The images coming out of Louisiana are striking, haunting, appalling and disgusting. My stomach turns as I look at the devastation to the land, the people, the animals.
I am not sure what appalls me the most about the situation. Images like that of a lone horse that’s probably going to die haunt me. The sad display of a civilization that reverts to hooliganism, theft and panic is one thing, but the reality is that most of the items looted are now worthless anyway.
Any food looted would have been destroyed or rotted, so I can’t say that it is a bad thing. Items that were taken such as TVs or stereos are really just indicators of a widespread fear response. Seriously, if your house has just been washed away, do you need a TV? What are you going to do with it? Carry it with you to a shelter? Sell it? To whom? No one has cash for it, or a place to watch it, or electricity to run it.
What is more appalling to me is the response by the rest of the world to this insanity. There are two pictures running around the Internet, one of a white couple who “found” food, and another of a black person who “looted” a grocery store. Our true colors show in times of stress. At the Associated Press, black people loot, and from the Agence France Press, white people find things.
This is a tragedy of epic proportions. The administration claims no one saw it coming. Well, no one that is but the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA. Those two historically inaccurate agencies said that this was going to happen as long ago as 2001.
The flooding in New Orleans was in my estimation just the after effects of the true disaster, one that happened in 2004 when the Democrats put John Kerry on the table as their man for president. They blew it by not coming out hard and fast against the “Shrub.” This president, who puts loyalty to old friends over competence. This is a man who promotes people who screw up, and was the choice of the American people in 2004. That was the disaster.
The people of Louisiana are in dire straits. I feel for their losses, yet part of me wants to smugly look at them at say, “Well, you voted for the Republican ticket. This is what you got. A man who cares so much about his own country that he slashed your federal budget for levee repair by 80 percent.”
In the 2004 election, there was one parish around the lake that was blue. The rest were red. I know they were snowed by the bluster of the Republican machine. I know they thought they were doing the right thing in protecting the country by going with the “war president.”
But that is why it is so sad. They thought they were actually electing a man who cared about the country, and doing what was best to protect us.
He played on their fears of others. He played on their fears of “furreners.” All the while he was raping them. He raped their budgets to reinforce the levees that stand between them and destruction. He raped their ability to respond to disaster by reassigning their National Guardsmen to Iraq. He raped their ability to have faith in the government by ignoring their plight for days.
But they voted for him. He’s their guy. He’s their pick to lead the country.
It would be easy for me to get cocky and arrogant. To tell them to be good Republicans and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. After all, that’s what Republicans stand for isn’t it? Aren’t they all about the government staying out of our business?
It would be easy for me to point out the ignorance and xenophobia that is so prevalent in the south which led to this. It would be easy to show how these people were used and preyed upon. I could handily show my contempt for these people who approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Yes, the southern Sodom banned gay marriage. I could use that as a reason to ignore their tremendous need for help.
If I did that I might as well go register as a Republican. I would be no better than the man and the party whom I regularly rail against.
I choose not to. I choose to help. I choose to put my money where my mouth is. I write regularly about how the Republicans do nothing to help. Now it is time for me — for all of us — to stand up, and put our money where our mouths are.
I choose to have my company donate all co-pays and deductibles for those snoring people who get tested for sleep apnea with us for the next two months. The donations will go to the American Red Cross.
I get a lot of flack from Christians about how intolerant I am. How they’re “good people.” Let’s see them put up or shut up. I get flack from the right on how wrong I am about people. Time to show me what you’ve got.
Because your man in the oval has shown me what he’s got. And it’s not much. (David Pisarra is a business development lawyer in the Santa Monica firm of Pisarra & Grist. He welcomes your questions and comments. He or (310) 664-9969.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 8, 2005. Read the original PDF.