Reply #101: Each of these people was part of a family, had dear friends who DON'T KNOW [View All]

[Nothing Without Hope]

what happened to him/her and whose trauma is hugely increased and prolonged because of it. I can't think of a word strong enough to describe the monstrous cruelty and contempt of leaving bodies to rot in the streets and in the houses for three weeks.

There can be no excuse for this. In other great world disasters, even in areas considered remote and very poor, the bodies have been gathered and buried within a week. The pitiful body in the OP, its head in the toxic mud, draped and abandoned like garbage, is in New Orleans, which is swarming with so many military and police that the reporters say they have to hire off-duty policemen just to get around through all the checkpoints:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9314188/#050916
BRIAN WILLIAMS blogged on Sept 16: It is impossible to over-emphasize the extent to which this area is under government occupation, and portions of it under government-enforced lockdown. Police cars rule the streets. They (along with Humvees, ambulances, fire apparatus, FEMA trucks and all official-looking SUVs) are generally not stopped at checkpoints and roadblocks. All other vehicles are subject to long lines and snap judgments and must PROVE they have vital business inside the vast roped-off regions here. If we did not have the services of an off-duty law enforcement officer, we could not do our jobs in the course of a work day and get back in time to put together the broadcast and get on the air....

There is literally no excuse for just leaving the people in houses to die and the bodies, even those walked by in the streets every day, to rot. There are clearly enough personnel to deal with this - but they have other orders.

Just as there is literally no excuse for allowing the people to continue to die. At this point, no euphemism can still be retained: it is mass murder on a huge scale, and given the racial/economic makeup of the numbers, it is GENOCIDE. Let's not forget this OTHER powerful photo, taken when a group of California National Guard DISOBEYED FEMA ORDERS and rescued a New Orleans man who was unconscious in his home. This was on the same day as Bush's heavily staged speech in New Orleans, the same day that Brian Williams described the swarming military and police elsewhere in the city, and there can be no question that there were hundreds of personnel who COULD have saved Mr. Hollingsworth and who knows how many hundreds of others lying near death in their homes but DID NOT:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/14/12516/3649



Mr. Hollingsworth was rescued - AGAINST FEMA ORDERS - ON SEPTEMBER 16. How many other people are still dying or have died within the last few days, not only in heavily militarized New Orleans but in all the other "forgotten" communities across the devastated area? Places like Bogalusa or others we haven't even heard about?
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