cowpies and roadkill are excluded from this offer
left behind to drown

Nigel has a great post that contends "Some people are so forcefully not writing about what's going on in New Orleans that it hurts." bOINGbOING has been doing an admirable job of sharing information about the tragedy. At first, they did their usual pointers to techie widgets, but they've shifted to more serious blogging as the situation worsened.

bOINGbOING relays an email message about the situation on the ground in New Orleans. The text criticizes the handling of the evacuation by federal and local authorities:

The poorest 20% (you can argue with the number -- 10%? 18%? no one knows) of the city was left behind to drown. This was the plan. Forget the sanctimonious bullshit about the bullheaded people who wouldn't leave. The evacuation plan was strictly laissez-faire. It depended on privately owned vehicles, and on having ready cash to fund an evacuation. The planners knew full well that the poor, who in new orleans are overwhelmingly black, wouldn't be able to get out. The resources -- meaning, the political will -- weren't there to get them out.

I broke down in tears reading this in the coffeeshop - does anyone know if this can be verified? I'm so ashamed to live in a country where such a policy is even conceivable, and where much of the media represents those left behind as criminals looking for a quick score.

Posted by McChris at August 31, 2005 01:06 PM
Comments

I don't know that it can be verified - this is a somewhat fatalistic view of the situation. Realistically though, New Orleans has a large number of poor people that don't have cars, can't afford to rent them, and such. It is true that a decent percentage (most) of them are black. It is extremely sad, any way you view it.

Posted by: e at August 31, 2005 02:18 PM

Jim Wallis has a great editorial on this at Sojourners: http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.current_issue#3

I thought of your post when I started reading his piece. You should check it out.

Posted by: e at August 31, 2005 04:11 PM

I think one of the saddest photos I saw was of the woman who's husband had died because he wasn't able to receive oxygen. With hurricanes been occurring with greater frequency on the Gulf coast, it's sad that FEMA doesn't have plans or shelters in place for these situations.

Posted by: omit at August 31, 2005 05:16 PM

I don't think it was "intentional," but a reflection of the fact that these kinds of institutions are utterly oblivious to the poor and working class. Because I've just decided not to keep a car and, more importantly, becuase I've ben seeing the images of the Katrina refugees on TV, I've been thinking about this issue a lot.

There's a good piece in Slate that is openly critical of the way in which TV networks have dealt with race and social class. So perhaps a better way of thinking about it would be as a kind of "unconscious" perception of poor and working-class people as "expendable."

Posted by: Chuck at September 1, 2005 10:30 AM

I think I want to be more emphatic now. I think it had everything to do with race and social class. I think the Bush administration handling of Katrina is now clearly beyond inept, espcecially given how poorly FEMA and DHS handled things. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Bush strummed a guitar while New Orleans drowned.

Posted by: Chuck at September 5, 2005 08:42 AM
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