www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Katrina and the U.S.

Dear Friends,

"The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina exposed before the world the true nature of American democracy - with its racist, class society and inherent inability to look after, in expeditious manner, its own citizens. If this is the model society America is, it has no business trying to impose it on other nations around the world."

Comments?

Alex

Is this your quote or are you quoting someone else?

Dear PaulNik,

I've amalgamated some quotes together, some recurring themes from the media.

Alex

Gee Alex, are you looking to get whupped or something? Don't you know that Americans don't like to hear that sort of thing? You are a provocative fellow, and I'm sure some of our patriotic brethren will take the bait.

I see you no longer have email; shame, I wanted to ask you something about another thread.
-Daniel

Everybody surely knows all our wickedness and decadence filter across the border from Canada. Why we may even have same-sex marriage in a few years. I guess we are just a little backward and need a few years to catch up to our more advanced neighbor. All kidding aside, I have come to the conclusion that no nation on earth is moral enough for finger pointing. I suspect God is annoyed with all of them.

I disagree strongly with that statement.

Last week I read a comment from a newspaper editorial writer from one of the countries hit by the tsunami back in December. He commented that 10 days after the tsunami the people being picked out of trees and off rooftops by American soldiers were extremely grateful. He then noted that he was rather surprised to see that Americans being rescued from similar predicaments after just a few days were complaining about how long the aid took to get them. Part of the issue is that we are spoiled. Our expectations in these situations are way too high.

Certainly there were major breakdowns at all levels, local, state and federal. The decisions not to use busses to evacuate before the hurricane and not provide supplies to the people in the Superdome because it might become a mecca for evacuees were inhumane (even more so since the busses were sitting and ready and Red Cross had supplies just across that bridge). We must take steps to fix these problems so that they do not happen again. But the ideas that the rescue efforts were racist, the comments about us being a class society, or that America can not look after herself, do not hold water (unlike the bowl that New Orleans sits in).

Since New Orleans is a city that is about 70% black it only stands to reason that those affected the most (the poor) are black. One of the things I did find annoying (and maybe even racist) was not the response of the government or ordinary Americans, but the media. Why did they just show white people taking food from stores (�because they were hungry�) and black people taking televisions ("looters�)? The more believable accounts showed that blacks and non-blacks �took food� and �looted� at similar ratios.

This is not to say that America does not have problem with racism. It still exists and needs to be purged from our society. If racism has any play in Hurricane Katrina it is the racism of lower expectations of blacks, combined with forty years of discouraging self-reliance among poorer people that came with welfare. Our society did right to feed those who are poor but forgot to challenge them and teach them to learn self-reliance.

Enough about that. There are heros here.

First there are the people themselves (the estimates suggest that 85-90% of the people actually did evacuate � the death toll will be about 500, not 10,000-25,000). Praise God for that!

Second, there are the people of the various government agencies (the rank and file who do excellent work). If the levees had not broken an evacuation of New Orleans could have been very quickly accomplished by bus. Once they broke it was a matter of picking people up from rooftops and trees one at a time with helicopters (a very slow, painstaking process). FEMA, which is not a first responder, responded much too slowly yet it was still the fastest response time in that agency�s history (let�s not forget that most people in New Orleans were breathing a sigh of relief between the time Hurricane Katrina passed and when the levees broke).

Third, the American military � from the National Guard to the regular military � has done wonders in rescuing people.

Fourth, the American people are donating funds to help those affected by this crisis.

Times of natural crisis either bring out the best or the worst in people. For the most part Hurricane Katrina brought out and is bringing out the best in people.

America is not and never will be a perfect nation. Our society has much work to do. It always will. Still, democracy as a form of government is a model that has proven to provide a better life for more people than any other.

I was very touched by the money collected from Iraqi soldiers who stated that �we are one with America�. To us it is just about $600. But they gave not from their excess (like we often do) but from their need. Yes, American democracy is definitely worth exporting.

Admin

Alex,

I'll add my two cents, just to get the ball rolling.

I don't think this shows how racist America is. Don't get me wrong; America is definitely racist - - - but I don't see how this natural disaster shows that.

It just so happens that New Orleans has gobs and gobs of poor black folks, just like almost every other major American city. This isn't a surprise to anyone. The fact that they were trapped in the Big Easy doesn't reveal racism, it only reveals that there are a whole lot of 'em.

Class society? Of course. What place isn't? Even Communist countries have classes; it's inescapable. And what's so bad about it, anyway?

