How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley06282007.html

Lessons from Katrina
How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps
By BILL QUIGLEY

Step One. Delay. If there is one word that sums up the way to destroy an African-American city after a disaster, that word is DELAY. If you are in doubt about any of the following steps--just remember to delay and you will probably be doing the right thing.

Step Two. When a disaster is coming, do not arrange a public evacuation. Rely only on individual resources. People with cars and money for hotels will leave. The elderly, the disabled and the poor will not be able to leave. Most of those without cars--25% of households of New Orleans, overwhelmingly African-Americans--will not be able to leave. Most of the working poor, overwhelmingly African-American, will not be able to leave. Many will then permanently accuse the victims who were left behind of creating their own human disaster because of their own poor planning. It is critical to start by having people blame the victims for their own problems.

Step Three. When the disaster hits make certain the national response is overseen by someone who has no experience at all handling anything on a large scale, particularly disasters. In fact, you can even inject some humor into the response--have the disaster coordinator be someone whose last job was the head of a dancing horse association.

Step Four. Make sure that the President and national leaders remain aloof and only slightly concerned. This sends an important message to the rest of the country.

Step Five. Make certain the local, state, and national governments do not respond in a coordinated effective way. This will create more chaos on the ground.

Step Six. Do not bring in food or water or communications right away. This will make everyone left behind more frantic and create incredible scenes for the media.

[seemslikeadream]

1. Its cold and I've nowhere to sleep,

She calls out to the man on the street

sir, can you help me?

Its cold and Ive nowhere to sleep,

Is there somewhere you can tell me?

He walks on, doesnt look back
He pretends he cant hear her

Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, its another day for

You and me in paradise

Oh think twice, its just another day for you,

You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street

He can see shes been crying
Shes got blisters on the soles of her feet

Cant walk but shes trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do

Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face

You can see that shes been there

Probably been moved on from every place

cos she didnt fit in there

Oh think twice...



Thanks again to Phil Collins for the words
My heart to the people of New Orleans

[blogslut]

28. ...

[BlooInBloo]

2. It's ok - they threaten to lynch black kids up in Jena!

[Swamp Rat]

3. Step Seven. Don't fix the levees and install defective water pumps to make sure it happens again.

... to get rid of those of us who survived.

[Solo_in_MD]

4. He completely ignores the total failure that was the state and local leadership

There was more than enough blame to go around here...

[pitohui]

11. really what total failure of state and local was that?

seriously i live here solo, shitty as nagin is, the one redeeming act of his life was to declare a mandatory evacuation of new orleans, something no one had ever done before because it was thought it COULDN'T be done

the last words of his order "god help us all" while unprofessional to the cold mind probably saved 10,000 lives alone because it convinced those who were not gonna run that oh sheet it's different this time -- i know of friends who NEVER evacuated before who are alive because of this, no fucking kidding

as for blanco, she was working on the contraflow and fixing it and getting the parishes in order, as recently as july 2005, we evacuated out of order, which would have trapped many people in the lower parishes and sent them to their deaths, instead, the contraflow was worked out beautifully -- the federal gov't projected a maximum of 60% of people could evacuate from new orleans, 80% evacuated, projected deaths were in the tens of thousands, actual deaths from katrina are less than 3,000

the local and state gov't did what it had money and mandate to do, we don't own helicopters, we don't operate FEMA, the federal gov't fucked us but the state and local went far beyond any known projection

seriously, dude, i'm sorry, there is no way you can pin this on the local or state gov't, this was the feds thru and thru

[uppityperson]

13. The failure of state and local gvts to get the Feds doing what they needed to do.

That is the only failure I can see and it is not a failure of state and local but of the Feds since why the hell would they need state and local to shove shove shove shove, beg beg beg, for the feds to do their job.

[pitohui]

15. yeah really

i have never understood why kathleen blanco, a freshman governor, was supposed to be able to override the pretzeldent of the united states and get the national guard in here in advance over his schemes and objections

and you know bush I did the same damn crap w. andrew, it's just that andrew was a smaller storm (funny to think of that horror now as "smaller" but it was a fraction of katrina)

these people are evil, i think poppy at least feels guilty for his sins but no. 2 thinks he's gonna live forever and just don't care

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. Yeah, Democrats aren't being sufficiently bashed there. Unfair, I tells ya! Unfair! -nt

[youngdem]

5. Takes only two...Flood it, and leave

[Uncle Joe]

6. Step Eight

Step Eight. Refuse help from other countries. If we accept help, it looks like we cannot or choose not to handle this problem ourselves. This cannot be the message. The message we want to put out over and over is that we have plenty of resources and there is plenty of help. Then if people are not receiving help, it is their own fault. This should be done quietly.

Step Nine. Once the evacuation of those left behind actually starts, make sure people do not know where they are going or have any way to know where the rest of their family has gone. In fact, make sure that African-Americans end up much farther away from home than others.

