"I drive around and try to figure out those Byzantine markings and symbols that the cops and the National Guard spray-painted on all the houses around here, cryptic communications that tell the story of who or what was or wasn't inside the house when the floodwater rose to the ceiling. In some cases, there's no interpretation needed. There's one I pass on St. Roch Avenue in the 8th Ward at least once a week. It says: '1 dead in attic.' " --Chris Rose, Times-Picayune
Yesterday marked the 1st anniversary of the maiming of New Orleans and other parts of the gulf coast by Hurricane Katrina. I spent part of it watching, again, Spike Lee's powerful and gut wrenching documentary, "When the Levees Broke," which is showing on HBO all this month.
Every politician Congress should be forced to watch this film over and over until it sinks in that this country is headed in the wrong direction. We are wasting billions on a war against a country that did nothing to us. Billions on no bid contracts to Halliburton and their subsidiaries that gets sucked up by a black hole - never to be seen again. Billions to kill innocent citizens of that country, while citizens of a region of our own country live far away from their homes in a diaspora of biblical proportions. Their home towns and cites left behind to rot and mold; their families scattered; their lives shattered. And so many died.
Our politicians fritter away their time debating whether to allow flag burning, or whether marriages all over the country will self destruct if gays are also allowed to sanctify their unions. They approve money to build bridges to nowhere, and move recently rebuilt railroads a few miles up the road. Then they go on vacation. Our president (not) spends most of his time on vacation. He was there during Katrina. He was there when he was told "Bin Laden determined to strike in America" and then he stayed on vacation.
We need to wake up, people. We need to rise up, and we need to demand that our representatives focus their energies and our tax dollars where they belong. Here at home helping our people. Helping New Orleans and Mississippi rise from the muck and the wreckage. Building a proper memorial to those brave men and women who died trying to help others escape from the hell that was 911. We need to bring back America to the land of the free, home of the brave.
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The quote above comes from a column in the Times-Picayune, written by Chris Rose. He has compiled a collection of his columns and stories , recounting the first four harrowing months of life in New Orleans after Katrina into a book called "1 dead in Attic" You've got to read this book ... and see Spike Lee's film. Ya just gotta do it.
Posted by Cyberkat at August 30, 2006 7:15 AM | TrackBack