Why We All Must Care About The Tragedy of New Orleans

[Ed. note: Cross-posted at All Things Democrat.]

You probably didn't hear this last week, a story which I believe was profiled on last Wednesday (1-31-07) Democracy Now! about how not just heavily armed police but riot squads and all the big guns descended on people trying to protect low income housing projects in the great city of New Orleans, a city devastated once by Hurricane Katrina, and made a victim every day since by the Bush Administration.

So many times - and sadly, coming from some people I would expect to not only know better but who are normally fairly sensitive - I hear repeatedly that Americans can't be bothered any more with worrying about New Orleans or the people there. So what, they say, if the various colors and races and religious groups are no longer welcome there?

But it DOES matter. It matters to all of us.

Not only did the Bushies fail to respond appropriately to the terrible situation in the hours leading up to and for days after the hurricane struck, and not only did they make more contractors wealthy for work never done and waste billions in tax dollars for silly romps like buying mega tons of ice in one state, driving them to Nola, only to turn around and truck them to the Northeast for long-term storage.

No, the response to Hurricane Katrina was so egregious I am left to conclude that the Bushies' actions were no mistake, no error. No, they - bolstered by fed haters like Grover Norquist - made a calculated decision to:

• Deliberately fail in an area where Democrats would take the heat
• Make a concerted effort to manipulate emergency efforts through behind-the-scenes discussions as to how they could hurt political Dems even further (disclosed by former FEMA director Michael "You're doin' a heluva job there, Brownie" Browne)
• Prove that the federal government cannot be trusted with disaster relief, particularly when the disaster befalls a city with a huge, non-white and non-rich population
• Decide to take what was left of New Orleans and turn it into a mecca for rich whites and corporations

For non-blacks to say they're "tired" of the subject of New Orleans post-Katrina, to say it's not worth their time and energy to make phone calls and write letters and demand a better shake for their Louisiana neighbors, to pretend that perhaps it's a great idea to remake New Orleans into a place of casinos, homes with an average price of $600K or more, simply invites the government, whenever any place is severely damaged, to force the lesser citizens out to make way for rich carpetbagging newcomers.

The Republicans helped make Katrina a much bigger tragedy than it was in those dark first days of late August-early September 2005. Democrats, whom the GOP politicians deliberately tried to "sink" in the storm waters, have largely steered clear of "making trouble" by joining angry and heartbroken Nola residents in demanding better treatment.

But Dems like Louisiana's female governor and Nawlins black mayor need to stand side by side with those fighting for the survival of what New Orleans was and could be again.