**Disclaimer: The below post is a topic that is a hotbed for controversy. I welcome your opinions, as long as they are respectfully written with no ill-intent (i.e. violent or hateful) towards any person/persons. I reserve the right to delete any posts that I find inappropriate or offensive to the human race.**
Do y'all remember the Titanic? Not the movie, although you can get a feeling of what I'm about to rant about if you remember that when it became clear that the Titanic was going down, first class passengers were offered salvation before everyone else. They were treated as if their lives were worth more than that of everyone else on the boat. And when it came to sink or swim, those who felt that they were about to sink did one of two things: They swam, or they fought like hell for their survival.
Now, I'm watching Dateline's special on Katrina, and I cannot believe the emotions I'm feeling...it is exactly how I felt a year ago, as if I'm watching it happen for the first time. Now, some people may think I'm a bit off for comparing this to the absurd classism on Titanic, and if you're looking for exact parallels, you are right. The media showed mostly poor stuck in New Orleans, and it wasn't exactly as if the wealthy were rescued first, as it was in 1912...I believe those who were not stranded in the Big Easy had the good sense PLUS the resources to get out.
On a daily basis, I go through life judging those around me, deciding that the lunatic in the subway is not worth the dime in my pocket, and to avoid eye contact with the scary-looking hobo who I pass many mornings going to yoga. I do it for survival-physical and emotional. I was raised to be untrusting of strangers, and I may still be alive today thanks only to that learned wariness of others. I also tell myself not to be concerned with the problems of those who are so different from me, those who are living a life that is so radically different than the one I know, that I can almost convince myself that they are somehow less human than I am. I truly believe that these convictions are vital to my own emotional survival. To succumb to every throb of compassion that I feel would cripple me and render me unable to move forward with my own life.
But forget compassion on a daily basis. Look deeper and see that turning one's eyes away from desperation is often the same as pulling the trigger. I don't want to beat a dead horse or anything because I understand how tired this debate is, but how can the people of our government get so bogged down in bureaucracy, trying to figure out who is responsible for what, that they let fellow human beings fester in a disaster-ridden swamp for a week? So while they fight like a bunch of jocks trying to figure out who caught the ball, the linebacker from the other team has already run the 100 yards to make the damn touchdown? People have died. YOU LOSE. And if you were one of the ones left to fester, with no visible light at the end of the tunnel, what would you do? Would you prey on the losses of others? How far would you go to save yourself and your family?
I don't want to start a big discussion about who is at fault, what Bush, FEMA, the Louisiana Governor or Mayor shouldda/couldda/wouldda done because that would really be beating that poor horse beyond all decency. I'm not even trying to bring up the issue of racism, although I'm not opposed to the discussion, being that we are talking about the issue of class disparity in America. But what I really want to talk about is the value of human life. I acknowledge that I am not blameless in this discussion by far, and do concede the difficult issue of self-preservation, as discussed earlier in this thesis.
Is this a black and white issue? And as sure as I am that race played a masterful role in that tragedy, that is not the black and white that I am talking about. I want to know if the line between compassion for our fellow human beings and pure and simple responsibility for our neighbors is as fuzzy as I perceive it to be. To hear some people talk about it, it is black and white. But then actions speak louder than words. The media, for example. Brian Williams on NBC and other reporters, talk about spending that first night in the Superdome with thousands of New Orleaneans the evening that Katrina hit. Yes, yes...very magnanimous, and bohemian, to think about it! They are suffering for their artful profession. God bless 'em! And then they speak of leaving the Superdome the next morning...using the exit designated for media only, how helpless they all felt, leaving all those poor victims behind to sleep in shared filth for nearly a week. Do you see where I'm going with this, y'all? Everyone has real pretty words to say, but when it comes down to it, what does anyone do, really, until that metaphorical gun (sometimes not so metaphorical, unfortunately), is held to their heads? The media that were embedded in New Orleans turned their backs on those people, just as surely as the government took too long to rescue them.
Was that the right thing for them to do? After all, if you help one, you have to help them all, and there certainly were not enough vehicles to evacuate the entire Superdome (as we all witnessed). But then what right did they have to be there at all? What purpose did it serve, except to taunt those who had no other way out, no other place to go, sleeping among the human waste and the dead? What right did the media have to go in there and capture such degradation, such tragedy, with no regards for the dignity of those fighting for their lives, certain that nobody knew of their situation (for if they did, surely help would have come SOONER). Then again, what does it matter if the media was there or not? It wouldn't change the story, would it? And at least now we can pretend to have learned something from it, right? Isn't that what happened after it was all said and done? FEMA's top gun was fired, Bush started making frequent trips to the Gulf Coast to "oversee" the rebuilding, Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin may be out of a job soon, and they probably all deserve to be, but what does that change? What is being done, really, to ensure that this type of thing doesn't happen again? Put all the procedures in place that you want to, but where was the government's motivation to save the thousands of lives in the state of Louisiana?
