"An Ongoing National Tragedy"

“It became obvious right after Katrina that the destruction of New Orleans was an ongoing national tragedy and probably an American watershed in the history of political cynicism.”

That’s author James Lee Burke in his latest book,“The Tin Roof Blowdown,” speaking in the voice of archetypical Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux.

Ann Arbor is my home and I love it dearly. But New Orleans is like a lover with whom I’ve had an bittersweet, years-long affair. I try to make a couple visits each year, and my time in the “Big Easy” often leaves me with a hangover of the body, and of the soul. But oh, the times I’ve had and the wonderful people I’ve met before the sobering return to colder climes. Then came the day two years ago, as I sat watching TV coverage of the inundation of New Orleans and I kept saying to myself, “my god, what is happening to my city?”

In the aftermath of Katrina, I was willingly sent by my employer to Louisiana to join relief efforts. Throughout that fall, I spent almost 30 days off-and-on in the state, a virtual permanent house guest of a friend in Baton Rouge. I was lucky to have such a welcoming and comfortable place to stay – most were not so fortunate. I will never forget personally witnessing people sleeping in the beds of their pickup trucks in a parking structure during Hurricane Rita, because the shelter was over-capacity and turning people away. I started out working on a project at a huge shelter in Baton Rouge, and then as residents were relocated my focus shifted to the largest FEMA trailer park in the state, Renaissance Village. This is a MariLynn, a sweet little girl we got to know both at the shelter, and later at Renaissance Village when her family moved to a trailer.

“If disaster strikes another city, the best thing they could do is realize that the government will not do anything for you.”
Denise Thornton, a New Orleans resident quoted in USA TODAY

According to the front-page article in USA TODAY marking the anniversary of Katrina, Denise Thornton is rebuilding her home using her own resources, her own gumption. Unfortunately, two years after the storm and 15 months after I drove through the gates of Renaissance Village for the last time, there are still almost 500 families living in campers at that field and most of them don’t have homes to even think about rebuilding. Across Louisiana, you basically have a condition where the poorest, most vulnerable, most unemployable of New Orleans’ pre-storm population have been transplanted to FEMA trailer parks. City, state, and federal agencies didn’t know how to help these people before the storm, and certainly nothing appears to have changed. And in fact it’s even harder with area housing and unemployment rates through the roof.

Show Me the Money

“The citizens of this country thus far have paid out $114 billion in tax revenues–their money–to help the folks down here.” George W. Bush

Here's New Orleans blogger Maitri Vatul's reaction to President Bush's recent speech at a re-opened school in the city:

“Never mind the blatant lie of the $114 billion payout, did your president just say ‘their money’ to us? Funny, I don’t recall not paying federal taxes to the United States government on moving to Louisiana, and didn’t get a note that a tax discount, much less a reprieve, was proffered to Louisianans for being storm/flood victims. No, we paid our taxes like all good Americans. Therefore, a portion of that $114 billion is mine, and horrifyingly enough, that of the thousands who died here during the storm and the subsequent flood because the federal money promised to further shore up the levee system was busy being spent elsewhere. Calling it 'their money' divorces us from the American family.”

Spend some time at Maitri’s blog – she paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to be living, and attempting to rebuild, in New Orleans.

To date, we have spent almost $450 billion on the war in Iraq. But yet, up until May of this year, devastated communities in Louisiana could not receive the much-ballyhooed federal rebuilding dollars unless they could put up 10% in matching funds. Incidently, prior to Katrina this "strings attached" approach to federal dollars was never imposed on Florida (I'm not the first to point out that it can't hurt to have a brother in the White House). Not only have people like Denise Thornton had to tap out their 401ks (if they’re lucky enough to have such a reserve, and don’t even get me started regarding insurance companies playing games), but schools, hospitals, libraries, and police and fire departments have been stuck too.

Imagine the still-closed Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans – if $100 million is needed to repair the damage and reopen, where are the millions in “matching” funds going to come from? In a perennially poor region, none of these agencies or municipalities have that sort of money just sitting in the bank. The citizens of this country have realized that the current administration sold them a bill of goods regarding the Iraq war, and they need to understand that we CONTINUE to be misled when it comes to the commitment to rebuild in New Orleans and the Gulf.

"We keep hearing in the media that billions HAVE been spent," you might interject. As is often the case with our current administration, that's another example of the if-you-say-it-often-enough-it's-the-truth school of public discourse. Billions of federal dollars have been spent, but a small percentage of those dollars have made it to people like Denise Thornton or my friends who had houses in Slidell or New Orleans East. Where has the money gone? First, realize that the largest portion was spent on immediate relief (as pathetic–and tragic–as that was) and cleanup, NOT rebuilding. Now take a moment to Google Halliburton, Bechtel, and Shaw along with the words "Katrina" and "contracts". Then do the same search and insert "Iraq" instead of Katrina. The parallel between profiteering on the war and recovery on the Gulf Coast will make you sick.

Taking Care of Our Own

Discrimination. Poverty. Healthcare. The United States has always struggled with the day-to-day social issues - I'm no political scientist, but I'd speculate it's one of the prices we pay for trying to reach (and recognize) consensus in a republic. But when did we stop being good at taking care of our own citizens in times of crisis? Be they soldiers in Fallujah or grandmothers in Lakeview, Lousiana?

(view Lakeview video clip)

“New Orleans was systematically destroyed and that destruction began in the early 1980s with the deliberate reduction by half of federal funding to the city and the simultaneous introduction of crack cocaine into the welfare projects. The failure to repair the levees before Katrina and the abandonment of tens of thousands of people to their fate in the aftermath have causes that I’ll let others sort out. But in my view the irrevocable fact remains that we saw an American city turned into Baghdad on the southern rim of the United States. If we have a precedent in our history for what happened in New Orleans, it’s lost on me. “
James Lee Burke, "The Tin Roof Blowdown"