Early September is one of my favorite times of year in upstate NY. The weather is calm; warm, but not too warm... everything is green... the sun still lingers until 7pm, the sunsets are full of color. It's beautiful.
Today I came home from work and walked out to the mailbox as the sun began to drop behind the top of the hill. The birds continued their mellow chirping, and I could hear the sound of a sprinkler from the neighbor's yard. There was a little bit of a breeze, and the smell of someone's backyard grill floated along on it. I looked around at my gentle, serene neighborhood, my home for over 20 years. Then I closed my eyes and tried to imagine it under 15 feet of water, the roofs of our homes caved in, bodies floating down the street, people looting and dying of hunger at every turn. Then I came inside and cried for the poor, poor people suffering in New Orleans. What could that possibly be like?
To see a city of such heritage and history - a blindingly proud city despite its rather ignoble reputation - brought to its knees so thoroughly and humiliatingly is painful to watch. My heart bleeds as I watch the people of Louisiana tear each other apart in a desperate attempt to survive. Just as painful to watch is the overwhelming homogeneity of the people who are suffering. Americans have become accostomed to pretending that racism 'no longer exists' in America, that we're 'above' all of that... but take a look at CNN. The people who did not make it out of Katrina's path were the poor and the infirmed - they HAD no way out. Almost every single hurricane 'refugee' you see on the news today is black. What does that say about America? New Orleans is the 9th poorest city in our country, and 2/3 of its population is African American. Are we really doing anything more than preaching equality in this country, while at the same time funneling our 'undesireables' somewhere we consider to be out of sight and out of mind?
And please do NOT get me started on the appaling way that the residents of the city have reacted to this tragedy. When the World Trade Centers were demolished, not one New Yorker looted. Not one New Yorker attacked or killed another in an attempt to get to safety or shelter. They helped each other, died to SAVE each other. As the cameras roll, people being housed in the Superdome are raping and murdering each other over blankets. I watch the news and I feel like I'm watching a scene from the movie version of Lord of the Flies (a book that made me throw up, incidentally).
This awful tragedy and the nation's reprehensible reaction to it refreshes and strengthens my fear of the future. I really wonder sometimes if the apocolypse isn't pending... if it's already arrived and is just taking it's time finishing what's been started.
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