DATELINE: 2 September, 2005

Transmitted by ROD AMIS, USA

G21 WORLD HQ - We began our first report on this disaster with these words:

THE FACTS ARE GRIM AND COLD: Nearly a million people who once lived in the greater New Orleans metropolitan area are now refugees in their own country.

The mayor of New Orleans went on local radio last night and he was fuming. This is how it was reported at The Milwaukee Channel

Ray Nagin went on WWL Radio Thursday night to say the feds "don't have a clue what's going on." He added, "Excuse my French -- everybody in America -- but I am pissed."

Nagin said that there are many drug addicts who are searching for a fix. He said that's why they are breaking into drug stores and hospitals.

"What you are seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts that are wreaking havoc and we don't have the manpower that we can deal with it," Nagin said.

Nagin is angry, and wants people to flood the offices of the president and the governor with letters calling for help. He thinks not enough is being done to help the evacuees. He said that federal officials "don't have a clue what's going on."

"Get off your a---s and let's do something and let's fix the biggest g-----n crisis in the history of this country," Nagin said. "People are dying. They don't have homes, they don't have jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the same. And it's time."

The mayor said he needs troops and hundreds of buses to get evacuees out.

He said that it was laughable that some officials had mentioned possibly having school bus drivers brought to New Orleans to help with the evacuation.

"I'm like, 'You have got to be kidding me.' This is a national disaster, get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses to New Orleans," he said. "This is a major, major, major deal."

Nagin accused state and federal officials of "playing games" and "spinning for the cameras." He said he keeps hearing that help is coming, but "there's no beef."

He called for a moratorium on press conferences. He said he doesn't want any more press conferences there until there is actual manpower on the ground helping his city. He said that he is tired of hearing that thousands of troops are on their way because they are just not there.

Only moments before this report was being prepared, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin released a plea to the world with the headline "S.O.S. A Night of Hell". A hotel in downtown New Orleans is on fire he said. There was a chemical explosion at four a.m. that was burning out of control, too. So those people now stranded in front of the Ernest Morial Convention Center have grown even more desperate and violent, while they were having a shoot-out with the police, at least one woman had a baby without medical care.

Will that child survive the day? Doubtful.

Ray Nagin is not the only person mad as hell, pardon my French, America.

This is unacceptable, it is wrong. We are saying that our federal budget needed to be reallocated to the Patriot Act and the Office of Homeland Security to deal with a disaster JUST LIKE THIS ONE brought on by the, always hyped, potential terrorist attack. We gave the Bush government, our government, more money to be able to respond to disasters like this. But it wasn't a terrorist that brought on the destruction of New Orleans, it was an "act of God."

And what do we find? Response time: Five Days AND COUNTING. Dead bodies are literally piling up in front of the Convention Center in New Orleans and floating through its streets, the mayor is beating his head against a stone wall, police are backing away from fire-fights with crazed refugees and five days later the President decides it is time act. His action? A photo opportunity.

No, Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans is not the only one who is pissed off.

I have said unabashedly before in my regular "My Glass House" column that I firmly believe that the personal is political. You can say what you want about political involvement, especially in this cynical age, but you cannot deny that it might be a matter of your life and your death after this week. I was chuffed to read Molly Ivins supporting the same conclusion yesterday.

As this is written, Dennis Hastert, the Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives is in Indiana at a -- get ready -- partisan fundraiser. He will not be present for a debate on an appropriations bill for disaster relief for the Gulf Coast region of our country. He will not be there for New Orleans.

Here's what Mr. Hastert had to say yesterday about rebuilding New Orleans:

"It doesn't make sense to me," Hastert said to the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago. "And it's a question that certainly we should ask. We help replace, we help relieve disaster. But I think federal insurance and everything that goes along with it ... we ought to take a second look at that."

Now that's what I call responsible and encouraging leadership for this nation.

But, writing this update in your World's Magazine, I KNOW I am mostly preaching to the choir. As one Loyal Reader, Cheryl Nation, wrote in to me, after my earlier post, I have to be able to do more. She said:

We need to convince the middle of the roaders and the right leaners. Do you have or can you come up with a way to get people to forward on AND WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR of their local papers? Or do you have another way to reach the people that see things far differently then [sic] us - not the ones that have the $$ and the power but the d eluded ones that actually believe the few with the bucks are actually helping them? Now that would not be boring!

