Don't "Politicize" Tragedy? The Tragedy is Political
M. Junaid Alam
September 3rd 2005
It is doubtlessly true that some Americans consider the sad and devastating
fate meted out to the refugees in New Orleans and other areas along the
Gulf Coast to be a strictly "natural disaster," and therefore dislike left-wing
"politicization" of the ongoing tragedy. The right-wing has also grasped
onto this sentiment, poking fun at leftists as being "cynical" for blaming
Bush for "causing" the hurricane. These sentiments are severely misplaced;
the first is a product of simply not knowing all the facts, and the second
is, quite predictably, a product of malicious deception.
No honest human being would describe the deaths of theatre-goers in a
fire as a simple "misfortune" if it turned out that the theater owner locked
all the fire exits. Those burned alive inside the building would not be
the victims of "just an accident" if the one responsible for their safety
and means of escape failed them out of malice or negligence. Similarly,
none can seriously claim that the suffering inflicted on the refugees in
New Orleans is merely the result of a "natural disaster" - for their plight
has been exacerbated by an administration that cares more for profit and
the misadventure in Iraq than for the people of New Orleans.
Let us look at the facts. The arrival of a deadly hurricane was not a
surprise. In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency called a major
hurricane hitting New Orleans one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic
disasters facing this country." So what happened to FEMA? Bush began privatizing
the agency, with a Bush official in the agency calling it an "oversized
entitlement program." Two years later, FEMA was dissolved from cabinet
level to an appendage of the Department of Homeland Security. Bush appointed
one of his political cronies to head the organization, Michael Brown, a
man with absolutely zero experience in managing disasters - except for
his own existence: his last job was in the International Arabian Horse
Association, and even there he was forced to resign.
In June 2004, the administration also gutted the Army Corps of Engineers
budget for levee building in New Orleans to 20% of its previous commitment,
citing war costs. In the past year, at least eight articles have appeared
in New Orlean's major daily, the Times-Picayune, explaining that construction
of the levee system was being crippled by the siphoning of funds into the
Iraq war and "homeland security." Al Naomi, project manager for the Corps
in the area, had said, "we don't have money to put the work in the field."
In June 2005, funding for the New Orleans district of the Corps was slashed
by $71.2 million dollars, more than 40%. Money for construction evaporated.
Meanwhile, a full one-third of the Louisiana National Guard is stationed
in the deserts of Iraq. The government has been scrambling to supply enough
manpower to the thinly stretched and overwhelmed forces along the Gulf
Coast. Thanks to this administration, our troops are dying and killing
in a foreign country whose people resent our presence instead of saving
Americans who are pleading for help in our own country. This is the pathetic,
disgraceful kind of "homeland security" the "patriotic" frauds of the Right
have provided for America.
The right-wing ideologues responsible for this fiasco imagine the American
people to be so stupid that they keep repeating the mantra, "Bush could
not stop the hurricane!" as if this were really anyone's contention. Meanwhile,
they themselves "politicize" the issue in their own typically racist way,
cruelly blaming the mainly poor and black victims by demonizing them as
dumb "looters" and excusing the sickeningly slow aid efforts as the result
of a handful of people shooting at the military.
But in reality, the refugees in New Orleans did not own cars to evacuate
New Orleans. And since the authorities offered zero help and had no plan
other than a call to "get the hell out of Dodge," only affluent whites
could cruise out with ease. Those left behind were therefore forced to
take supplies from stores to avoid dying from hunger and dehydration. In
those crowded bowls of death and misery known as the Superdome and Convention
Center, which people had been told to flee to by authorities and then were
utterly abandoned for days, the "looters" have been the heroes of women and
children, bringing in diapers, baby formula, and food.
Additionally, the idea that one or two people shooting at military helicopters
could bring relief efforts to a halt is utterly absurd. How is it possible,
for instance, that many journalists have been able to weave in and out
of these places, while the military claims it is too "dangerous" to help?
How is it possible that the most powerful military force the world has
ever seen is being impeded by a miniscule number of civilians with semi-automatics?
Only the vicious American Right, drowning in its moral cesspool of hatred
for blacks and love for greed, would blame the victims for taking desperately
needed supplies that have already been written off as insurance losses
by companies anyway. Only white supremacists, such as those often perched
on the news desks of Fox News, could focus on the tiny minority of people
taking TVs and luxury items, while utterly ignored the outstanding fact
that the real looting has been carried out by Bush and his rich allies,
who have robbed the people and the social sector blind in order to line
their own pockets, thus leaving the poor helpless in the face of disaster.
What has transpired along the Gulf Coast over the past week has provided
the entire world with incontrovertible, indisputable proof that all the
blithering proclamations about the "American dream" are as hollow as the
president's head and as meaningless as any thought formed within it. Just
as the floodwaters breached the barriers of the woefully inadequate levee
system, the cheap slogans and absurd mythology of an "equal America for
all" have been completely and permanently breached by the inescapable reality
of suffering and desperation witnessed along the Gulf Coast. That race
and class are the two most prevalent markers of life - and death - in America
is now clear to all but the purblind, and particularly clear to the poor
of New Orleans.
No doubt these victims will face many challenges and have many questions
as they search for love ones and struggle to rebuild their lives. But it
will not be long before they demand to know one thing above all: "Who
locked our fire exits?"
Junaid Alam, 22, is a journalism student at
Northeastern University. He can be reached at alam@lefthook.org.