Many would say that this catostrophe doesn't highlight the fact that America cannot react quickly enough to provide for its victims, but that the Bush Administration cannot. I can't remember where I heard it, but some poltico on t.v. was saying a week or so ago how he expected some heads to roll because the slow reaction of the federal government. When asked by the news reporter whether Dubya would take the heat, the politico said something to the gist of, "I wouldn't expect so since when these things happens presidents usually fire other people so as to divert attention away from themselves."

And, conveniently, we learned yesterday that the Director of FEMA had stepped down. Stepped down - who knows? Got fired - some would guess so. Of course the Bush Administration's Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, claimed this was a move of Mike Brown's own volition...but it really isn't a press secretary's job to tell the truth.

Logos Teen

Here are the rules for Los Angelas in case of an earthquake...

COMMUNITY PLANS: Know your neighbors and their skills. You may be able to help each other after an earthquake. Also know where to go to help your community after a disaster. It may be days before outside emergency assistance arrives. It is important to help each other
http://www.lafd.org/eqhbtext.htm

I have seen many people say that in state emergency plans people are told that it may be days before they can reach you and you must help each other. Seems to me this apply to all parts of the country or world. There was a snafu of some sorts but it does not all fall on the shoulders of the federal government.

Your quote fails to address what is written into the our Constitution that protects states from federal involment when not asked for. Not all of the delay that ocured was the fault of the federal goverment. They could not move until the governor said too, and she herself said she had to think about things before she said ok. She waited 24 hours before saying it was ok to enter the state. Red Cross and the US Government had food and supplies in place, but they were not allowed to enter to distribute them. By the time it was given, caos broke out. Now also, we know that the crime in New Orleans is much higher than what they were admitting too. So there is a lot of cover up going on from all over. Once they were able to go in there, it stopped.

So when they finally investigate, I think they will find problems in many areas of the responce to Katrina from the City of New Orleans up.

Also, now they know that a flood gate - a sort of damn - was scheduled to built in the '70s. However, an ecology group went after the US about it saying it would hurt shell fish, and they won. So the Army Corp of Engineers finally dropped the battle. It would have only cost about 1/10 of what it is going to cost to rebuild the town and the shell fish.

Pani Rose

well... for starters... the fact that a few rich individuals control the great majority of power and wealth in a society where there is a large percentage of people in poverty should give us great pause as Christians. There is too great a disparity between the very rich and te very poor in American society and that is quite a scandal.

Dear Alex,

What happened in New Orleans may have been a God send. I don't mean to sound callous, but in all probability we will learn from it and who knows, some day millions of people (in future catastrophies) might just be saved.

Remember, this is our first 'major' catastrophy. As for whose to blame? No one really. The mayor didn't realize the leve's would break and didn't ask the Governor for help... so the Governor couldn't ask the federal government for help.

These are the things that will have to be solved and you'll see Alex, you'll see. Always blame America...huh?

Zenovia

Dear Brian you said:

"well... for starters... the fact that a few rich individuals control the great majority of power and wealth in a society where there is a large percentage of people in poverty should give us great pause as Christians. There is too great a disparity between the very rich and te very poor in American society and that is quite a scandal."

I say:

Yes that is a scandal, yet if we were to become more socialist, there would not be greater wealth but greater poverty. It's the way our system works and frankly it stinks, but not only because of the poverty, but because of the interdependancy of one area upon another.

There should be self sufficiency in as small an area as possible... just in case there is some sort of global catastrophy.

Can you imagine that, (horrors of horrors), the electricity is probably still out in many parts of the Gulf coast. Yet in times past people did not have electricity. Shouldn't we become a little more self sufficient like our ancestors after all my mother knew what grasses were edible and what was not. Even what mushrooms were edible. Frankly I don't know what my grandchildren will do if they're ever stuck without food. Probably starve!

Zenovia

The following story comes from the Australian Daily Telegraph, and if it's true it's a very strong indictment of what our society in the United States has become.

Home Top Stories Story

Submerged ... New Orleans
Patients put down


September 12, 2005

DOCTORS working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leave them to die in agony as they evacuated.

With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive.

One New Orleans doctor told how she "prayed for God to have mercy on her soul" after she ignored every tenet of medical ethics and ended the lives of patients she had earlier fought to save.

Her heart-rending account has been corroborated by a hospital orderly and by local government officials.

One emergency official, William Forest McQueen, said: "Those who had no chance of making it were given a lot of morphine and lain down in a dark place to die."