It doesn't matter what political persuasion you have or even if you think all politics are bullshit. People ARE dying in New Orleans, a city is being lost. A great city is being lost. If you haven't already found a link to do so, I can give you one to open your home to your fellow citizens who are among the one million refugees from the New Orleans area alone of this disaster. Just e-mail me.

But, more importantly, as my friend Cheryl points out, it's time to reach out. DO write a letter to the Editor of your local newspaper saying that its time that America should show the wisdom -- by way of how our tax dollars are spent -- to take care of itself. You listen to talk radio? Call in on your cell phone and ask your neighbors and fellow listeners to help out our fellow citizens, our fellow Americans.

If you saw the President's briefing on CNN or C-SPAN today, you know what I know, which is that FIVE DAYS LATER you still can't reach cell phones or land lines in New Orleans. Even people who have left the area who have a 504 cell phone number can't be reach. So people who care about them -- like me -- have no way to know if they are safe or not, dead or alive. This is wrong! The city is still a communications black hole for the most part.

I mean, I'm sorry -- and I've said this before -- but I don't understand how we can brag about trying to rebuild a school in Basra while kids sat once in schools with no roofs in New Orleans. I especiallly don't see how we can keep spending a billion dollars a day in Iraq while babies are dying in the American city where I used to live.

From the perspective of the President of the United States, this situation is likely both a blessing and a challenge. A blessing in that the peace movement focused around Cindy Sheehan has been driven below the media radar, the deaths of a thousand people in Iraq this week is only a U.S. news media footnote to the situation here at home. A challenge in that there is an increasing chorus of questioning as to the policies and priorities of this administration and its ability to address real problems here at home.

For the President, right now, it might easily appear that his nation is suffering a series of plagues -- of Biblical proportions -- like those that afflicted the leader, the Pharaoh, of another arrogant empire. We shall never know, for sure, but it is enticing to believe that the born-again Mr. Bush must be considering this possibility and wonder if his own heart has been hardened.

LOVE AGAINST DEATH

Now we, as a nation, are faced with a choice. Do we choose love -- of our neighbors, of the infrastructure of our nation (one of the five largest ports in the world, a center of the petrochemical industry that those in car-culture love so well, was the Port of New Orleans) -- or do we choose more death in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in New Orleans. Is it guns, now, or is it butter?

The mere fact that babies are dying on the streets of New Orleans and in Biloxi and Mobile, the mere fact that babies are still dying in Iraq, calls to question the conscience of this nation. IF this nation, this empire, still has a conscience at all and has not been simply reduced to an ideological agenda, then it must choose love and life. It must affirm a commitment to saves lives and that commitment MUST BEGIN TODAY.

It's up to you. If you are reading this, then you need to move away from this page soon and take some kind of action to save our people. And by "our people" I DON'T just means citizens of the city that was once New Orleans, I mean our people in Iraq, I mean our people in the slums of Washington, D.C. -- the capital of the Empire -- I mean our people in Cuba, yes, and in Haiti and in Zimbabwe and in Chechnya and in Myanmar and in Calcutta.

This is not an ideological conundrum. This is about COMPASSION, a word I've tried not to use in many months because some of you Loyal Readers have called me on repeating it too often. But today, as I continue to mourn New Orleans, as I burn with rage about what I am seeing happen to that city, I feel that I have not used that word, compassion, enough.

Your local newspaper now allows you to send "Letters to the Editor" via e-mail. I implore you to speak up this time. The Red Cross, which exposed the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, is now the major institution in this country -- even according to the President -- moving to help the people of the Gulf Coast. Help them out if you have the resources.

I call on your to foster love against death. But I am preaching to the choir unless you try to get some of the people you know, people who don't agree with you and will never agree with much of what I have to say, to see that they have a stake in the future, too. You can do this. I trust you to be able to reach out and do this.

