Hurricane Katrina - A Reaction
September 2005
From Boe Meyerson, Leader
Essex Ethical Society Newsletter 10-05
As I write this article at the beginning of September [2005], New
Orleans and the gulf coast are suffering from hurricane Katrina, one of
the greatest disasters in our nations history, surely comparable to the
horrendous San Francisco fire at the turn of the last century and to the
tsunami that not long ago devoured thousands of lives in South East
Asia. And yet though these events are comparable in the degree of
devastation, (loss of human life, livelihoods, and habitat) this
catastrophe bares the imprint of older and more abiding wounds as well
as more emergent troubles.
The more emergent problem is the lack of immediate assistance that could
have been available for the gulf states’ National Guard units which now
are at only half or a third of their original strength because so many
of them have been sent to Iraq to fight a war that had no justification
whatsoever.
Yet it is rather the persistence of those “more abiding wounds” which so
painfully sharpen this already unbearable tragedy by adding anger to our
nation’s overwhelming grief. I am speaking about persistent failure to
engage in solid environmental planning, persistently unacceptable levels
of poverty in our wealthy nation, and lastly the persistence of de-facto
racial inequality in the land of “freedom and justice for all.”
First, there is failure to follow the advice of sound environmental
planners who have urged that the use of levies along the full length of
the river to be discontinued and critical sections of the riverside be
left open so the Mississippi would be able to deposit its silt,
gradually enlarging its more northern banks which could absorb overflow
during flood time, and also depositing more silt into New Orleans’
lowland banks, thereby permitting the height of the city to be built up
naturally.
Second is the role of poverty in the current disaster. The mayor of New
Orleans advised all citizens who were able to leave the city prior to
the storm, knowing full well the scope of the possible damage. Those who
had cars left. Others flew or took public transportation to locations
where they arranged to stay. Those with no cars or insufficient money
stayed. In short, the poor stayed put. They were the ones you saw
standing on their roofs or struggling within the overcrowded, under
equipped Superdome if they were lucky enough to survive. Others less
fortunate (numbered in the thousands) were floating lifelessly on the
great river, now polluted and contaminated with waste.
This is the cost of poverty: death, disease, and waste of human life on
a massive scale, so dramatically exhibited here. It is worth noting that
the economy grew “in 2004 at the solid rate of 3.8 percent. But for the
fifth straight year median household income remained flat... And 1.1
millon more people fell into poverty in 2004, bringing the ranks of poor
Americans to 37 million.” (NY Times 9/1/05) The figures would have been
higher were it not for the enlarged military. There is no excuse for
this when the government continues to give enormous tax breaks to the
wealthiest Americans.
Third, please notice that in the newspaper photos and TV images, nearly
all of the faces of trapped desperate people in New Orleans are people
of color. The words of a white Professor of African-American Studies at
Fordham University is quoted by the media and eloquently expressed my
thoughts, saying: “Is this what the pioneers of the civil rights
movement fought to achieve, a society where many black people are as
trapped and isolated by their poverty as they were by segregation
laws….If Sept.11 showed the power of a nation united in response to a
devastating attack, Hurricane Katrina reveals the fault lines of …a
nation rent by profound social divisions.”
Let us continue to help the victims through the aiding organizations.
But let us also work to remedy these egregious inequities so that we can
be one nation, truly indivisible, and not rent by savage inequalities.
Boe Meyerson, Leader
Ethical Culture Society of Essex County
.