You'd think we were big on anniversaries in this country, if you watched TV, listened to the radio, or followed President George W. Bush's daily schedule of speeches. In a few days, the fifth-year anniversary of "9/11" will be celebrated by a political leader desperate to prevent his party from suffering what is shaping up to be a massive political defeat this November, despite the incompetence of the opposition party.
The only purpose behind the Bush administration's actions is political. There is simply no other justification for this frenzied activity. It does not require being a partisan (which I am not)* to recognize Bush's current series of scare-tactic speeches as the callous exploitative actions they most certainly are.
It's sadly ironic to see the tremendous buildup for the 5th anniversary of "9/11" so soon after the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. That, too, featured speeches by Bush as he photo-op'd his way through Biloxi, Gulfport, and New Orleans, pledging his word to help rebuild the ruined Gulf Coast. But his words sound cruelly empty to the people whose lives, one long year later, remain utterly ruined. Yes, the Coast will be rebuilt, but the people I'm talking about -- black, white, Latino, or Vietnamese, but all poor -- are being left out of the future.
The casinos are back. The developers are swarming. The politicians are posing. The media come, the media go. Lights, sound, action.
Then, a profound darkness, silence, and inaction set back in. The main tragedy of Katrina is that an entire generation of people, the working poor, who had been getting by as they had for decades, within vital communities, are now steadily losing their sense of hope.
The cruelest result of poverty is how it reduces a person's imagination. For, as long as you can dream of a better future for your children, the present circumstances are usually bearable. Now, all along the Gulf Coast, as well as in the poor wards of New Orleans, hope is fading. The President's words fall on ears that no longer can bear to listen.
The shame of Clinton and the Democrats is that they have not stepped forward to speak out on behalf of these people. Groups like Coastal Women for Change (please visit their site) are growing more frustrated as their sense of abandonment grows. Where are the political leaders who will turn talk into action? What good is a national media that comes down, shoots footage on anniversaries, but fails to explain that the human crisis is not easing but becoming ever greater with time?
Only NPR, among the major media, continues to do a good job.
What I and others are looking for is a politician with the guts to mobilize all the good-hearted Americans who not only were shocked by the images of poor people lacking the means to escape the storm a year ago, but who want this society to be democratized so that those at the bottom finally have a voice in their own future.
You won't find people anywhere in this nation who are friendlier, funnier, more generous, or more welcoming than the displaced residents of the Gulf Coast. But soon, if present trends continue, you won't be able to find people who are angrier, more bitter, or more alienated than these same folks.
For America, this is the true moral challenge of a generation. Next to it, the so-called "war on terror" is no more than a tiny pimple on an elephant's enormous ass.
* Just tonight my second wife, my oldest son and I were discussing the leading candidates for the 2008 election, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. I'm afraid my liberal friends would not appreciate the voting choice at least two of us would make in that contest. That could change if the Democrats mobilized around Katrina. Otherwise, they will lose these votes. At least McCain has a proven record of not being afraid to take a stand, regardless of polls and other distractions.
(Note: the photo above shows how Katrina shredded and splattered the plastic sheeting from boathouses into the trees of East Biloxi.)
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