Two years ago, 1,836 people would be murdered and over a million displaced in one of the most massive campaigns of effective genocide in the history of the world. No, this would not occur in Africa, South America, Indonesia, or the Middle East while the US would look askance so it could secure its own interests first. No, this was right here at home, on that lazy ol' river we call the Mississippi.
I traveled to New Orleans this past week, and let me be the first to tell you it is a sad state of affairs, with a few rays of hope. Large swaths of the city are still in serious disrepair with some blocks boasting only a few resettled residents. Large debris piles and devastated-beyond-repair houses in the middle of streets have made their way to not-so-sanitary landfills on the edges of town. Volunteers with groups like Common Ground and St. Bernard Project have gutted and removed black mold debris from thousands of homes. Even the soil is slowly decreasing in toxicity with bioremediation projects.
60% of the former population has returned or never left New Orleans, where 80% of the city was underwater two years ago. Rent prices are out of control, and the racial make-up of the city has changed as low-income people have no employment and nowhere to call home anymore, and exist in a diaspora separated from their close-knit extended families. The French Quarter is buzzing, but more like a pesky mosquito than the hornet's nest that previously cavorted there in reverie. It is rare to find a genuine sober smile among residents, but the tourists don't seem to mind too much, even going on "disaster tours" instead of bayou boat rides.
Meanwhile Bush and his caravan of motorbikes and black Suburbans came tear-assing through town the day of commemoration, to tout charter schools and mixed-income housing and to declare while standing in the wasteland of the Lower Ninth Ward that "the town is coming back." His chief of recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast, Don Powell, admitted "frustrations" about the red tape and the "pace of things." But every cloud has its lining:
"I also see a tremendous amount of progress. . . . I see economic vitality in the area. I was down there this past week. It took me 28 minutes to get from the airport to downtown. That's called a traffic jam. You don't have a traffic jam unless there's activity."
With the litany of broken promises and insults to human dignity coming daily from the masters of war in the Middle East, it almost seems to be an exercise in futility to hold them to their word on domestic revitalization. Two years have gone by since one of the worst man-made disasters to ever befall the United States, that being the failure of all levels of government, Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, National Guard, and American Red Cross to protect American citizens on the Gulf Coast. It nevertheless remains vital to measure the progress made in order to adequately prepare for the continuing struggle to return and rebuild.
Manifested as the most precipitous drop in his popularity in two terms, the public reaction to Bush's promise of renewal on September 15, 2005 seemed to suggest that apathy and disengagement were abating, and indignation and a desire for accountability was finally starting to take root in the contemporary American psyche. The only paradox: how to hold someone accountable that you have lost all faith in? How long can you plead for sanity from a lunatic before he starts destroying everything in his path? And even if he does answer you call, how can you stop him from "accidentally" hurting you even more? Well even if "Bush's Brain" can't be trusted, maybe we can still rely on his Gut to lead the charge to victory:
"Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know: There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.
In the disaster area and in cities that have received huge numbers of displaced people, we are beginning to bring in mobile homes and trailers for temporary use. To relieve the burden on local health care facilities in the region, we are sending extra doctors and nurses to these areas."
That was nearly two years ago, and two weeks after an offer from Cuba and Venezuela to send as many doctors to the region as there were deceased was outrightly rejected. Since then, the major hospital for low-income patients in New Orleans, Charity, has been closed, and health care is abysmal, supplemented only by volunteer-run neighborhood clinics lacking government assistance and even harassed by law enforcement officials in the critical weeks after Katrina made landfall.
As far as those trailers, after thousands sitting in lots unused finally were distributed, it came to light through nonprofit investigations into reports of respiratory conditions in evacuees that on top of all the other bungling, 2-3 brands of trailers tested unnaturally high levels of airbone formaldehyde. The caustic joke in New Orleans is that the government is helping bury people before they even make it underground.
Meanwhile, the Louisiana-run Road Home program, which provides rebuilding grants to homeowners who had inadequate storm insurance, has sent checks to 44,000 hurricane victims, despite having received more than 184,000 applications and having billions of dollars in the bank. The American Red Cross adjunct "Means to Recovery," funded by American citizens' donations has effectively shut down for applicants after being kept a secret from thousands of residents who could not qualify for the state program.
These people now feel more desperate, hopeless, abandoned, and humiliated than ever. Surely we can honor at least one promise, right Mr. President?
"Our third commitment is this: when communities are rebuilt, they must be even better and stronger than before the storm. Within the Gulf region are some of the most beautiful and historic places in America. As all of us saw on television, there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well. And that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action.
When the regional economy revives, local people should be prepared for the jobs being created. Americans want the Gulf Coast not just to survive, but to thrive, not just to cope, but to overcome. We want evacuees to come home, for the best of reasons -- because they have a real chance at a better life in a place they love.
To help lower-income citizens in the hurricane region build new and better lives, I also propose that Congress pass an Urban Homesteading Act. Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government, and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery.
And the Army Corps of Engineers will work at their side to make the flood protection system stronger than it has ever been."
If Bush's populist rhetoric and class-based assessment matched his actions, and if the National Guard were allowed to do their homeland duties instead of maintaining the kill zones of the Middle East, this revival would be well on track by now. Even a third-grader can see that it's not. Not only are levees only at pre-Katrina Category 3 protection levels, but the wetlands that historically protected the area are diminishing at a rate of 40 square miles of marshland per year. Heckuva job, y'all.
Some type of redevelopment should occur, and long term sustainability should be a paramount concern. However, remunerations for resettlement costs should not fall by the wayside, in the event that areas like the Lower 9th Ward cannot be protected from a 100 year flood and landowners cannot qualify for flood insurance and federal money to elevate their houses. Affordable housing must be heavily subsidized, and the rental and housing market must be regulated to prevent gouging and racial discrimination.
The Works Progress Administration, started by another very unpopular president, Herbert Hoover, would be a good model to follow in restoring the economy through employment of local residents in the rebuilding and rejuvenation of their communities. But this will take a Marshall Plan-sized commitment to the entire region, and a massive diversion of funds from bloated military budgets to domestic aid in order to stave off the US's defaulting on its massive international borrowing and ballooning deficit. Profiteering corporations that thrive off of disasters and resource extraction in the area should bear a heavier tax burden in restoring urban and coastal areas, and in the era of corporate image management, this might not be the worst financial move, especially if done voluntarily.
Barring progress, New Orleans and other coastal cities can't wait for more empty promises from future presidential contenders. A new progressive people's Bloc Party must emerge to either take over the reigns of the bumbling behemoth that is the American Empire, or to organize a massive walk-out--a collective refusal to tacitly participate in the most ignominious imperial project in world history, and a banding together to create a new, most definitely possible, civil society. The time for faith is over. To hell with the hype. Bury the bull. Our warrior-in-chief hath forsaken us, and his heir-apparents want to share in the spoils.
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