Columnist Jamala Rogers
I’m always embarrassed when St. Louis exports stupidity and incompetence to other places or higher positions that increase collateral damage.
St. Louis native Al Jackson, head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, predicted that New Orleans “is not going to be as black as it was for a long time if ever again.” Of course, he should know. Jackson is in charge of making sure that poor folks have housing and aren’t victims of discrimination. He has failed at both, as most of New Orleans public housing residents have been barred from returning to their homes since the levees broke. Most of these 4,000 displaced residents were in housing units that either were not damaged at all or very little. Their life’s belongings are still barricaded behind steel plates on doors and windows to prevent entry.
The town criers who warned that New Orleans would take this opportunity to rid itself of poor and black folks are no longer looked at as crazed conspiracy theorists. Two years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the story is about the same as it was on the first anniversary.
About 200,000 New Orleanians are still scattered across the country, many languishing in trailer park hell. Some of them have become suicide statistics, joined the unemployment rolls or now have residency in jails or prisons. Still traumatized from the hurricane and post-hurricane experiences, they need mental health services along with food, shelter and clothing.
There has been so much information disclosed about how we got to the levees breaking. There has been overwhelming documentation of waste, fraud, indifference and ineptness. Examples like $12 million spent on ice storage that was recently destroyed. Like refusing Greece’s two free cruise ships for hotel and hospital needs and instead paying the Carnival Cruise Line $249 million to do the same thing. On the surface, this may appear to be home-grown bureaucracy or downright ineptitude. I say it’s the phatty phat hook-up.
Meanwhile, it seems as if well-meaning and concerned people are on a woe-is-the-Gulf treadmill. I have a few suggestions that may help to break our cycle of helplessness.
Before people like Louisiana Senators Vitter and Landrieu propose a porkified bill for a quarter-trillion-dollar reconstruction package drafted by lobbyists for oil, shipment and other corporate interests, let us dig in our heels and demand a real reconstruction package and the right of hurricane victims to return to their hometowns.
The International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that puts the Bush Administration on trial for crimes against humanity must be supported. Bush and his FEMA and HUD henchmen must be punished.
Every presidential candidate needs to hear from us on what their plan is for moving the Gulf Coast reconstruction. We also need to write our congressional reps about putting this on their agenda off the back burner.
The Iraq War needs to end as well as space exploration ($600 billion combined) until the Gulf Coast gets prioritized attention. This would be part of a systematic plan to rebuild our national infrastructure to prevent the next bridge collapse. This major undertaking would be possible through a public works program similar to that of the 1930’s New Deal WPA that employed millions of citizens.
Oh yes, there would still be billions of dollars left that would be used on re-building our public education system including our state university systems. This critical area that impacts the future of this country has been criminally neglected as well.
It is time to turn the tear-jerking images that will be resurrected around the anniversary of one of this country’s most deadly man-made catastrophe into some meaningful results for those who are still trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.