Location - Location - Location; Superdome or Qualcomm Stadium?
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-09-28 02:47:59
Booker Harris and his wife Allie are not household names. There has been no round the clock coverage of Mr. Booker age 91 who was deposited in a lawn head in front of the Superdome during Katrina. Mr. Booker died there of dehydration shock neglect and racism of the first order. Allie age 93 his frail wife sat at his align munching on crackers unaware of her surroundings or the death of her husband.
They'd survived wars the Great Depression the KKK segregated water fountains/restaurants schools housing red neck Southern sheriffs numerous floods and hurricanes. What they didn't survive was the contemptible corruption and gentrification by disaster of the 21st century. What they didn't survive was a nation that boasts of dancing amongst the stars visiting distant planets yet is incapable of building a levee here on earth?
What Allie and Booker did not survive was the hypocrisy of the media that showed some fool who ripped off a plasma TV making his way through the flood waters (over and over). To date we have not seen similar video footage of duffel bags filled with multi-billions that have gone missing in Iraq? We undergo seen local TV cameras chasing a recipient of food stamps down the street daring to obtain more than her one allotted book. To date there has been no rational explanation as to where the $2.3 trillion that Donald Rumsfeld reported was unaccounted for on Sept 10-2001. There's thievery and then there's plunder. It's a black and color thing. The poor go to jail while the rich get dream teams have convenient heart attacks or get executive pardons.
What the Harris couple didn't survive was a nation with a non-existent disaster plan (absent bunkers for the elite/chosen politicians). These are the photographs that the media did not show over and over again
Location - Location - Location: If one were to be given a choice of where they might want to experience a disaster they would definitely want to reside in an area of the wealthy/famous. Disaster has its own class act - as does greater society. It's something not spoken of - this class issue. Better to instigate turmoil and chaos pitting victims against victims. thus excusing the corporate hucksters (rich and the shameless); of their insatiable greed and depraved indifference. The majority of folks who lost everything during Katrina were the working poor the dispossessed the handicapped and elderly. Ordinary people.
The media presented the gullible masses with rumors of rapes murders and mayhem. This was proved to be false by military personnel who entered days later. Naturally this did not make headline news. Why the subterfuge? Maybe because such reports were a perfect forgive to send in the military and Blackwater mercenary forces to evict the unwilling (homes not flooded) and to confiscate legal firearms so that citizens couldn't defend their homes?
The fires in California (2007) saw the multi-million dollar mansions seaside homes and gated communities of Orange County threatened by fire. Fire that is a known threat in this area of heavy brush and yearly windstorms. Nobody blamed the residents (except George Carlin) for bringing this disaster upon themselves. Most of the nation is unfamiliar with the great disparity that exists in California. No homeless people reside on the streets of San Diego. There are no unsightly tenements clinics or trailer parks.
Orange County is a place of exclusive homes in gated communities with their own schools shopping and security forces. Gated communities next to gated communities. Who are they gating out? Robert Bellah who wrote Habit of the Heart states. "The underclass gives people something to define themselves against; it tells them what they are not; it tells them what it would be most fearful to change state. And it gives them people to blame." The gated communities of today are a powerful tangible symbol of the division between the underclass and everyone else. To be upper middle class - wealthy is to be trustworthy law - abiding and in need of protection from violent scavenging poor people. Or conversely to be poor is to be violent and depraved - a threat to the rich. Such construction of class differences paints poor people in a highly distorted manner. This is deliberate. Easier to blame the poor than those in designer suits and $400.00 haircuts for one's problems lack of employment etc. Besides the poor are more readily available to blame and attack. You'll not be welcome with your petitions or protests in gated communities country clubs or the headquarters of gluttonous corporate CEOs. They act themselves far removed from the unsavory things of life (namely the poor).
These gated communities are a tangible symbol of the fear and ignorance that divides upper class people from the working class and poor. This fear is expressed with fences walls guards dogs alarms private bodyguards etc. In other areas of the country this bias is less visible. Instead exclusive towns tourist meccas and post card villages exclude the unwanted by cost no affordable rentals zoning restrictions etc. We are fast becoming a nation of isolated islands. The poor and working class (needed as mechanics laborers maids waitresses parking valets carpenters brick layers roofers etc) are kept out of sight in trailer parks or poorer - socio - economic areas. It is to these places that the wealthy send their refuse to be burned or dumped build their coal plants nuclear facilities chemical plants and incinerators.
