Living History, Memory and Forgetting

One line from my Salon story last December that continues to haunt me as much as when I wrote it is: "One thing about living in a society that regularly scrubs itself of its collective memory is we keep having to relearn the lessons of the past."

It is difficult to be a serious journalist in modern day America. There is a lot of media noise but not much signal. In fact, there is so much noise that people can (almost) be forgiven for not being able to keep track of which stories matter.

Almost forgiven, but not quite. We are surrounded by wealth, by possessions, by temptations to distract us. We virtually demand to be constantly entertained. Our political leaders carefully measure our attitudes and calibrate their messages accordingly. Our attitudes are shaped by legions of PR, advertising, and messaging experts.

In effect, we are surrounded by hustlers, all vying for our attention and our time. Maybe the reason we find panhandlers irritating is they are simply the visible reminders that everyone is after us, even though most of those demanding our money and attention slide well under our radar into our "lifestyle" choices.

As for history, journalism is supposedly the "first draft" of history. When it comes to the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast, the draft may be rough but the outline is clear. Race and class determine who loses. Poor people lose. Minorities lose. Amertica is not an egalitarian society where opportunity is equally free to all. It is a class society enthralled with the baseless myth of classlessness.

As most of us sit wherever we live and watch silently as the poor of Mississippi and Louisiana are displaced in the greedy aftermath of Katrina, while new casinos go up and developers create new recreational facilities and housing subdivisions for the wealthier residents, we are witnessing our country's living history. This is the worst natural disaster of our time, within our borders. It is the worst disaster period -- far more significant in every way than 9/11.

Yet we are as a society following in lockstep behind political leadership that has lied to us about what matters. You can see what actually matters with your own eyes. Go to Biloxi, or Waveland, or Bay St. Louis, or the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. But, then again, as Americans, with our short attention span, perhaps we instead think that was last year's story? Time now to move on, no? There must be something more entertaining on an other channel.