Euthanasia is illegal in Louisiana and the doctors spoke only on condition on anonymity.

Their families believe their confessions are an indictment of the appalling failure of US authorities to help those in desperate need after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city, claiming thousands of lives and making 500,000 homeless.

"I didn't know if I was doing the right thing," the doctor said.

"But I did not have time. I had to make snap decisions, under the most appalling circumstances, and I did what I thought was right.

"I injected morphine into those patients who were dying and in agony.

"If the first dose was not enough, I gave a double dose.

"And at night I prayed to God to have mercy on my soul."

The doctor, who finally fled her hospital late last week in fear of being murdered by the armed looters, denied her actions were murder.

"This was not murder, this was compassion. They would have been dead within hours, if not days," she said.

"What we did was give comfort to the end. I had cancer patients who were in agony. In some cases the drugs may have speeded up the death process.

"We divided the hospital's patients into three categories: Those who were traumatised but medically fit enough to survive, those who needed urgent care, and the dying.

"People would find it impossible to understand the situation.

"I had to make life-or-death decisions in a split second.

"It came down to giving people the basic human right to die with dignity.

"There were patients with 'do not resuscitate' signs. Under normal circumstances some could have lasted several days. But when the power went out, we had nothing.

"Some of the very sick became distressed. We tried to make them as comfortable as possible.

"The pharmacy was under lockdown because gangs of armed looters were roaming around looking for their fix.

"You have to understand these people were going to die anyway."

Mr McQueen, a utility manager for the town of Abita Springs, half an hour north of New Orleans, told relatives that patients had been "put down", saying: "They injected them, but nurses stayed with them until they died."

Mr McQueen, who worked closely with emergency teams, added: "They had to make unbearable decisions."

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,16566858-5001022,00.html

Lawrence- sounds like an urban legend to me; the only reason looters would attack a hospital would be for the drugs. Why not just hand them over and be done with it? If such a horrific thing happened it sounds more like displaced compassion, borne of fear, than anything else. Throughout the whole ordeal we have seen two responses, of fear and of love, both among the impovershed victims and among those sworn to uphold the common good. Indeed, many of the most marginalized and criminal rose to the occasion.
As I have noted in another thread, many of the "looters" were simply taking what was needed for human survival, often unselfishly, which Catholic social teaching would defend; one of the first principles is that ultimately material goods have a universal destination. In ordinary circumstances the laws of private property apply but in extraordinary circumstances the first principles kick in; it is not a sin, for example, for a man whose children are starving to take a loaf of bread. [Of course when I saw pictures of people stealing televisions I thought "You idiot, steal something that floats!"]
And Zenovia- you are a satirist, right? I mean you are always claiming some insight into the Divine Purpose for human tragedy. Please tell me this is satire...
-Daniel

The scale of loss of live from Katrina is much less far less than from the tsunami, nevertheless as we approach day 10 dead bodies are still being picked up in Katrina's wake. So I think congratulations on this point are not merited.

The more important issue was relief for those stranded in life-threatening situations. After 9/11 with the creation of Deaprtment of Homeland Security and the incorporation FEMA within OHS there was a major shift in responsibilities in certain types of disasters, namely large scale disasters in which state/local capabilities are overwhelmed. This situation was anticipated by the governor of LA in her request to the POTUS on August 27.

She made the request to the POTUS in a timely fashion.

If you look at the National Response Plan of the Department of Homeland Security here [dhs.gov] , you will see that while the "basic premise of the NRP is that incidents are generally handled at the state and local level", in "Incidents of National Significance" then the Federal government assumes primary responsibility. The freedom of action allowed to the Federal government is actually rather breathtaking (including sending in regular military troops) and is expected to be "proactive".

And this is a wake up call from Katrina. We looked at 9/11 as a wake up call. In the name of Homeland Security, we put enormous power in the hands of the Federal government. But notwitstanding all the ostensible planning and preparation - and actual money - the response was painfully slow and people perished as a result.

Alex:

We have a great mythos about rugged individualism that clouds are sense of reality and even charity. We planned very well for the "self-reliant", and very poorly for those who are less "self-reliant". (And one of our US Senators was actually talking about sanctions against those who did make it out of NO when the mandatory evacuation was called.) We blame them.

I was getting seated on a airplane recently, and a 60ish woman was struggling to get her small suitcase into the overhead bin. She asked of some assistance and a younger man gave her advice instead. He told her, kurtly: don't pack your bag so heavy that you can't lift it!