September 2, 2005
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FRIDAY FIVE
These Friday Fives are fun and the questions are usually light and entertaining, and I guess I’m just not feeling so light with the events of the week in our country. So here’s five questions about that just because I’m wondering what my fellow citizens think about it all.
1. How did you first become aware of Hurricane Katrina?
Every year there are hurricanes in that part of the country, some worse than others, and we’ve become used to seeing the photos of the wreckage and rebuilding to the point where here on the West Coast it really doesn’t seem to connect that much. For me, it dawned on me slowly that this one was somehow different and worse. It seemed to creep up and then spring, like a cat. Suddenly it was in all our living rooms full force and we hadn’t even noticed it coming.
2. What about it seems different than others have been?
I don’t recall a hurricane hitting a major city dead center before in the way this one struck New Orleans. And somehow coverage seemed to focus there, although the storm was flattening areas in several states just as badly. I’d always said New Orleans was one of the few places in the U.S. I’d kind of like to see if I ever traveled again. When I thought of it, I heard music and smelled magnolias and imagined wonderful food and ancient streets. I guess I never thought of it in terms of percentage of black vs. white citizens, but in the footage since the storm, it would seem that those who filled the Superdome and huddled in the streets were preponderantly black and apparently so poor they hadn’t been able to flee ahead of the storm in time.
3. When did the emotion of the situation begin to get to you?
For once, the media showed some photos of what was really happening in the Superdome and elsewhere – an elderly man in a wheelchair dead under a blanket, babies gasping for water and air, a furious black man leading a crowd in a chant to the cameras to send help, people wading waist deep in water carrying a few precious belongings, the aerial views of water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Then the coverage began to get emotional as the levees broke and the water rose and the violence began and the fires. The Mayor of New Orleans pleading for help and in tears on a talk show.
4. Why do you think the rescue response was so slow in coming and what could have been done better?
The photos shown here demonstrate different captions for a black man carrying something out of a store (“looting”) and a white couple having done the same thing (“finding”). Much has been made of this around the blogging world this week. I have to admit I wondered if the Superdome had been filled with primarily rich white people (or just even middle-class white people) (or even poor white people), would FEMA and the Federal Government have moved faster? Where were the Christian Right leaders who seem to all live in the South? Where were any let’s say non-government rich people with jumbo jets? The money that had been budgeted to fix those levees was diverted to the war in Iraq by the administration I kept hearing. Now finally on day 5 we are treated to the sleeves-rolled-up photo-ops of Bush hugging some victims and making statements about what may or may not be done. I just heard Jesse Jackson say there are abandoned military air bases handy that were not used for the victims while fending off an attack from a white reporter against the Mayor of New Orleans for not being somehow more responsible. Maybe some of the least talked about and deepest rifts in our society will surface in this debacle.
5. What have you personally done about Katrina?
So far, nothing. I’ve seen the links being copied around for places to send money and heard on TV many times that money is the best thing to do. I have to say after what I’ve heard about past catastrophes and the millions raised by various groups (like the tsunami situation for example) that I’m deeply cynical about where my $25 would go. One of the precepts of Buddhism says: Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, by all means, including personal contact and visits, images, and sound. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world. I totally get it that I have a luxury today that I can watch this tragedy unfold and feel compassion and I can also turn off the TV and lay in the sun in my back yard and eat food from my full refrigerator and go for a pleasant walk with my neighbor in the waning evening light. The people who have experienced nature’s rage along the Gulf Coast do not have that luxury. I hope to carry as much of their reality in my heart as I am able and to look for ways to give to my world as I move through the next days with them. Peace out.
Deep Thought: “I don’t think I’m alone when I say I’d like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system.” Today I am grateful for: Tires
Guess the Movie: “Watch your mouth kid, or you’re gonna find yourself floating home. We’ll be safe enough once we make the jump to hyperspace. Besides, I know a few maneuvers. We’ll lose em’!” Answer: Star Wars, 1977.
Winner: tearsign.
World Stunned as U.S. Struggles with Katrina
by Andrew Gray
LONDON – The world has watched amazed as the planet’s only superpower struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some saying the chaos has exposed flaws and deep divisions in American society. (Rest of article here.)
Comments (11)
Personally I’ve been waiting for Katrina to happen ever since I saw a documentary on New Orleans on the Discovery Channel a year ago. It was predicted that due to New Orleans’ foundations and tropical area, a direct hit from a hurricane could possibly remove the city from the map. There have been close calls where hurricanes would miraculously turn away, but eventually one would’ve hit it. And Katrina came close (it wasn’t a direct hit.) The writer for the photo caption (looting vs. finding) explained himself here, although I’m not sure if it was just a cover up. Movie: Star Wars.
I totally agree with you. Had it been rich white people it would have been a whole different story.
I was irritated to hear the FEMA director (along with some bloggers) blaming the people for not getting out. Apparently, these people don’t get what its like not to have any extra money or a car or a place to go. I know there were some who could have gone but a lot who had no way out.
Star Wars gets the blue ribbon!
Nothing, but I’m working on it.
Thank you for your comment.
- Rain.
