katrina, correspondences

On 8/31/05, someone wrote:

"Some of you may have seen this, but for those of you that haven't, here is a tale of two pictures. This really pisses me off. Read the captions.

black

white

Regardless of the fact that much of the "looting" going on in New Orleans is purely just to, you know, SURVIVE, to me, this just adds to the problem. It implies, if you're white, it's "finding bread in a grocery store", but if you're black, it's "looting". Words are powerful weapons, and in a tragedy of such proportions, the problem of "looting" should be low on the priority list. People, of all races, and all creeds, etc., are in a "liquid hell" right now, as water keeps pouring into an overflowing bowl called New Orleans. There is no drinkable water, food is very scarce, and thousands of people are trapped, just trying to survive. That's the story here. Not trying to draw up racial stereotyping through journalism.

I watched on CNN today as a (white) reporter was asking someone (who was African-American) why they were taking food from a store. At first they didn't answer. Then the reporter self-righteously asked, "Don't you know that stealing is wrong?" Then the person answered, "I'm just trying to survive. I have eaten in two days, and I'm hungry."

Yes, taking appliances in a disaster like this could be defined as looting. But it seems to me that people taking food, bottled water, and clothes from stores, are trying to SURVIVE. The realities and niceties of "modern society" and "civilization" are on temporary hiatus, as the city of New Orleans slowly sinks underwater, and any hope of help or rescue is uncertain at best. Are there members the media really holier-than-thou, that they would on principle, starve to death, rather than take a food from an abandoned grocery store, to live, because stealing is 'wrong'?"

someone else wrote:

"'....the Mayor has now pulled 1500 police off of search and rescue and ordered them to restore order. Whatever that means.

Order in the midst of starvation and crisis. This is a disaster and pretty poor reflection on all of this Homeland Security junk that billions have been spent on. These plans don't have evacuation procedures, or don't the procedures include the poor?...

...What can we do about this? Do we just have to sit here and be angry and cry (like me). How do we make a difference and be heard."

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my response:

We're all feeling the impact of this tragedy. It's an awful, awful thing.

If I may say something: One of the many lessons I learned when our nation went through its last tragedy was that it does no good to add to the outrage, regardless of one's intentions. When people are suffering, they need help and support. Everything else is irrelevant.

Do what you can do and what you need to do. In the weeks and months after 9|11, I remember my own absolute -- I don't know what to call it -- confusion, disbelief, shock -- at how many people I met and talked to at the time really didn't seem to feel anything at all. Their experience appeared to me to be limited to understanding that our nation had been attacked, that many people had died, and that it was a shame -- but that it was over, so let's get on with life. To this day, I don't know if this behavior was some form of denial -- an emotional shield instinctively erected by their subconscious to protect them from the sheer pain and sorrow of the event -- or whether they were too caught up in their own lives at the time, or whether they just didn't know how to talk about it, or whether they'd never dealt personally with any kind of emotional trauma, or whether I lack some normal set of filters that would otherwise have given me the tools to process it differently, some might say "normally" -- I don't know.

What I know: About a month after the attacks, I went to New York. I walked the streets. I saw the signs. I breathed the air, which still smelled like wet, burnt newspaper. It helped me to see the people of the city, bravely moving on, facing the days after, carrying on despite knowing that their city, and their lives, had been changed irreparably forever. I saw the sorrow and the loss in the faces of the police who were guarding the perimeters, trying to keep order so workers and volunteers could do their critical and terrible jobs, and to protect a massive crime scene. I saw the site from blocks away, and I cried. I left flowers, and I paid my respects. It didn't help anything, but it helped me.

When I got back, some of the people I told about my experience couldn't understand why anyone would go to the site. I didn't understand them then, and I still don't understand them now. Theirs was not my experience; it took me months to stop feeling the pain, to stop obsessively following the news, and about two years to stop actively grieving. But I still feel it. And I like to think that I carry some pieces of some of those lost souls with me, that by being there, by paying witness and breathing the air, that I helped them to move on.

As for the media: remember who we're dealing with, and what their objective is. Sure, they deserve criticism -- but no more today than any other day. Remember that they don't really care if they offend you, or piss you off -- as long as they have your eyes, they have achieved their objective. No amount of reporters and cameras can come close to conveying the extent of what is happening. There is simply too much. There are too many people, there are too many stories. If you're truly interested, fortunately, there are lots of alternative sources of information available (search Google for blogs related to Katrina, for starters). I merely wish to suggest that you try -- hard as it is -- *not* to have your true feelings influenced by the words and images you see and hear in the media -- because it is only a part of the story. A small, small, detached and diluted part.

Hang in there. We're Americans. God bless our brothers and sisters as they face this mess.

Namaste.

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a response to me from the initial correspondent:

"Very well said. Very well said, indeed. Yes, as many of you know, it doesn't take much to set my outrage alarm off. And yesterday, as with 9/11, I was in full outrage mode, at the media, which as you rightly point out, is only bits and pieces of the full picture. The full picture is a catastrophe of literally "unbelievable" proportions. Even now, whatever picture I have in mind, is probably only half as terrifying, half as harrowing, and half as horrible as the real-life struggles of thousands of people going on in the Gulf States as we speak.

As to what can be done, you are right. Do what you can. I don't know what I can do personally to help all the people affected, (Realistically I know I can't help everyone), but I can only concentrate on what I can do to help. I donated some money to the Red Cross. I will probably do so next week, or in a few weeks. If the call comes for canned food and water, I will send what I can. That's all I can do in the end.

Despite my Don-Quixote-like proclamations, there are times I can see reality staring at me in the face. This is one of those times. I'm not Superman, I'm just [me]. It's tough enough being me, so all I can do is help out the best I can with the talents and resources available to me. My heart and my soul weeps for the thousands of people who lost their lives, who are hurt, and who are struggling through what seems like something out a post-apocalyptic movie. I am with them in spirit, and I know that's not enough, but it's what I can do. So that's what I'll try to do.

I can carry my outrage at certain things with me, but what this boils down to is a human tragedy, and a trial of the human spirit in general. Humanity can be a great and terrible thing. Let's hope that out of this tragedy, ultimately, the greatness of the human spirit, and love, and generosity will rule the day over the terribleness and destructiveness part of the human spirit.

Despite what's going on in our country today, I still believe in the fundamental belief that humanity, despite all its flaws, it at its core an agent for justice and love. So I'll do what I can, and keep that fire of belief in my heart that the goodness of humanity will shine through, and ultimately help everyone recover and rebuild from this terrible tragedy.

Peace."

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would that all dialogues ended this way.