Katrina four years later

[garthranzz]

This is personal. So just move on if you have anything negative to say.

I want to start by thanking the DU community for the support they gave me, and others from the Gulf Coast, during those difficult days and months. By extension, you also helped my family.

Four years later, I am, ironically, in NJ, visiting my parents - my father is in a VA hospital, his Alzheimer's having been accelerated by the trauma. I've been back, and rebuilding, and in many ways New Orleans, though scarred, is and has been recovering. Of course, it would have been nice had the federal government, the governor or mayor shown any leadership over the last four years, but we've had Republicans in charge (Nagin was a Republican first, got re-elected because of rich white Republicans, Jindal got elected because Blanco, the only one trying to do her job, was vilified by Bush.)

At this moment of reflection, I've got lots of questions. Here are a few:

Why are we still in Iraq?
Why are we still in Afghanistan?
Why is Bin Laden still at large, or not known to be dead?
Why is Gitmo still open?
Why aren't the detainees being tried?
Why are there still secret prisons?
Why hasn't the investigation of Bush-Cheney war crimes, violations of the law, breaking their oath of office (doesn't count, but still..), violation of the Constitution, not begun?
Why aren't Bush, Cheney and Rove in jail?

Why does anyone other than a doodlehead believe that Bush won '04 - or '00?

Why does anyone other than a doodlehead believe Katrina was "the worst natural disaster"? It was a terrible natural disaster, but New Orleans drowned because Bush didn't care and couldn't get his own cabinet to do its job. The drowning of New Orleans resulted from criminal negligence by the federal government before and during, and criminal neglect after.

Why haven't the Democrats figured out that their enemies see politics as a blood sport? (Not all Republicans are their enemies, nor are all commentators?)

Why don't we have universal health coverage already?

Why hasn't Obama done what FDR or JFK would have done on the issue? Why doesn't he realize people want his leadership, his oratory?
Why don't more beck-outs occur?
Why aren't there more honest dialogues? Why are Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Rachel Maddow the only ones who can hold an intelligent, civilized conversation even with those who they disagree with? Why is Keith Olbermann the only one with the verbal dexterity to make commentary interesting?
Why don't the thinking conservatives (it's not a contradiction in terms, at least not always) participate in a debate and contribute something?

(This one may anger some on DU, but I don't care. The truth hurts.)
Why haven't more people realized that Obama's approach to Iran has helped the unrest, as Bernard Lewis said it would?
Why doesn't Obama, and why don't more Democrats, realize that Israel, for all its shortcomings and mistakes and American-like policies, is not the villain of the middle east, that Arabs who want to repeat the Holocaust are? Why don't they realize that teaching five year olds to butcher other five year olds, as the Palestinians do, is not the same as building houses on "disputed territory"?

Why don't we read more? From Dickens to the Shock Doctrine?
Why doesn't poetry matter? (I know the answer to that one, unfortunately.)

Why hasn't New Orleans gotten the money promised to rebuild its infrastructure, etc.?
Why is David Vitter still a Senator - or anything?
For that matter, why are Scalia and Thomas still on the Supreme Court?

Why are teachers underpaid - and often undertrained?

Why isn't there a "lost Beatles album" - or at least a lost "Lennon-McCartney" song?
Why aren't the Beatles on iTunes (that may be remedied soon :)?

Why haven't the Saints won a Superbowl? (That may be remedied this year!)

And rhetorically, since we all know the answer, why is DU such a great website?


I was one of the lucky ones, after Katrina. I had family, friends, resources. But i have occasion to drive by the areas where the unlucky ones lived.
Katrina, four years later, should remind us all that we need to take care of ourselves, but we also need to take care of each other.

[dgibby]

1. I wish I had some of the answers, but I don't.

What I do have is empathy, and my heart goes out to you, your family, and friends, and anyone else who had to live through the horror that was Katrina.

I know a little bit about hurricanes, was stationed in Charleston, SC, at the Navy Hospital during Hugo. Although it did significant damage, it paled in comparision to Katrina, and we had much better local, state, and federal response, so in that respect, we were quite lucky.