---

My dear friend, Scott Salin, who I had been trying to reach for days, sent me an e-mail as I was working on this article letting me know he is still okay. It read:

Rod:

We escaped from New Orleans yesterday, Thursday. Yeah, deciding to ride out this particular storm was a mistake. Tierney and I grabbed clothing, laptops and necessities and moved into an apartment above Molly's [Molly's at the Market on Decatur Street - RA] on Saturday evening and remained there while the hurricane raged and well in to the aftermath. The building is solid and protected on two sides by other buildings. We we luckier than most and the Quarter was certainly the best place to be. The water never reached that end of the FQ and only crept in a foot or two deep above Dauphine Street. We were able to walk about and check the damage on Tuesday but it got a little weird and dicey after that -- total breakdown of anything resembling law and order. Lots of rumor--talk aboiut vigilante executions, and more looting, rape, pillage -- and very little real news on the radio. The telephone landlines were working and most real news came from other states where friends were calling from. They shut the water off on Wednesday morning which only made things slightly more uncomfortable. Again, we were among the lucky few. We had plenty of bottled water and food and made the ice last for a few days days after the power went.

I'm writing from Port Vincent, Louisiana where Tierney's family has a few houses. It was awesome to get a shower as things were beginning to get more than a little medieval where hygiene options were concerned. Still haven't seen any television coverage, but looked over some of the pics on msnbc.com and the images speak for themselves. Our apartment didn't fare as well as we did. We went to check it out and empty the refrigerator and grab a few more items before yesterday's exodus. The roof was peeled back in a few places to the point where we could see the sky from inside. Most of the furniture and likely all of our many hundreds of books are trashed. It remains to be seen what will be left and how it will fare in our absence while New Orleans continues to get the usual allotment of rain. Thankfully, I started carrying renter's insurance a few years ago. An "adult" move that may pay off but won't replace some items, certainly. Stuff seems to matter less in the wake of this awesome event. Now it's all about the future and where we go from here. For the moment it will have to be day-to-day and we'll still have resolve many issues back in NOLA before embarking on any move out of the south.

My cell phone appears to be working again since we reached the Baton Rouge area. I have been able to make calls, but have not received any incoming calls. I'm guessing the 504 area is overloaded. Tierney is receiving occasional text messages and we're both on the same Cingular account. I don't know. I'm sure contact w ill be easier in the days ahead.

I hope this finds you well, dry and in good spirits.

Scott

I asked Scott if he had any word on friends we have in common in my response. I didn't push it. I was just glad to hear that he and Tierney were still safe. I had been afraid that people still in New Orleans weren't getting much word from the outside world, let alone help, and Scott's message only reinforced that fear.

I had e-mailed my very closest friends from outside of New Orleans before writing the first piece on this disaster, asking whether I should report at all. There is wall-to-wall coverage in the Mouthpiece Media, bloggers are typing away. Why do I need to say anything?

One close and dear friend told me that she thought what I had to say would be different and more relevant because I actually knew New Orleans; I lived there until only a couple of months ago; I had a multitude of friends there; I had been written up in the local papers because of an injustice I suffered on its streets and come out vindicated. She wrote: "People have gotten used to seeing you speak for them, the average folks, eloquently, succinctly, saying what they wanted to say. You do have a gift from God, you know. That means you also have a responsibility to use it for the benefit of others."

I was going to walk away from this today. That's difficult for me to admit. But all I wanted to do is find out that my friends are still alive and well and "go on with my life." I have a grant proposal I need and want to write to get a higher degree in Journalism and do an investigative work on the prison system in the Untied States. That was the most important story I could work on before Katrina hit and the levees broke, I felt.

I am overwhelmed and overloaded with the misery of it all. My life has had enough personal misery of its own, as long-time Loyal Readers know.

And then the newspaper arrived. On the cover were people dying to get out of devastated New Orleans, thousands of people with whom I once lived ...

And then the e-mails arrived.

And then I knew that this was too important for me to let go. I still don't know the whereabouts or condition of even half the people I knew, loved and laughed with in New Orleans. I still can't reach most of them.

As I conclude this article, President Bush has touched down in New Orleans, a city I once loved and hated. He is scheduled to meet with angry Mayor C. Ray Nagin while he's in town. I hope that Ray will say what we all, us distaff New Orleanians, want to say right now. I hope Ray has the courage, knowing that his political life will certainly be damaged by what he has already said. I hope politics doesn't matter to Ray right now as much as the welfare of his people and his city.

I hope you will do something to help, too. I hope that those of you who can will take in other American refugees the way Ron Diener took this refugee in. I'm still naive and romantic enough for these kind of hopes.

Thank you for listening to the plaint of another New Orleans writer.

