My Flood of Tears Shame for my city, shame for my country by Anya Kamenetz

My Flood of Tears
Shame for my city, shame for my country
by Anya Kamenetz
September 2nd, 2005 8:12 PM
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0536,kamenetzfeat,67512,2.html
Along with the rest of the nation, the rest of my hometown’s residents, and my friends and family, I’ve flown through a lot of emotions in the past week since Hurricane Katrina wrecked my city of New Orleans: fear, rage, anxiety, and grief. While the bodies are still being counted, I’ve currently settled on shame.
I am ashamed to be an American. We are a people who constantly avow belief in various gods, in liberty and justice, and yet our fellow American citizens, ancient ladies and four-day-old infants, were left to die in the streets for lack of food and water as though they were born in the slums of Mumbai or the favelas of Brazil. We tell ourselves and the world we can do anything, be it grow crops in the desert or bring democracy to Iraq, yet we can’t land a helicopter on Interstate 10 or get buses to a convention center.

I extend that shame to those trapped who turned to violence. Even the guerrillas of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, laid down their arms after the tsunami for the greater good. Our young men raided the ammunition section at Wal-Mart. What kind of culture have we made?

And as for our government? For shame, Mr. President. With the deep inadequacy of your response, you have disappointed even the lowest expectations. It’s worse than your most vociferous detractors could have predicted.

Even our smooth-talking, reform-minded, businessman mayor could not contain himself after three days of being where you and the other federal leaders should have been—on the ground, among the desperate people, your constituents. “They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn—excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed,” Ray Nagin told a local radio station on Thursday.
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