The blessing and the curse of being born with a conscience is that when bad things happen to good people, their horror and pain can sometimes come to feel like your own. When Katrina destroyed New Orleans, I watched my television first in shock, and then, as the hours, days, and weeks went by with people being allowed to live in conditions no American citizens should have to live in, or just die... all the while being blamed for staying with their homes and pets, or being too poor to be able to afford to simply get out of the way. Today, I can still close my eyes and see the faces of the children clutching debris as they floated beside the bloated and decomposing bodies of their own parents; the elderly who were killed when their nursing homes flooded too quickly to be evacuated; the pets who were killed or who starved to death because their owners were given the Sophie's choice of being evacuated without them, or staying to die with them; Women, children, babies, and old people left to fend for themselves in the Astrodome in complete darkness, amid dead bodies, human waste, and gangs roaming and raping at will; Men being shot and killed as they "looted" baby diapers and formula and bottled water for their families; And, an entire city left without water or food for days in swealtering heat.
This event was a watershed in my life. I have to say, I was prepared to stay mellowed out and content with the bland brand of Democrat that had populated the Party. The elections of 2004 so demoralized me, I was ready to give up. I was ill, and I felt there was nothing left for me to do to change my Party, and even if there were, it would have to be my kids or grandkids to change it. Then came Katrina.
Once I started to read everything I could find on it, I realized it wasn't just the Republicans' fault. Oh, by and large, it was. Bush, Brownie, Cheney... the whole damned bunch allowed New Orleans to die. They allowed the only blue area of Louisiana to be obliterated, and her Democratic voters to be scattered to the four corners of the country. That suited them just fine. Mrs. Bush, the elder, was impressed at the conditions they were "blessed" to be living in in Texas, but gawdforbid, they certainly shouldn't be allowed to stay there indefinitely.... but, I also tell you it was our mamby-pamby, mealy-mouthed Democrats who aided and abetted the Bushies in their craven treatment of this people and our fellow American citizens whose lives were forever changed by the horror of this unspeakable event.
I told myself it was because they were in the minority. Surely, if they were in the majority, even narrowly, they would show some real courage and start impeaching the bastards, or at least start holding them accountable for this and the many crimes they survived without punishment or accountability. Their wars, their lies, their gutting of the Constitution, the deaths of those allowed to die in Katrina because they were poor and their skin was, mostly, not white. Surely the Democratic Party would recify these sins. Surely. So I worked my butt off, along with so many of you to make sure we got the majority in 2006. And as soon as they took control of Congress, I watched my Party take impeachemnt off the table, back off of ending the war in Iraq (they even voted to continue funding that war, as more and more of our soldiers and innocent Iraqis died), endless excuses were made as the Bushies ignored subpoena after subpoena...
nothing was changing.
I lay awake at night, I read eveything I can get my hands on, I read every word I possibly can of what you write here every day. And, still, nothing changes. The DLC, the corporatists, the Blue Dogs, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid have all begun their "spin" toward 2008. We are told Clinton is "inevitable". We who oppose her and every other DLC-er or middle-of-the-roader are called names and have our characters besmearched... much the same way as those on The Right say those who are against the War or who object to the Bush regime in any way are "unpatriotic". I'm sick of it. I'm sick of living every day with the faces of these People in front of me every time I close my eyes. I'm sick of casket after flag-draped casket returning from the War Zone unmet. I'm sick of our Veterans not being able to get the care they need. I'm sick of the poor and the homeless left to fend for themselves while round after round of Tax Cuts for the upper 1% of this society keep getting approved with the votes of our own "Gang of Fourteen". I'm sick of Joe Lieberman, whose election was aided and abetted by the elders of this Party against the Democratic nominee, and who, even today lobbies for more war and the extention of more of the Bush economic policies from the Democratic Chairmanships of Senate comittees because Harry Reid allowed him to keep his seniority on these committees even though he is no longer a Democrat.
I AM SICK OF IT.So, as th second anniversary of Katrina comes up on us, please allow yourselves to remember those days, the people who were let down, who died, who lost everything, and who still live without their homes and their city being made liveable. This is the second hurricane season allowed to come up without their security being set. We should ALL be ashamed as those we elected to represent us, and them, better than the Republicans are sitting on their fat asses in Washington, issuing useless subpoenas, threating the Bushies, blustering and sputtering, and DOING NOTHING.
Here are a couple of blogs that Tom Paine sent out in today's newsletter. Read them, and join me in weeping:
Katrina: The Pat Robertson connectionBy Rick Perlstein on August 21, 2007 - 12:36am.
Don't forget Rev. Pat Robertson's "thoughtful" (1) reflections on Katrina:
We have killed over 40 million unborn babies in America.... But have we found we are unable somehow to defend ourselves against some of the attacks that are coming against us, either by terrorists or now by natural disaster? Could they be connected in some way?.... Read the bible, read Leviticus, see what it says there.