Yeah, I'm done now. I realize that I rambled on and on and on. It's what I do, how I try to flush out the grief and the anger, only with this topic, it doesn't seem to help. I think it only fuels it.
Oh, and on a SLIGHTLY less depressing note, my brother informed me that my dad was being honored by NASA (which is where he works...yes, my dad is a rocket scientist) and was sent out to Florida so he could watch the space shuttle launch, which if any of you know my dad, you know that it is a HUGE deal for him. Anyway, I heard on the news today that due to Hurricane Ernesto (which may or may not be a hurricane when it hits Florida), the launch has been cancelled...or postponed. Either way, sorry Dad! Get home safely! And congratulations!
"It's not about rich people or poor people...it's about people!" Katrina survivor
5 comments:
Ok I will bite, but I have to warn you I am very opinionated on this subject. This is something that I have dealt with on nearly a daily basis since Katrina hit. Black and white--no, don’t think so. Definitely not a racial issue. Economical? Sure. If you didn’t have a car or a way to get out before all hell broke loose--then yeah, you are stuck. But you can also argue it as a responsibility issue. Who's responsibility was it? I say it was theirs, yes, the common, everyday person, their own responsibility for themselves and their family. Of course it falls on the gov't to rescue them from their plight, but in most of those cases where people were left behind, that is what they had always depended on. New Orleans is a majority well fare state. Most on SSI. They don’t work, never have. A lot of those, I would venture to say, have several kids on SSI as well. I know this CAUSE THEY ALL SHOWED UP AT MY OFFICE TO GET THEIR CHECKS. You will have to forgive me. I am Katrina'd out and it didn’t take that long for me to get that way. Houston got hid harder than any other city with all the Katrina "victims". Since then our murder rate has gone up 17%. That us HUGE. So I have to ask…"who is the 'victim?'" We had sooooooo many cases of people coming into the Pasadena SSA office getting a check and then running to the Dome and getting another before the system could catch up with it. Then what did SSA do about that? Waived most of the overpayments. Is that right? I say NO. That is taxpayer money. And FEMA--giving them $2000 on a VISA. I have a co-worker who frequented the Galleria. She said her daughter and her left the Galleria that weekend. It was covered with those "victims" buying LV, Gucci, etc. Still to this day, a year later, I will have someone walk end with the opening line of "I am a Katrina victim". UGH. Please. So I am tired of the "victim" card. Really I am.
Don’t get me completely wrong though. I know a lot of those people were traumatized. It was scary. A lot lost family, pets, and their homes. I have personally heard many different stories and my heart does go out to them. Those genuine people who are trying their best to get it back together and only take what is necessary from others. I know personally several people who's homes and lives were struck by Katrina and they are wonderful people, but they take responsibility for their own actions.
I was very sympathetic in the beginning. Within the first 2 days I went to Outback Steakhouse and got 2 gift cards, went to the nextdoor hotel and put them on 2 different vehicles with LA plates. It was overwhelming. How do you help that many people? You cant. I just did all I could do. Mostly I helped people through my job. We stayed late, we worked weekends, we busted our butts to get those people their social security checks. But you can't help them all.
That goes back to what you were talking about with the reporters. They were doing their jobs. That is what they do. What else could they do? They couldn’t bring them back with them. All they could do was inform the rest of America of what was going on, put some political pressure out there to hurry things along, and pray for them.
You ask what is being done? Don’t know about New Orleans. Personally I think it is stupid to rebuild a city that is right on the coast, that far below sea level. It will happen again. And then everyone will wonder why it wasn’t prevented. Hello. Doesn’t it make sense that if you are so far below sea level all ready, if there is any rise in that level, YOU ARE GOING UNDER. And yet those people thought they would "stick it out" or "it would turn". That is the "it isnt going to happen to me" mentality. I know there will always be those that think that way. And I know in Houston they have a "plan" now so there wont be another Rita evacuation (which was also a nightmare). How well will it work? Only time will tell. Part of why we moved to the other side of Houston was so we would never have to do a Rita again.
I guess most of my beef with the Katrina thing is the "give me, give me, give me more" attitude. And not all of them are like that. But it doesn’t take many to rub you the wrong way. There is still a ton that are fighting for the gov't to keep paying their rent, etc. It has been a dang year! Get a job! Houston even created jobs strictly for Katrina people. I have encountered TEXANS that couldn’t get their section 8 housing renewed because it went to LA people. They were EVICTED and their places given to these Katrina "victims". Where is the justice in that??? Again, who is the victim? I deal with a lot of them--daily--most that let you know they are from NOLA are rude, ungrateful, hateful, and they need to go back.
