Here's to hoping "Gustav" won't cause the need for more relief efforts for New Orleans
Katrina was devastating. In case you hadn't heard. It still amazes me how little was done to rebuild the city and help out the residents of the greater New Orleans area. I know some of you are sick of hearing about it by now. I know some of you were sick of hearing about it by the time the next August rolled around. Hopefully you weren't sick of hearing about it prior to then. I bet those of you who were were also sick of hearing about September 11th by the following September as well. Right? What's that? Blasphemy? "You're anti-American!" you say? I certainly was not and am not still saddened by the events of that day. But I fail to see the difference between the two events other than the obvious - one was caused by a terrorist and the other by a storm. You think if Iraq or Iran, or hell, even Cuba, had attacked New Orleans there wouldn't be a war there now? It was -the- greatest natural disaster tally in U.S history. How quickly was the World Trade Center excavated? It began immediately after the towers fell. Immediately people went, "Shit! Get 'em out!" and girders were moved and beams were lifted and debris was cleared and three years later there was no sign (other than the obvious, shit head) that there were ever towers there. No ruined buildings, for those of you who are about to e-punch me in the face. Again, I love New York. I was extremely pissed when 9/11 happened, don't get me wrong. However. Here we are August 31st. 2008. Three years, just about to the day (I believe Katrina hit the 28th) after Katrina hit, with another hurricane bearing down on the city, and still, STILL, there are ruined homes. And not just homes, neighborhoods. Towns. You might be sick of hearing about it, but how sick are the people who STILL DON'T HAVE A HOME. Who's house is still lodged in another family's house 400 yards away? Imagine wanting to redo your kitchen, but you can't. Not because you don't have the money. Not because the infrastructure of your house is wrong and if you knock down that wall your house will collapse. Not because the contractor is out of town. How about because someone else's kitchen is INSIDE your kitchen. And it's been like that for three years. And nothing has been done. The relief efforts of Katrina were so minuscule, so weak, so fake that it's almost as if nothing was done at all. My heart goes out to those people who are homeless in the New Orleans area. Not the people with no money who are forced to live on the street. The people with no house who were kicked out on the street. Kicked out by the hurricane. Kicked right out of their own house onto the street. And then George W. Bush and everyone else closed the door behind them. Their own door. To their own home. Kicked out. How many survivors of 9/11 were kicked out of their house? How many families of survivors are homeless now? None! They were even GIVEN MONEY! And Katrina comes and knocks out a house and you're screwed. You're black. You're from the south. You're from New Orleans. Three strikes, you're out on the street. Is it really that simple? That the country turned their backs because it was New Orleans and not New York, or Los Angeles, or Chicago. Or even Denver, Phoenix, or Saint Louis? You have to be kidding me. I hope not. And I hope, not only for their sake, but for all our sake, that Gustav is no where near as devastating as Katrina was. The city can't take another non-response. You're supposed to uncover ruins centuries after they were occupied and thriving, not help create them.