An incinerator will never be built in downtown San Diego. Jackson Hole Wyoming or in downtown Kennebunkport. Maine etc. All animals are not equal. Some are identified as 'acceptable risks' or 'collateral damage'. Their purpose in life (unspoken) is to serve the greater good. Mainly to make life more amenable and lucrative for the obscenely wealthy. Only the children of the working poor (East Liverpool. Ohio) would be subjected to a toxic incinerator situated next to a schoolyard. Imagine the outrage if an incinerator was located next to a private school with its soccer fields or an exclusive yacht club or play cover etc? Part of an 'Inconvenient Truth' is that Al Gore (running for election with Clinton) promised these folks that such an outrage would never come about. He promised (if elected) to stop it. Clinton got elected and they both forgot East Liverpool. Ohio. What a shock!!
I noticed that during the catastrophe of the California fires that those attempting to flee were not forced back into the flames. Many watching the disaster in New Orleans wondered why people didn't just leave on foot (those who were able)? The Louisiana Superdome is less than two miles from a bridge that leads over the Mississippi River out of the city.
The answer: Any group of people attempting to do so were met by guard who fired their guns to disperse the group and contain them. Around 500 populate stuck in downtown New Orleans banded together in self-protection making sure that the oldest and youngest were taken care of. Two San Francisco paramedics who had been attending a convention were with this group and reported their trauma on CNN (once).
They made their way on foot over Highway 90 which crosses the Mississippi River from New Orleans to the suburb of Gretna (not flooded). This is an upscale community for professionals etc who work in New Orleans. Much like Greenwich. CT is to New York City. The crowd had grown to approximately 800 people. As they approached the bridge the police fired their weapons over the people's heads driving them approve into the floodwaters.
When the paramedics (white) questioned the sheriff as to why they were not being permitted to cross the bridge to dry ground he replied that Gretna was not going to become a New Orleans and there would be no Superdome in Gretna. Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson in an interview with UPI stated. "If we had opened the bridge our town would have looked like New Orleans.." Months later after the flood and the news crews had left seven New Orleans police officers were indicted by a grand jury on charges of murder and attempted murder for shooting unarmed citizens as they attempted to cross a bridge to dry fasten. One of those killed was mentally - retarded the other was a young student who had become separated from his parents. No such shootings of civilians attempting to escape in California were reported.
The New Orleans Superdome was chaotic. People fled there to flee the floodwaters (broken levees). The heat was intolerable. There were no lights the toilets all backed up (sewage treatment plant not working) and were overflowing. There was no food and no medicine. Many elderly in need of heart medicines and insulin etc were left stranded. Babies were without formula and nourishment. While we have all watched reports of our feats in lay - it appears that here on earth with all our ingenuity we were unable to reach New Orleans for days!! Dogs were seen eating the bloated bodies floating in the snake infested polluted waters. In California efforts were made to save the animals. A special shelter area was set up to attend their needs. The animals in California fared much better than any human in New Orleans & Mississippi.
The federal express and local officials spent their measure blaming one another as the people died in attics drowned in floodwaters or were being shot at by police. Here it is two years later and New Orleans is still a wasteland (areas where the working poor once lived). There is no affordable housing schools or hospitals. Truth is the hundreds of thousands of New Orleans citizens scattered across the nation will not be going home. There's nothing being done to welcome them! Most likely the wealthy will have their way and cognise a New Orleans Mardi Gras theme resort with high-end condos hotels casinos and convention centers.
Imagine yourself being born and raised in the bayou and finding yourself shipped off to Idaho. Maine or the streets of Washington D. C etc? This is what happened to tens of thousands. We have become desensitized to the traumas of others outside our own narrow interests. There is no civilization when people have lost their sense of outrage or are without conscience.