---

G21 READERS COMMENT ON THE COVERAGE:


FROM Becky A., Shenandoah, TX, USA:

I think you should write something, you lived there for some time and have a personal perspective on life in that city!

Your friends and co-workers have shared with you because you have the ability to put it in words that are more succinct or less whatever. I can not imagine Now Orleans not being there either, but you are right, if they are being asked to stay away for up to a month, what will they have to go back to?

Our small city has some of the residents from Louisiana, (don't know if they are specifically from N.O.) who had fled the hurricane, staying at some of the hotels/motels. They were planning on being gone a couple of days and are now finding they can't get back and don't know when they can go back. I'm sure they are probably concerned they will soon run out of money for the hotel, then what?

There are lots of issues ...

Think about it ...

Love ya,
Becky


FROM Cheryl N., West Fairlee, VT, USA:

What do you know of other New Orleans friends? Are you watching NO become submerged on the tube and weeping? It is mind boggling for me and I can't imagine how it must be for you not to mention the people actually going through it. How are you reacting?

I'll write more soon. Just keep in mind there is a reason why you are where you are.

:-)chn


FROM Dan VDM, San Francisco, CA, USA:

Rod -

I read your story today...good work, as always. Actually, heard the lack-of-funding issue discussed last night on the George Noory AM radio program (supernatural talk show) of all places.

I don't know if you remember my friend, Corina Salazar, the only point of personal connection between us (she is friends with me and has met you, back in your NO days). I've been trying to get through to her, but to no avail (line is always busy or circuits are down). She currently lives in Jackson, MS, with her husband and son. I'm hoping they are ok, but I'm even more worried about her family, most of which lives (lived?) in NO.

It sounds funny for me to think this and write it, but given all the problems you have had in recent years when fate has dealt you some tough luck, I'm really glad you were out of NO to avert this disaster ... I think you've dodged enough bullets in the past five years to last you for a lifetime. Hope your friends are ok ... sounds like a terrifying situation down there.

Best,
Dan


FROM Robert P., Montclair, NJ, USA:

Rod:

I've been thinking of you since last week when it looked pretty certain NO was going to be hit by Katrina with something really bad, no matter how it drifted a little east and west. I read your piece at G21 and can't really imagine how you must feel: to watch as a place that you were so connected to (for better and worse) being destroyed, lives that touched you lost, while federal disaster officials dithered like Keystone Cops -- and Bush pretended to play the guitar in Crawford.

The only way I could be angrier and more frustrated is if you were still there. In that case my 3-day waiting period would be up by now and I'd be off to D.C., even at $4 a gallon.

Hang in there, pal.

--Bob


FROM Kim C., Koh Samui, THAILAND:

Hi Rod, I saw and felt the effects of the Asian Tsunami personally.

My heart goes out to the people of New Orleans, Biloxi and all the damaged areas.

Water is the most unforgiving adversary once it turns against you ...

The governments in this region had ignored requests over the last several years for investment in storm warning systems.

They did not listen then. They are, of course, listening now - after the fact, as the govt. in the US may well do now.

And what of the global warming issue? The one that Bush just ignores. Meteorologists state that the nature of the storm Katrina was heavily influenced by the increasing temperature of the seas in the Gulf of Mexico ... the warming water just gave a whopping super-charge to Katrina.

Such is human nature, no reaction except knee jerk reaction. Just ignore the infection and wait until you have to remove the limb.

So, god bless the souls of the departed, god speed to the rescue operations and god help us all.

regards,
Kim C.


FROM Lynda D-M, West Lebanon, NH, USA:

I have sent links to your article and one from William Rivers Pitt and Molly Ivans around the world; my poet friends in the UK were arguing and I got sick of it and decided to set the record straight for them ... and before 8:30am this morning I had ignited and yelled at my co-worker to please cut the bull-shit about New Orleans ... heh heh, one advantage of being 49 and articulate is that when I devolve into profanity it scares the hell out of people ... and I have been watching and listening ... crying, laughing with rage as Ray Nagin actually said the truth in plain Engl ish this morning on VPR/NPR ... fuck ...

the writing is on the walls now Rod (I know, I know, it has been for a long time) 'she's all I got, and she's gone'

Lynda


The Writer Comments:

I must have gotten good for you to deem to write me. I'm chuffed!

