleans. Thus the civility of a vibrant American
city was transformed into the barbarism of Mogadishu because the money that
might have saved it was diverted to Homeland Security and the maniacal war in
Iraq. I am ashamed of an
administration that would order nearly 8,000 Louisiana and Mississippi
National Guard troops and their equipment – including high water vehicles –
to be sent to Iraq and thus leave their people at home vulnerable to
overpowering natural disasters. Five days after the hurricane, there were
still no troops, no equipment, no succor of any kind on the ground in the
areas devastated by Katrina. I am ashamed of a president
who, on the day after the hurricane, felt it imperative to fly off to San
Diego for a Republican joy fest. And a vice president who, according to New
York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, was checking out for purchase a $2.9
million mansion on the Chesapeake Bay while bodies were floating down the
streets of New Orleans. I am ashamed of a president who
had the gall to tell the American people that no one could have predicted
what transpired in the Gulf. Katrina was moving out of Florida on Thursday
and forecasters were warning of her intensity and her track even then. They
predicted it. According to a recent series in
the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Army Corps of Engineers has for years
trumpeted the fact that New Orleans could not sustain more than a category 3
hurricane. The levees simply wouldn’t hold. They predicted it. I am ashamed of a president who
would install as director of FEMA a political hack and crony whose only
experience prior to his investiture was raising Arabian horses and running
horse races. But most of all I’m ashamed of
a country that would grant ultimate power to people who are so far removed
from poverty that they are totally ignorant of the disgrace, degradation and
yes, death, that it can spawn in times of utter destruction. How many faces of the poor –
young, old, decrepit and penniless – do we have to see filing out of the
sewer that was the Superdome before we realize that this country is wallowing
in classism, racism and a total lack of concern for those less
fortunate? Americans are now showering the
Red Cross and other relief organizations with wads of money, but where were
we before? Why have these poor souls without resources to evacuate a city in its death throes been allowed to
fall through the gigantic cracks that have been there all along? Rather than recognizing such
dire discrepancies in our society, the Republicans in congress are even now
preparing to drastically cut Medicaid and slews of anti-poverty programs for
the sake of continuing tax cuts to the rich and maintaining our dubious
presence in Iraq. For shame. Bush and his Republican cronies
have obviously graduated from the Marie Antoinette school of managing poverty
and pauperism. Let them eat cake. Stuff happens. Yes, right now I’m ashamed to
be an American. I’m ashamed of my government, I’m ashamed of my president,
and I’m ashamed of myself for not doing more to aid those of my fellow
Americans who are now and have been for years in such desperate straits. The idea that stuff happens no longer cuts it. |
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lewleadbeater.com Copyright 2002 All Rights Reserved
email: LWL@lewleadbeater.com |
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