I haven’t done much about it now, but my time is later. I’ll be there somehow.
I really appreciate your thoughtful and thought provoking posts so much – thank you! There is always much to ponder and discover here. Re: Katrina, I cannot remember how I first heard. I was born and grew up in hurricane territory but never experienced personally the devastation and losses that so many folks have in their wake. My memories are of hurricane lamps being used when the power went out, filling the bathtubs with water as we awaited the storm (in case the water supply became contaminated – this water would be our emergency supply), lighting candles and peeking out the front door of our pre-Civil War brick house to see garbage cans and bigger things flying down the street before Mom snatched me away from the door. I don’t remember ever seeing coverage of a hurricane in US leaving such immense devastation, deathtoll, massive evacuations etc – nothing even close.
As days went by I wondered where the hell is RESCUE? RELIEF? this is mainland USA? damn right I wondered about race and economic standing of folks evacuated in the Dome having a direct correlation on the impotent response. Not wondered whether it did or not.. .hell I assumed it DID, I was just wondering how much? Just how important is it for God’s sake? The coverage in the beginning was something I watched as much as I could, wanting to know what was going on, how severe the storm would hit etc…. then AFTER as the devastation and suffering multiplied and I began to see all these folks waiting and waiting and waiting and the suffering – it has become almost unbearable to watch. I broke down in sobs at dinner the other evening as L and I watched. If I were a doctor or nurse or person with basic survival skills to share I would be making plans to leave my job and go wherever I could be of help…
instead I wrote a poem. I do not have material wealth but that is really relative isn’t it, because when I look at someone sitting on their roof, or the washed away nothing left of entire communities I feel like a millionaire. How can I complain? I have been really thinking about my discretionary spending – convenience spending, ways I basically throw money away when put under this kind of scrutiny. And I am not talking about guilt-tripping myself. That’s not what this feels like for me at all. It is a different awareness, it is a questioning of resources and disbursement. I have enough resources to spend on xyz that I can live without easily. Here are my neighbors with no water, no food, no home, no medicine – I can send some of my resources to them. I drop $90 at the hairdressers periodically to highlight my hair – I can forego that, and that is something I really enjoy but it is unnecessary. Last night we went out as usual to dinner and I had trouble deciding what to order… I often eat lunch out and that I have already begun curtailing.
I am no martyr however, and still I am quite comfortable – I think many Americans live a life of impulse spending, spending money on convenience rather than value – it is not an accusation, it is a question, an observation, something to think about. Were people in the world starving and suffering and going without before Katrina? YES. I knew it. I was born in the South, grew up there – these are Americans and while I am not a nationalist so much the more I have personally in common the more immediate my gut feels it. I am human – most of us respond the same way…
well now I am writing a book on all this : ) and think I will also post my comment, or part of it on my blog.
I am thinking, longer term, of putting together a book/collection of graphics and poems, prose from a variety of folks and publishing it thru lulu.com as a fundraiser for Katrina Disaster Relief… right now donations are flooding in, but as time passes and coverage lessens some other ways of raising money will likely be needed.
I stop writing for now but the wheels are churning, like the flood waters, stirring up everything and leaving nothing untouched. I also, in closing, appreciate your comment about the precepts of Buddhism and balance. Balance is not my strong suit – I will be reflecting on what you shared there and how that can be integrated with my need to respond.
Doris
I must say that all your responses struck a chord with me.
Living in Vero Beach, and having been the point of landfall for both Frances and Jeanne last year, we pay attention to what’s happening in the Atlantic. We knew about Katrina a week before she grazed Miami (knocking out power in that city for about 10 hours). Here, 150 miles north of Miami, Barbara and I spent an hour bringing in the lawn furniture and orchids.
A week later, I was blogging to everyone “between New Orleans and Biloxi, get out now.” At least those are the words I remember saying.
The folks who did not evacuate, if they had a choice, should have listened. Not to me. I don’t have THAT many readers. But they should have listened to the experts in their area. However, it must be admitted that from what I hear, the experts did not say such words soon enough or emphatically enough.
As for the many many poor folks who did not have the means to evacuate, transportation should have been provided for them, by those some so-called experts. Or rather, whoever it is you mobilize for mass evacuations. There should have been air transport and buses in ample numbers, brought to the area BEFORE it was KNOWN that they would be necessary, just IN CASE they would be necessary.
This stuff will no doubt get discussed in the weeks ahead. Right now the job is to save the people.
Wonderful post. Really sums up how I have been feeling. Thank you.
much love and compassion,
Star Wars? I never get these. Your comments are right-on, and I kept nodding along. I don’t think it’s a black-white thing so much as a class thing. And while I love the mayor saying “get off your asses,” he needed to say it 48 hours earlier, so I blame him too. I mean, I BLOGGED on XANGA on Wednesday a.m. about the rapes and filth in the Superdome, the desperation, how could the mayor and FEMA and the president claim ignorance? If I was hearing about the bad, detiorating situation, they must have, too. In any case, I’m going to give in a few weeks, to a charity like Habitat for Humanity. I gave quickly after 9-11 and I still am upset that my money went to waste (possibly).