Monday, August 28, 2006

remembrance

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I wonder if Katrina will be a defining moment for Americans, like Kennedy’s assassination and 9/11. Do you remember what you were doing when you heard the levees had broken? Do you remember what it felt like to see your own people abandoned? I guess I still do. And I wonder if it means I’m particularly insensitive to the plight of others around the world who are assaulted by the forces of nature, but who don't live in America.

I remember seeing the coverage in the canteen, frozen with horror, thinking, “This looks like Iraq. Except it’s here.” I was not the only one to make such a comparison.

The rebuilding of Iraq is being hampered by blood and bombs and death. The rebuilding of the Gulf Coast is being hampered by our own government’s neglect and apathy.

George Bush is going to the Gulf Coast today to once again take personal responsibility for the failure of the federal government to respond adequately to the needs of Gulf Coast Katrina victims. What good did it do them? What good will it do now?

I have a hard time believing anything out of the mouth of a man who’s just returned from a fishing vacation in Kennebunkport. I would rather see him vacation in a hermitage, faced with the emptiness of his own soul and the reality of his “personal responsibility.”


But that’s just me.

1 comment:

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

I remember watching the night before thinking the storm was going to be a huge disaster. Worrying about Lori's parents who live south of New Orleans.