:hug:

[Louisiana1976]

2. My heart goes out to you and all other Katrina and federal flood survivors too--

even though I saw the catastrophe on TV I still flash back to all the suffering I saw at the time and New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region are still very much in my thoughts. I'm sorry to hear about the trauma's accellerating your father's Alzheimers.

I read about the many problems many survivors are still experiencing and feel that the great majority of Americans--who have moved on so quickly--should be ashamed of forgetting you and fellow survivors. The fact that my post is only the second even though this has moved far down the front page is telling.

Here are some more thoughts: We have been using too much money in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas, and to bail out major corporations. Instead we should use this money for a Marshall Plan to rebuild New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region.

As for those who died because poorly-constructed federally-maintained levees broke, why can't there be some sort of class-action wrongful death suit against President Bush and others in his administration? It makes me almost physically ill to hear so many blame the victims by just saying, "Why didn't they evacuate?" and blow them off.

Also, many dispersed around the country in the wake of Katrina and the flood want to return but can't because of the lack of affordable housing in New Orleans. Or they're still stuck in formaldehyde-emitting FEMA trailers and are experiencing serious health problems because of this. Proactive measures should be taken to provide affordable housing for these people.

Last but not least, the Obama Administration should put its money where its mouth is instead of acting as a 3rd Bush Administration and take concrete steps we can see at rebuilding New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region. They need to pay more attention to your needs and work on upgrading the levees and helping with Louisiana coastal restoration. The fact that this has not been a top priority, after all of Obama's campaign promises, is inexcusable.

[garthranzz]

5. Right on!

Except the FEMA trailers are almost gone - and they were a colossal waste of money.

[Cresent City Kid]

3. Who would have thought

that of all the things you mentioned, the Saints winning the Superbowl would be the most likely to happen?

[NOLALady]

9. One can still dream.

[Selatius]

4. As someone who survived Katrina, I guess the answer boils down to this:

Of all the people who died, most of them were poor or ill/infirm. They have few champions. They have few people in powerful places fighting for them. They are under-represented, and they are often forgotten in the debate, any debate.

If the poor of this country could spend 1.4 million dollars/day like the health insurance companies are currently doing to bend policy to their will, then I believe the fatality rate would've been much lower when Katrina swept through.

That's the rub, though. The system is set up to favor the wealthy. A system that makes a politician go forth and solicit donations to run an election campaign naturally lends itself to the easiest path of simply courting the wealthiest individuals. It's easier to cater to a small group of fabulously wealthy individuals who own the printing presses and the businesses than to try to get several thousand to tens of thousands of working class stiffs to get on the same page and donate.

This country desperately needs publicly funded elections. Without it, the poor will continue to be raped and destroyed, and eventually, I think the republic will come to an end and simply be replaced with a plutocracy.

Then, peaceful change will become impossible, leaving only violent change as an inevitability.

[Louisiana1976]

10. Well said! Agree 100% that the poor don't

have anybody sticking up for them because they're not a well-moneyed interest group. And besides that, now (thinking of New Orleans'poor who'd been evacuated because of the flood) many are scattered around the country so they can't physically form a cohesive bloc to call for affordable housing, improved levees, and the other things that would make them able to return to New Orleans.

P.S. I like your sig line--Bush would definitely be a contender!

[Louisiana1976]

11. Well said! Agree 100% that the poor in general don't have any well-

moneyed interest groups sticking up for them. And (now thinking of the poor of New Orleans in the diaspora) being scattered around the country they can't get together to form a cohesive group that can speak with one voice. So it's easy for policymakers to keep their concerns such as affordable New Orleans housing on the back burner.

P.S. Sorry about the near-duplicate. I thought the first post didn't go through.

[Cresent City Kid]

12. You're right

It has been tough since Reagan turned huge numbers of the middle class against the poor when in reality they're in the same boat and the rich are sailing away with the loot. There isn't even the old dynamic where a politician could help the poor only for votes, at least that would be helping.

[Swamp Rat]

6. Yeah you rite!

Good questions!

[jpak]

7. Katrina exposed the ugly racist underbelly of Bush Amerika - an astonishingly disgusting display

rivaled only by the sick Teabagger response to Obama's election....

[Individualist]

8. K&R