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September 03, 2005

Conjuring Brickbats

Ann Rice in the NYTimes, on what America would miss without New Orleans:

I know that New Orleans will win its fight in the end. I was born in the city and lived there for many years. It shaped who and what I am. Never have I experienced a place where people knew more about love, about family, about loyalty and about getting along than the people of New Orleans. It is perhaps their very gentleness that gives them their endurance.

They will rebuild as they have after storms of the past; and they will stay in New Orleans because it is where they have always lived, where their mothers and their fathers lived, where their churches were built by their ancestors, where their family graves carry names that go back 200 years. They will stay in New Orleans where they can enjoy a sweetness of family life that other communities lost long ago.

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.

Well, we are a lot more than all that. Andam though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.

Who's dismissed New Orleans?

Who's called for dispensing with the non-jazz, non-blackened catfish, non-Mardi-Gras parts of the city?

What am I missing, here?

(For those who missed it earlier - to help with the recovery, pick a charity and give!)

Posted by Mitch at September 3, 2005 06:22 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I just read through links provided by Instapundit that the city of New Orleans had 364 public transit busses, and in one large depot 255 school busses. Pooling together other transit resources they could have evacuated ... probably close to 50,000 people.

How many were used for evacuation? One. It was abandoned on the street and an 18 year old with no experience driving busses got in and started picking people up, just on his own.

Seven hours and three stops for gas and diapers (payed for by several teens and 20 somethings on the bus pooling their resourcs) 100 people got off the bus and were refused entry to the Houston Astrodome for 20 minutes until Red Cross officials finally let them in.

This is just one example of the amazing and lethal incompetence and lack of concern exercised by ... dah da duuummm New Orleans City Officials.

Yes, Federal officials dropped the ball, but the mayor and nearly everyone associated with emergency planning (including the police officers caught on camera looting at local Walmart) never had the ball in the first place. Previous evacuations to the Super Dome also had issues with crime and vandalism which were never corrected with this evacuation. This hasn't stopped the mayor from attacking the Bush administration, however.

Yes, I am a liberal. I voted for Kerry, I voted for Wellstone. But these are not "my fellow Democrats". My democrats are sober Swedish socialists who balance their checkbooks, read to their children so they are prepared for college, lay awake at night fretting that in their list of 100 things they need to take care of they forgot number 101, and are, well, competent. And responsible. And not always a Swede, of course.

Posted by: Bill Haverberg at September 3, 2005 10:03 PM

Whose back is being turned? Americans have been exceedingly generous in this crisis and seem well prepared to continue to give, for as long as it takes.

"Dismissed"? We've talked of nothing else for a week. The death of William Rehnquist will no doubt knock the storm out of the top story slot for a half a day or so, and then the focus will, properly, return to what looks to be the worst national disaster in American history.

If anybody's dismissing anything here, it'd be Rice, who seems to have forgotten all about Mississippi. And anyway, hasn't she made a good part of her very substantial living by glamorizing the jazz, voodoo and Mardi Gras stereotypes of New Orleans?

Posted by: Brigid at September 3, 2005 10:54 PM

"This is just one example of the amazing and lethal incompetence and lack of concern exercised by ... dah da duuummm New Orleans City Officials."

What I said exactly.

http://restraininorder.blogspot.com/2005/09/talk-about-national-disgrace.html

Posted by: swiftee at September 4, 2005 12:54 PM

Police looting: what's this mean, anyway? Salon posted a story by an EMT who drove from Texas to NO to help while the storm was underway. He ended up in Kenner, helping out the police force. When they realized that things were going to get worse (losing power, communication systems) the police chief told some of his men to go to the local WalMart and get some of those battery powered long-range walkie talkies. Does this count as police looting?

Posted by: peter Hoh at September 4, 2005 02:35 PM

This is an absolute travesty. How can this happen in America? I found another good site that discusses this http://www.policelooters.com

Or click here

God bless the USA

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