Just my humble opinion.
And the bum on the subway--also probably gets a social security and a possibly a VA check.
I have only one thing to say (for now). I have had it with those who continuously want to place the blame for Katrina's ravage on someone else. When will people ever start taking responsibility for their own actions? The Democrats want to keep the less fortunate Americans right where they are by having them place all of their trust in them to take care of them. Well, guess what? They didn't come through for them, did they? Where was their Democractic government reaching out to them to rescue them? Oh yea, that's right, NO WHERE TO BE FOUND! Maybe they were sitting on the school buses, safe and sound. But they have convinced their constituents that they must depend on them to take care of them; that they are powerless to take care of themselves, even though there are countless rags to riches stories out there for all to see. I hear what your concerns are, Kelly, re: the densitization of our society to those less fortunate. And the fact is that there are some people who have really been dealt a bad hand. But many of the homeless and those who are down and out, don't have to stay that way. Our government has bent over backwards to accommodate the minorities and to feed the hungry, poor and out of work. Unfortunately, it hasn't done enough to encourage people to get back on their feet. Too many handouts. It's a mentality, a victim's mentality. My very educated spouse (with a post-graduate degree) has been out of work in the past for a prolonged period of time due to circumstances beyond his control, and do you know what he did? He worked for near minimum wage and got filthy dirty, cleaning up rich people's yards and climbing into their heat-infested attics to install electronic gadgetry in their million dollar homes. He didn't have to do that, but he believed what the Bible says when it states that if a man will not work,he shall not eat. Most people who are out of work, can do some kind of work to sustain them. Maybe not in the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed, but they can do it. And how many more stories must we hear about the person on the street corner begging for work or food, who, when you bring him a hamburger or whatever, trashes it because what he really wanted was money to buy more cigareetes or booze? Or worse yet, the ones who are impostors who take your money and drive home to their home in their affluent neighborhood? How lazy can we get? So, maybe it is okay to avoid looking them in the eye if looking them in the eye will cause you to succumb to their pity. I have come to make an effort to pray for those who are in those situations, to pray that God will send someone across their path who can help them, and for God to help prepare their hearts to receive the kind of help they need---an opportunity to work for their keep, or for someone to take them in and help them thru their misfortune. Because if God sends a particular person to them, and they are obedient to go, all else will fall into place. Call this idealistic, but God's Word is never wrong, and we make our choices. We just have to live with them.
Thanks, Michelle, for speaking your mind! I think many Houstonians feel the way you do. It's been a long year for everyone, evacuees and host cities alike, and you're right-Houston did take the brunt of it and is paying the consequences now with the crime rate. It is extremely frustrating to watch individuals "bite the hand that feeds them", and nearly impossible to maintain a sense of compassion when you are mostly exposed to ungrateful and bitter attitudes.
Here are part of my thoughts on that: On the Dateline report last night (the one that inspired my obscenely long rant), they showed footage of the stranded folks pleading, often yelling and screaming like banchees, for help and Brian Williams commented on the crazed look in their eyes. Which got me thinking: If I was in their situation, stranded in that situation, surrounded by cameras and film crews, but no help was coming for days, I might be a little out of my mind with utter confusion and outrage as well. And I feel like that rage may not dissipate as soon as I was rescued...I may carry it over to representatives of government agencies, such as the SSA office where you work, Michelle, because as a government rep, you are the closes thing I can get to the people who I feel let me down.
But that explanation doesn't get to the heart of the matter, what really seems to be getting under people's skin which is the issue of personal responsibility. I see it...I really do. I agree that we have to be responsible for taking care of ourselves...the welfare system isn't set up to absorb the needs of people and families whose sole source of existence is the government. That isn't what it is meant to be, and it is wrong of people to use and misuse the system in such a way. There is no two-ways about that, I definitely agree.
But still...not getting to my original point, which is the treatment of human life, regardless of how dispicable that life seems to be. It was Jesus who turned the other cheek, right? But society gives us mixed messages about that. Our welfare system, though imperfect, is set up to help those in need. But society teaches us to look down on welfare recipients...it's our own little method of aversion(ineffective though it may be).
Anyway, I think I had more to say on this topic, but I'm getting that 5:00 glaze thing happening on my brain, so it'll have to wait.