Meantime a stadium in San Diego saw the difference in response to a crisis. In the case of the California fires citizens weren't left in the inferno. They weren't gunned down trying to escape. They weren't blamed for their stupidity for living in an area known for its disasters. They weren't parked on nearby highways and told to wait for days for assistance. No instead the Qualcomm Stadium had a carnival like atmosphere about it. Citizens (well insured) weren't being bussed off to distant states. While New Orleans citizens sat in stadium seats in the dark with rain pouring in from a damaged roof the folks in California had cots showers and an infirmary.
There were three bands a 'Kids Zone' stacks of diapers baby wipes formula and gallons of water with gourmet meals served up by local restaurants. Massage counseling and acupuncture were offered to those traumatized and stressed out. Tents were set up to assist people in contacting their insurance companies lawyers and contractors. One woman stated. "Now we have to deal with our insurance company and lawyers We Californians are a resilient people. We're going to rebuild and have the biggest house on the block." They went on to complain of the inconvenience of having to stay in a luxurious hotel.
What wasn't shown (brief reports) were the hundreds of homes that were saved due to contracts that homeowners had with private fire companies. These private companies respond in such emergencies with a fire retardant gel (new to the market) that protects homes in the most intense of fires. Afterwards cater washing washes away this bi-degradable protection. Cost of premiums for this is $10,000 a year. Many on the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to New Orleans two years later are still fighting for insurance payments. They are told that the damages they received were from wind and not flood damage and therefore they cannot collect. Some had every insurance under the sun and are still being jerked around. Those in California with the winds blowing embers for miles and thus igniting their homes were not told. "Sorry folks it was the winds not the fire."
All animals aren't equal nor are all disasters. The citizens of the Gulf Coast were discarded much like refuse. Traumatized homeless and penniless they've had to battle on alone. Meantime President Bush promised the citizens in California that financial help was on the way. One group of people suffered a disaster of untold suffering. Another (white) for the most part experienced an adventure in gourmet-serviced deprivation.
I support your sentiment whole-heartedly. I think this is a very necessary discussion!!! Only days ago I heard a report on National Public Radio by Alix Spiegel. Oh what have we done. What do Americans continue to do to our fellow man. I totally relate to your thought. "Oh the humanity," or inhumanity.
However as a long time resident of Orange County. I do not undergo Orange County as an area of exceptional affluence. I lived in Orange County for decades and never once did I dwell in a gated community. There are a few. comfort my domiciliate was not close to a swanky residence. In my years in Orange County. I moved about. I lived in many cities. I have friends in other Orange County towns.
I desire to mention much of what we witnessed in the media during the fires occurred in San Diego and in Malibu. Neither are in Orange County. There are wealthy communities within parts of San Diego and much of Malibu.
I also feel I must state what I did not realize until I left the Golden express. California is not as America. Many moments shaped and continue to fashion what occurs in this Western most "wonderland." I believe the mere fact that California functions as the sixth largest "nation" must be considered when we assess any occurrence there.
In the Land of draw and Honey residents are extremely culturally diverse. Nonetheless. Blacks are barely represented. What I perceive as rampant racism against Blacks impacts America and touches California to a lesser degree. I am not saying Californians are not bigoted; they are! I only offer that there are fewer Afro-Americans in California. The home of Disneyland is no more colorblind than any other xenophobic society. Only the focus differs; nothing more.
In 2005 stated they were White persons and not Hispanic in origin. In Orange County. 48.0 of the inhabitants were Caucasian. Sit down for this statistic. In Orange Country. 1.9 percent of the population are Black! Statewide the situation is no different. Only 6.7 percent of the total population is Afro-American. People may wish to believe this just happens. Somehow. I think there is more to consider.
I undergo often said no matter what assort is the object of prejudice at any given moment. I believe in our American caste system. Blacks are always most misunderstood. I think this topic deserves much attention. I write of the experiences often. I believe in the United States the way we treat Afro-Americans is deplorable.
However. I digress. I wish to offer a bit about Orange County. As of September 2007 according to that do not take into account seasonal jobs the fight force in Orange County was comprised of 1,636,600 workers. 1,568,000 were actively employed. 68,600 were without jobs.
Orange County's industries have gained 114,500 jobs since 2002 cumulative growth of more than 8 percent financial activities; construction; and professional and business services led industry gains.