For which the Rev. Roberston enjoyed the privilege of receiving a (2) federal contract to distribute hurricane relief.
(1)
Religious conservatives claim Katrina was God's omen, punishment for the United States In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, some religious conservatives have speculated that the storm was sent by God as an omen or as a punishment for America's alleged sins. Media Matters for America has documented such statements from three religious conservative media figures: Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey, and Charles Colson.http://mediamatters.org/items/200509130004(2) See:
Operation Blessinghttp://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=katrina+%22operation+blessing%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/katrina_pat_robertson_connectionKatrina: MemoriesBy Rick Perlstein on August 21, 2007
I've been reading Atrios's outstanding real-time media coverage from 2005 as the hurricane story developed. One CNN reporter:
It's hard to describe. It's something I never could conceive of ever seeing in a major city like New Orleans. It is hard to believe. This is New Orleans Louisiana we ware talking about. We spent the last few hours at the convention center where There are thousands of people just laying in the street. They have nowhere to go. These are mothers. We saw mothers. We talked to mothers holding babies. Some of these babies are 3, 4, 5, months old living in these horrible conditions. Putrid food on the ground. Sewage, their feet sitting in sewage. We saw feces on the ground. These people are being forced to live like animals. When you look at some of these mothers your heart just breaks. We're not talking about a few families or a few hundred families. Thousands of people are gathered around the convention.
I want to warn you. Some of these images that you will see they're very very graphic. But people need see this. The people that are down there have been down there for days. People need to see what it is really like here. We saw dead bodies. People are dying at the convention center and there's no one there to come get them. We saw an older woman, someone's mother someone's grandmother, in a wheelchair. Her dead body pushed up against the side of the convention center with a blanket over it. Right on the ground next to her another dead body wrapped in a white sheet.
People are literally dying. Right in front of us as we were watching this a man went into a seizure on the ground. It looked like he was dying. People tried to prop his head up. No one has medical training. No ambulance can come. It is just heartbreaking that people are just sitting there without food or water waiting for the buses to come tak ehtem away. People keep asking us - when are the buses coming. And I just have to say, I don't know.
Another CNN reporter:
They say that there have been National Guard units that have come by. Tossed some MREs out. Very little. Here and there. People have been eating potato chips that they can scrounge up, looting some of the stores that are nearby for food and water, for juice, for drinks. Not the kind of food that you need to feed these thousands of people. What these people are saying basically is give us some water, give us some food, don't leave us here to die or get us out of here. They're saying we're stuck here. We cant leave. They don't send the buses. They won't take us out of here and yet they won't come in with truckloads of water and food to feed us. You've got sick people there, sick You've got old people there, these young babies there. What are they going to do? Are they going to leave us here to die?
Atrios juxtaposed it to White House spokesman Scott McClellan's (1) mendacious assurances:
We understand the need for food and water and supplies of that nature. That's why we have a massive effort underway to continue getting food and water and ice to those who are in need.
This was in response to a reporter's question, "Regarding the president's zero tolerance for insurance fraud, looting, price gouging. Does he make any allowance for people who have yet to receive aid who are taking things like water or food or shoes to walk among the debris?" His full answer was:
I think you heard from the president earlier today about his zero tolerance. We understand the need for food and water and supplies of that nature. That's why we have a massive effort underway to continue getting food and water and ice to those who are in need. There are ways for them to get that help. Looting is not the way for them to do it.
Live the outrage anew. That is may never be allowed to happen again.
(1)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050901-2.htmlhttp://commonsense.ourfuture.org/katrina_memoriesAnd, now that you've read these, and hopefully you've considered Katrina and all the other abominations we and our fellow American citizens are endiring, tell me again why I am wrong to oppose more middle-of-the-Road, do-nothing governement by the DLC, the "centrists" they and WE elect, only to find they agree with the other side on mostly everything I (and those life me) oppose. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me again how Hillary Clinton will be the Savior of this Party. Ditto any of her other DLC candidates for nomination. Tell me any corporatist can be a candidate for ALL the people.
I will not remain silent against the DLC, or any of its candidates for nomination. I will not. I don't care how many whine about feeling "unwelcome" here because they support a candidate I (and those like me) cannot. Every day I wake up more sure I'm right. Every face of someone killed by this governement appears on my closed eyelids like some horrible slide show night after night, I become more and more Left Wing, more and more unwilling to vote for the nominee chosen just because he or she is a "Democrat" (capital D), less and less willing to see any one who pledges him/herself to the welfare of ALL Americans as "unelectable" because of superficial appearances.
I am a LOUD, PROUD LIBERAL... Left-Wing as they come, and I will no longer compromise my deeply-held beliefs for the promise of "the betterment of all", because too many promises have been broken. Too many. And, the only "betterment" I see is for the rich, the white, the coprpoations, and the Neo-Cons who keep getting elected to both Parties.
TC
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