FROM Patrick F., Northhampton, MA, USA:

Dear Rod:

Thank you for addressing the shameful initial response of olur government to this disaster. For my part, I am hopeful that I will be able to go to Houston to help with their school crisis, as a teacher or counselor.

I continue to write about the homeless experience. In fact, I am writing a book-length work of fiction aimed at teens, helpers, and the homeless.

Patrick F.


FROM Logan B,, Rome, ITALY:

Dear Rod: I just wanted to tell you that I really admired the writing in your piece about NO - so many things that I never knew. I had no idea that there was a fantasy NO that had nothing to do with the reality.

I often wondered when you sometimes made nasty comments about NO when you lived there. Have never been there and like everybody else I only knew about the fantasy. And listening to the mayor's intervew broadcast on CNN today I also noted that he said what I didn't read or see anywhere in the media - that NO is full of drug addicts and that a lot of the crime was induced by addicts with withdrawl symptoms ...

Also saw the direct broadcast of comments of the congressional Black Caucus who really hit the nail on the head.

I see that you know Jeff Jarvis, I knew him (slightly) when i worked for People Mag. However, don't you think it would be utter folly to try to rebuild on land that is so much lower than sea level? You know, the force of nature and all that ... I really feel for all those people who have lost everything but their lives, and disgusted that today, Friday, things are still in such an awful mess.

Hoping that you have managed to contact all your friends, are you still in North Carolina? I was there about a year ago visiting my nephew who is a Marine Major and helicopter pilot, now serving in Djibuti ...

all best,
logan

FROM Ed C. (Rod's Special Unka Ed) in Michigan, USA:

Rod:

My church took a special offering Wednesday and raised over $1200.00. We're gonna do it again this Sunday.

God Bless,
Uncle Eddy


FROM Lou H-S., Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND:

Good Morning Rod,

We had a flood in Invercargill, New Zealand where I used to live 21 years ago. Our police and emergency people where on the job within 24 hours. Some of the flooded areas took years to recover and a large and expensive flood protection scheme was built. Support from welfare agencies and churches was on hand in a little city of 50,000 people.

What I find quite disgusting is your President is more concern with killing people on the other side of the planet than looking after those at home. The sooner you impeach him the better.

Kind Regards
Lou H.S.


The Writer Responds:

Lou,

As always, thanks for visiting G21, your continued patronage and for writing.

We have asked for action short of your suggestion.? But our indictment stands.

We stand for love against death.

Rod Amis
Webslinger
G21:The World's Magazine

ONE WORD ON "ZERO TOLERANCE" BEFORE I GO: Nobody wants to talk about the issue of race and class here. I have to. I have to. Those are Black people starving and dying in New Orleans, my people. Those are poor Black people dealing with the thugs who don't have their drugs to keep them docile and under control anymore. Those are the poor people of the ninth ward and New Orleans East who I used to live with, work with and organize when I went door-to-door trying to tell them they could have a better life. Those are the American Haitians on your TV screen who have looked at you turn your back on them for decades. They are used to getting short shrift but they don't willingly accede to dying like this.

C. Ray Nagin is a home boy. He grew up in New Orleans. He knows what's good and bad about that town and so he had talk on the radio in language that anyone -- anyone on the street -- could understand about the failure of the government of the United States in this crisis. As far as I'm concerned, Ray Nagin vindicated himself by being blunt about that failure. The people of New Orleans deserve nothing less.

Nobody talked about "zero tolerance" when I wrote for the whole world to see about drug-dealers running rampant on the streets of New Orleans. Nobody brought up "zero tolerance" when I wrote on these pages FOR YEARS about corrupt cops in New Orleans extorting money from conventions in that town. No. People laughed. When I wrote about corrupt judges and courts, people laughed.

I won't forget that.

When I see a brother wading through the waters coming from a Circle K wih a couple of packs of Pampers, some bottled water, a loaf of old white bread and some balogna, what do I see? I see love against death. If I look down the street and see A COP walking out of a WalMart with four music CDs in his mits (yes! this really happened. You can get the photo from the Associated Press.), what do I see? Whose side am I on?

So you know what I think you can do with your Zero Tolerance.

do you feel me?
i'm still starin' at the world through my rearview

i can feel your heart beatin' fast ... -- Tupac