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JOURNAL
September 2005
WAVES OF SHAME
"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."
The quotes above, from Lincoln and Kennedy, came nearly a hundred years apart in 1858 and 1961, at crucial crossroads in our nation's history. While Lincoln was speaking about slavery and Kennedy about the class divide, today in 2005 we have seen that the statements are still painfully relevant in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the south.
The television images we have seen this week will be remembered for years to come, to our shame as a nation. The shining beacon of hope that we try to show the world has been revealed as a fraud for all the world to see. Our dirty secret has been exposed: the melting pot is a myth, we are still too much separated by class and race.
People with means could escape the impending disaster in cars. Even stranded tourists could wait it out in highrise hotels rather than rooftops of shaky one-story homes. And although there were warnings for two days before the hurricane struck, our government did nothing to stock up on food and water in the shelters during those crucial hours. And although Louis Armstrong Airport remained relatively undamaged by the storm, days and days went by before adequate supplies were brought in – mainly by truck and ship. The poor, mostly black, who fight our wars and fight to survive the violent inner city streets, were once again left to fend for themselves. After a few days of hunger and squalor, is it any wonder that many of them grew enraged, thinking that nobody cared? Does any reasonable person really believe the response would have been as slow had the disaster zone been Beverly Hills or downtown Miami or tony Seattle?
Who are these pretty, privileged CNN reporters with their stocked vans to judge looters on the street? While such behavior can't be condoned, most of these young men probably had bleak futures to begin with and now they've lost their homes and families. Can we sit in comfort and be absolutely sure we wouldn't resort to the same behaviors? As for the stories of rape and looting, they are terrible and they expose another one of America's myths: that we are immune to evil. We can be every bit as barbaric as radical Arabs or Nazi-loving skinheads. Evil knows no nationality or race.
I am thankful I had the opportunity to visit New Orleans in 2004, the unique character of which will probably never return, even if rebuilt. Pre-2005 New Orleans will probably now be referred to as Old New Orleans. As wonderful a city as that was – and it was – it was a divided city. Tourists were warned beforehand to avoid certain neighborhoods, to stay within the parameters of the French Quarter and downtown, and to travel in pairs at night. For me, however, that's no way to see a city. One afternoon, I opened my map and took my companions on a long trolley ride to the Garden District and further out to Audubon Park – beautiful and safe. But I wanted more, so the next day made my way uptown to City Park, the largest urban park in America, I believe. It was beautiful, but fairly desolate and not very well maintained – in other words, not a tourist area.
New Orleans had humor, music, color, culinary delights, history, flora, drink, amazing architecture, and heat. But make no mistake, it was a divided city: rich and poor, black and white, lived in different parts of town. What they all had in common was a love for their homeland.
The tragedy that has happened in New Orleans far exceeds the natural disasters of wind and flood. Our great divide has been exposed. Once again, it will take years to heal the emotional wound, for trust to be established again. The poor, with a frayed safety net to begin with (thank you, President Reagan), can no longer trust the government to help them in a time of need. And while there are always a few celebrities or businesses who kick in some money for relief (where much press is given to the celeb who gives $1 million – but if someone is worth $100 million, it's the equivalent of someone who makes $40,000 giving $400: nice, but not astonishing, and the multimillionaire still has sizeable assets and income and, now, great press to generate more income!), as a nation we are greedier than we used to be (percentages of income to charity are less, even though the rich are getting richer). So the poor cannot rely on the rest of us, either.
We have become a nation of fend-for-yourselfers. We lock ourselves in our apartments and spend hours on the internet to find voiceless connections. We don't want to see the unpleasant, let alone deal with it. Neighborliness and civic duty have become old-fashioned virtues.
I hope the post-Katrina snapshots become seared in our consciousness. I hoped the same thing after 9/11, but I fear many of us New Yorkers have long since gone back to being the impatient, busy bees we were before.
Let's stop the inane babbling over cellphones and start talking to each other over the table again. Let's start touching each other again. If we remain divided, we are all doomed.
What's Your Opinion?
KevScoHall@Verizon.net