Let me start this off with a quote by a famous poet, Aeschylus: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." Robert F Kennedy used that quote in a speech to a group of mostly black people in Indianapolis on the night that MLK was assissnated. RFK went on to explain that as black people they can fill their hearts with hatred and distrust at such an act of injustice against all white people, or they can try to make an effort to to go beyond these difficult times and try to understand what has happened. I feel that this quote and explanation applies to Katrina as well. On both sides of the race lines. This quote shows the hope we can all have when we feel compassion for others and stop concentrating on the hate and anger of the situation. There is still pain and anger, people lost their lives, homes and livelihoods and now they are living in a city that is not well equipped to handle such a large increase of people. There are not enough jobs, schools are already overcroweded. White people are angry at the abuses of some of the Katriana folks, the Katrina folks are angry at the loss and devestation that so many of them and their families have had to go through - angry at the government for forgetting about them for days on end. If we concentrate on the ugly people we have to deal with ona daily basis, the rude folks, we forget the nice ones that come along also. On both sides of the lines there are folks who have really put themselves out there. There are the nice social workers and rescue people and there are the couragous folks who have lost everything but turn around and give to others. This was a disaster and a natural one at that. We are all looking to blame our anger on others, on something to explain all the tradegy we saw on TV and first hand. But as RFK said if we try to understand and bring compassion to others we can overcome the hatred and hear the wisdom coming through the pain.
On a side note, speaking of the race issue, I have to disagree with all those who say that Katrina wasn't about race. If anyone watched the non-stop coverage, if anyone was at the Astrodome (Kelly I know you were there and I was there), you would know that there was no racial balance going on, no diversity. Almost 100% black. Economics and race are very closely related. Noone can deny that. Look at the statistics, more black people are likely to be poor, percentage wise, than white people. But that's a post for another day. Point being here, this was about race and poverty.
Back to RFK. Here is another quote that goes towards why people aren't as gracious as they should be or why they have an attitude. "And there was not only the violence of the shot in the night. Slower but just as deadly, [Martin Luther King Jr.] said, was 'the violence of institutions....This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is a slow destruction of a child by hunger...the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among men.' So much at least was clear: 'Violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul."
In applying this quote maybe we can start to see the anger and frustration that so many black folks have against white folks. We can all say that slavery and discrimination is a thing of the past, but the effects live on, especially in the south. When you grow up, as my parents did in an unequal society which seperates blacks from whites, you grow up with an attitude, perhaps subconciously, that there is a resons for the seperation and unequal status. It is deserved. Then suddenly the laws change and eveyone is equal and intergrated, but do attitudes really change overnight. No. There is still distrust on both sides. This quote says it all I think, violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation. If our parents had the attitudes that the races are not equal, even if they are now accepting and more liberal about things, everything they went through filters down in values and morals to their children. This goes for Blacks too. If they grew up with parents saying "don't trust the white folks, they killed MLK and civil rights workers, JFK, and RFK", they are going to grow up with all of that in the back of their minds also. Discrimination breeds discrimination. The only way to fix this is to breeed accpetance, compassion and understanding.
I'll end this with one last RFK quote (sorry he's my favorite guy to quote from):
"Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills— against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes,"and I will move the world." These men moved the world, and so can we all."
THANK YOU ANONYMOUS!! Man, you put so eloquently into words what I have been struggling to communicate for a year! Everytime someone disagreed with me about Katrina being a racial issue...I didn't feel that it was enough just to say "But LOOK at them!" Thank you for explaining the role that the historical perspective has in linking race to class...Man! Two years in social work graduate program, and I still can't get that out.
I wanna be clear that I relate to both sides of this argument. I lived in Houston when all this was playing out, which was probably one of the most emotional heated places to be (besides New Orleans itself). Everybody had grievances, and for the most part, those grievances were valid. (Not that I am that all-knowing being who decides which grievances are valid and which aren't...but still, most sensible people know when some unsensible soul comes along...all the sensible people start to shift from one foot to the other, clear their throat, and get a constipated look on their face, while all the unsensibles start hootin' and hollerin' after making the most unsensible claim).
Anyway, I'm just trying to say that, while I have my own opinions on this matter, and they don't seem to be consistent with most of my family or many other Houstonians whose patience and hospitality have definitely been tried over the past year (I don't think there is any disagreeing with that), I still think this is a great opportunity to evaluate the value that we all place on human life. Is a human life worth more if he/she behaves in a way that is socially pleasing? I say no, but it's hard to walk that talk. People give us a lot of reasons to be disgusted, but honestly, guys...the people of New Orleans have been under a pretty intense microscope over the past year...and the media always looks for problems. And when you're looking for a problem, I can guarantee it ain't hard to find.
Thanks for the debate everyone! I am enjoying the education!
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