Tuesday, September 27, 2005
The slow trickle of the truthSo here it is, almost exactly one month after Katrina roared into New Orleans, and the police chief has quit, and the rumors of violence that fueled so much of the racist-tinged discussions during those darker days have been proven false: 5:28:14 PM | That
the nation's front-line emergency management believed the body count
would resemble that of a bloody battle in a war is but one of scores of
examples of myths about the Dome and the Convention Center treated as
fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top
officials, including the mayor and police superintendent. As the fog of
warlike conditions in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath has cleared, the
vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees have turned
out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to
key military, law enforcement, medical and civilian officials in
positions to know.
"I think 99 percent of it is bulls---," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. "Don't get me wrong, bad things happened, but I didn't see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything. ... Ninety-nine percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved." The AP is covering the story today, but they are still perpetuating the myth that the National Guard soldier shot in the Dome was shot during a fight for his gun, when actually the attacker was not going for his gun at all, and the soldier shot himself in the leg during a moment of chaos. Why do these corrections matter? Because still there is a stigma, an expectation, of crime and violence from the thousands and thousands of New Orleans evacuees who are poor and black. When I was in Houston there was talk of the "sky-rocketing" crime since the evacuees came into town, and rumors of looting when New Orleanians were seen walking out of Target with shopping bags. The speakers may not have said "black evacuees" but it was understood that was who they were talking about. And shock and surprise, FEMA continues to bungle up their efforts, now just west of New Orleans in Beaumont, Texas: County
Judge Carl Griffith said today he has become so frustrated with the
federal relief effort that he has instructed all local officials to use
police force if they have to to take supplies from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency.
"If you have enough policemen to take it from them, take it," Griffith said. If they "steal" from FEMA will they be looters? Or heroes? Perhaps it will depend on their skin color. S and I are enjoying our last few days together before he flies to Dallas this Sunday and then to wherever (the list of stops will be long, that's certain), and then finally back to Afghanistan. Our "tasting" dinner at Alinea was spectacular, but it was also breathtakingly expensive. Too much to even admit to spending on one meal. It must be the most expensive restaurant in this city, and probably one of the most expensive in the entire country. Oh well!! Too expensive for us is clearly not too expensive for many, many others. Two couples seated near us fly in from Philly once a month just to eat there. All of the tables were full. The couple sitting right next to us were celebrating their sixth anniversary too, but they were smart enough to have a simple glass of wine each and not indulge in the wine tasting option, a steady trail of fifth-filled glasses to go with each of the forteen courses (and we chose the "middle" tasting menu -- the largest has twenty-eight courses and was a "serious commitment" according to our waiter). We were in food- and drink-induced funks yesterday and literally didn't leave the house. We started moving about in the afternoon and cooked dinner, curled up again, and watched the first half of Scorsese's documentary on Bob Dylan, No Direction Home. Today we've spent hours running errands to prepare for S's trip back, and fuming at the radio as we heard the maddening testimony of Mr. Brown who has decided, suprisingly of course, that the failures in New Orleans were the fault of everyone involved except him. According to Raw Story (via Salon), he's been hired by FEMA as a consultant, which makes sense in Bush World and absolutely no sense here in reality. It's just so maddening! And in Iraq? We've killed the number two guy, again (doesn't the story sound familiar?), and still more soldiers are being killed, more Iraqis forced to live under constant threat of death (and forced to see their friends and neighbors killed). As for this, I hope it's not true:
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Last update: 10/2/05; 7:48:58 PM .
