The response to and recovery from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans is a prime illustration of what the disparity of wealth means in the United States. We constantly hear how prosperous our economy is, though that story is always told from the perspective of the wealthy, not from the perspective of the majority in this nation who are predestined to suffer through the systemic injustices they are born into. The sad reality is that our society is setup to favor the elite, whom are quick to ignore the disadvantaged, who capitalize off of them however possible whenever opportunity arises. The response in New York by our government following 9/11 was immediate, unlike in New Orleans and the surrounding areas following Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita in 2005. The reason is simple: money.
Nearly two years removed from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, little progress has been made in the recovery efforts. Our government’s response has been less than stellar, and the tragedy of the moment is slowly fading from the public conscience. State Farm Insurance has come to profit like a bandit off of the tragedy, refusing to cover thousands of homeowners who lost everything, manipulating the system to serve in their favor citing technicalities that have been refuted by even their own engineers. The fact that such a lackadaisical response would never happen to a wealthy and predominately white area has been largely forgotten. There are lessons we need to learn from this tragedy and apply in reforming our society.
I would like to make available the unique experiences of an acquaintance I have had the fortune of meeting in the last year named Tyler Norman. Tyler has helped assist in the recovery efforts of New Orleans and was a member of Common Ground Collective, a volunteer group assisting in the rebuilding efforts of hurricane ravaged areas. Below is a portion of an open letter he wrote to his community following his return from New Orleans. He offers a unique perspective, one unmatched by the media. I cannot help but stress the role that economics have played in this tragedy, and note how wrong it is in this day and age to have money preside over life, especially in a country as “wealthy” as ours. I will follow this letter in a few days with another piece written by Tyler emphasizing the hope that we need to create from this tragedy.
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... We are working with lawyers, construction workers, computer geeks, doctors, business professionals, college students, hippies, anarchists, black nationalists, ‘illegal’ immigrants, white, black, brown, whatever (hence the name Common Ground).Interestingly, the massive majority of people who have volunteered their time have been 'alternative' white college students. Unfortunately, for the most part, these people have been unskilled, ignorant, and arrogant. Many have come to New Orleans because they want something to put on their resumes - their 'virtue' resumes, or in some cases, they even get college credit. Many come because they want to prove that they are hip enough to reject their ruling class status and go hang with 'those fascinating, gritty, black folk.’Many of them just don’t understand that it’s not a freak accident that the poor areas of town got flooded with up to 15ft of toxic water, while the rich areas got 2 ft or less. Many of them don’t understand the fact that rebuilding efforts are being deliberately slowed down, and jobs are being deliberately taken away from New Orleanians who wish to return, and given to Latino immigrant workers who have been scammed into getting H-2B visas which basically make them slaves to the companies which brought them in.Many of them do not understand that the elite in New Orleans are thrilled by this hurricane, as it has been a chance to destroy the public housing projects (5500 undamaged units are being torn down), the medical support nets (the only low-income hospital in the city is still closed), the public schools and the teachers union (the largest union in the state of Louisiana, it was also the only union led by black women, its membership represented the highest percentage of college educated black folk, home-owning black folk, and voters in the city; now they are basically blacklisted). They do not understand that the entire school system is being wrenched out of the grip of the public and turned over to businesses, to run 'charter schools' which are funded by, but not accountable to, taxpayers. One public high school in New Orleans (with nearly 100% black population, as are nearly all public schools - nearly all white folks have enough money to get into private schools, or live in the suburbs where public schools actually work) is being transformed into a 'career school' where only three 'careers' are offered – general construction, food service, and data entry. The racist cynicism of this is disgustingly obvious.
We’ve been trying to educate these volunteers, while at the same time working like mad to try to first prevent things from going to hell, and second to try to assist people in getting back on their feet and seizing control over their lives and their city once again. We all hope that this kind of effort is something which can grow into, or feed, a larger movement, so we encourage volunteers to return home, if they have opened their eyes and gained knowledge of the true state of affairs, and educate others.
So after spending countless hours working to get rudimentary kids programs running in neighborhoods where they have very little (ie free breakfast, after school programs, sports, summer programs), I badly needed to take a break and go home to relax briefly, process my thoughts, and prepare to jump back in at full energy. And what did I find when I got here?
Neo-Nazis rallying on the steps of the Wisconsin state capitol building (the National Socialist Movement, or NSM, is the fastest growing white power organization in the United States - still not as big as the KKK, but they send all of their members through paramilitary training, so they at least hope to pose a major threat).Of course, about 1200 people came hoping to drive them away. But the state brought in300 police, in riot gear, on horses, with mace and tear gas, surveilling from the rooftops, undercovers creeping around, etc, just to protect the Nazis, who were taunting the jeering crowd by laughing and waving, doing 'Heil Hitler' salutes constantly, and pointing and shouting insults at any non-white members of the crowd (which were few. Nazis are relatively strong in this area because the population is something like 90% white, most of that being German or Scandinavian – in other words, 'Aryan'). The police even lined up shoulder-to- shoulder, pushing through the crowd to provide a protective barrier as the Nazis entered the capitol building from the back, walked through the middle and completely shut things down in there, stood on their stage protected by a specially-constructed 10 ft high fence and separated from the crowd by a 300 ft lawn and rank upon rank of police, and went out the same way once they were finished. All of these police were there because this exact same group of Nazis incited a riot in Toledo, Ohio a few months ago, and politicians were afraid the same thing would happen here. But they didn’t revoke their demonstration permit, they gave them protection as they shouted horrible things like 'We need a ‘Final Solution’ for this illegal immigrant problem!' and nonsensical things like 'We don’t hate Jews and Mexicans and Black people because we are racist – we hate them because they are conspiring to destroy the white master race!'The focus of the half-dozen speeches conducted during their 2 hour rally was the fact that the United States government should bring its troops home because stomping Black and Brown folks here is more important than doing it elsewhere...
Unfortunately I do not have the ability to bring this all together into some sort of really conclusive deeper truth. I do, however, feel that the contradictions and conflicts present in these stories provide an interesting anecdotal glimpse into the insanity that is the society of the United States. While a strong and very influential sector of we, the people, are more than willing to organize ourselves for the betterment of all, governments spend massive amounts of money, strong-armed out of hard-working citizens, to protect hateful racists, while doing next to nothing to educate our children.The time for idleness and apathy is long past. I implore you all to demand better.
In Solidarity,
Tyler Norman..
http://www.commongroundrelief.org/
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