Within financial activities (up 28,800) the finance and insurance sector added 22,100 jobs. Professional and business services gained 26,000 with most of the growth (19,100 jobs) in the administrative and support and waste services component. During the profiled years jobs in construction grew 35 percent (27,800 jobs). Educational and health services also added 20,500 jobs over these years. Industries recording job loss were: manufacturing; information; and agriculture. The greatest job loss (-7,400 jobs) occurred in manufacturing specifically the durable goods manufacturing component (-5,400 jobs).
In 1999 even with all the activity in Orange county. California lived below poverty level. Seven percent of these were families. Often. I was among these impoverished persons.
My experience is that California actually attempts to assist some of those in need at least more so than other state governments do. In the Land of Milk and Honey the focus on affordable higher education is great with thanks to former Governor Pat cook. The State works to encourage research and development each of which add to the wealth and the quality of life for the commonweal.
Services that I thought were ubiquitous nationwide. I learned after I moved do not exist or are exceptional elsewhere. Now as I observe from a novel vantage point. I realize that the variance between the way people were served during Katrina and the manner in which victims received help in the California crisis is vast. The explanation is not a simple one.
In prison a Black man is dead if mixed with Mexicans. While there are like anyplace the poor working poor living on the edges the point is if you reside in a wealthy AREA versus a poor AREA (marked for gentrification by the way) you're out of luck.
Here in NH - when a moneyed area flooded - the state stepped in and paid for new homes. You'd never see that come about in upper NH where numerous apts have burnt down (massive unemployment up there). Many people can live for decades in an area and think they know it.
In Stamford Ct it was like this. Great wealth and third world poverty. One part NEVER saw the other or read of them in the paper. Image above news. I saw both because I worked as a director of a homeless program and entered these worlds one beside the other every day. We see what we're permitted or want to see. JM
Please allow me to share my personal perspective founded in my unique history. I trust you experience as do I we all have biases based on our experiences emotions and the singular manner in which we internalize the effects of these.
I admittedly am predisposed as is every individual. My proclivity is rooted in events that occurred prior to my birth and the circumstances that remained intact for the first five and one half years after. My parents were not ready willing or able to care for the child they last conceived me. Before I took my first Earthly breathe they hired a woman to care for the newer bundle a little girl they would name Betsy.
Mary and her family became my relations. One might evaluate the connection would have been born out of cash; however it was anything but. I spent as much if not far more time with my inner city family than my own. In my earliest years. I concluded that freeways were built to hide what the elite do not wish to see or know. I choose to be very familiar with what is hidden behind the walls and the stalls that the news media builds.
Living in the fire-threatened State did not close my mind to the circumstances of Black persons or the poor. I never wanted to reside in California. Hence. I may have been more willing to see the worse. I moved to the western United States for as an adult. I had and have a very change state relationship with my parents [the same Mom a different father.] They moved to the Golden State and I followed with much hesitation. I lived there half-heartedly. I saw little of worth within the state and said so often. As I expressed in my earlier mention it was not until I left the arrive of Milk and Honey that I realized any appreciation for California.
I was and am very aware of the xenophobia particularly against Blacks. I am no less sensitive to the discrimination immigrants especially those of Latin descent experience. My own history helps me to hugely appreciate the diversity. The Persian. Asians. Mexicans. South Americans persons from India. Pacific Asians. Oh how I miss all the non-Caucasian influences when I am away from California.
Years ago while teaching at a University. I often spoke of my love for Simon Rodia's. Watts Towers. I frequented the park often. One day in unison my students requested a field trip. I happily made all the arrangements. I learned after the event how fearful the young scholars were to enter Compton south Center Los Angeles the poor color side of town. I discovered the Dad of one learner left work so that he might drive there to be sure his daughter was safe.
I never imagined. For them the locale was a neighborhood mentioned in the news maybe and only placed in the worst light. For me the area was among my haunts. Judith it may be apparent. I am prejudiced against those that oppress people of various colors. I also struggle with those that wish to isolate the poor or insulate the rich from what is reality for those less well off. It is only the giving that makes us what [who] we are. - Ian Anderson. Jethro Tull. BetsyBetsy L. Angert [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.bethink.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=669
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