[rudy23]

7. I'm a caucasian, and Katrina has devastated my family

No offense, but New Orleans is hardly an "African American" city. It's the best mixed city in the world.

[seemslikeadream]

9. I'm very sorry for your loss but isn't (wasn't) the black population

of New Orleans about 68%?

[rudy23]

10. Think of the New Orleans metro area

Although my family was from right in the thick of Orleans parish. If you include the suburbs of New Orleans, it's a pretty even mix. All races, all classes. The poor got it the worst, but the middle class and even some of the rich got destroyed by the storm and its aftermath.

I suspect the perception of New Orleans as an "African American" city are why no Democrats are really eager to talk about the rebuilding of New Orleans as a top priority (besides Edwards and Kucinich).

[pitohui]

14. new orleans is being sold as an african american city so the flyover country won't care

if middle america had any idea that white middle class people were left to drown in their homes (as happened to one old couple that i know) or that white middle class people were left to be picked off their rooftops by canadians because FEMA couldn't be arsed (as happened to another couple i know) they would be rocked back on their ass

selling new orleans as "african american" is another way to tell flyover country "it can't happen here" because we're white and the gov't will help us -- WRONG -- go down and tell me how much of lower plaquemines is rebuilt and get back to me, or how much of st. bernard parish

we were all in the soup together, but heaven forbid that people find out that their middle class or well-to-do ass could be abandoned by our fine federal gov't!

[rudy23]

19. Precisely. That's also why they said it happened "in that part of the world"

There's no way New Orleans would still be languishing in such a precarious condition, if people knew the truth about how many white, middle class people were left to die by our government.

That being said, I've not heard a peep out of Hillary or Obama about the future of New Orleans.

[uppityperson]

12. Reminds me of Paris, which is telling in a way.

Hope things get better for you and yours.

[truedelphi]

27. I cannot imagine the effect that Katrina would have on any

Family - my prayers are there for you.

When times are tough for an individual (or individual with their spouse) they know that the family memebers are there too.

But when the whole network - friends, family, co-workers, local organizations, are all in the same sinking boat -that is an overwhelming event.

[RB TexLa]

8. And if there is another storm this summer, it will be the same. Another 5 years from now, the same

America doesn't care if people in Louisiana die.

[tom_paine]

16. K & R for a very sad truth

Black or white, Bushevik Evil has morphed into a more sophisticated version of it's pre-60s lynching self (though that is still there and will likely come back out, when crunch time comes) and so these people were left to die because they were Democratic Voters, more than anything else. Though I would be lying if I said the Neo-Confederate South had not enjoyed such a huge six-plus-year-revival and that their skin color had nothing to do with it.

[seemslikeadream]

17. Eighteen Months After Katrina By Bill Quigley

http://www.nathanielturner.com/eighteenmonthsafterkatrinabillquigley.htm

[baldguy]

18. NO needed rescuers after Katrina.

Bush sent soldiers.

[verse18]

20. It's not as if imperial governments have ever

forced people of African descent from their homes, causing a great diaspora with families being separated far and wide. Oh, wait...

[NashVegas]

22. New Orleans Is An American City, Period

Though the bulk of the text is good, the title is insulting.

[seemslikeadream]

23. Bill Quigley human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans--

http://www.nathanielturner.com/eighteenmonthsafterkatrinabillquigley.htm

[Kurovski]

24. K&R. (nt)

[petunia.here]

25. K&R

Words can not describe how utterly disturbing what has happened to New Orleans is to me.
I don't live there or anywhere near there for that matter. I don't know anyone who was directly affected. But I can't keep from crying when just thinking about NO. It's a perfect and devastatingly stark example of what is wrong with us, America. And for the most part we ignore it. Are we really going to brush this under the rug? Are we too shallow or week to take a good hard look at ourselves? I don't get it.

It makes my brain hurt. "Does not compute."

I just can't comprehend what could drive so many people in a position of power or influence to do harm to other human beings in such desperate need. How can we say that racism isn't a problem? Fucking, hello?!!?!! *shakes head*

What has happened and is continuing to happen in New Orleans and to Katrina survivors across the country is:

abhorrent, atrocious, awful, base, beastly, contemptible, cursed, deplorable, despicable, detestable, disgusting, execrable, foul, grim, hateful, heinous, hellish, horrible, loathsome, lousy, nasty, nauseating, obnoxious, odious, offensive, repellent, reprehensible, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rotten, sleazeball, stinking, terrible, very bad, vile, wretched, abominable, creepy, cruddy, disagreeable, distasteful, gross, horrid, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, off-putting, pig, pugnacious, repellent, sickening, sleazy, stinky, ugly, undesirable, unpleasant, unsightly (thank you thesaurus) and just plain fucking fucked up!

But that still doesn't cover it. Does it?

[WindRavenX]

26. Never Forget

:cry:

[aikoaiko]

29. Mixed feelings -- some good points but also patronizing.

Its almost like he thinks African Americans in NOLA can't do for themselves and are puppets to the powers that be.