WP op-ed, Douglas Brinkley, "Reckless Abandonment": The Bush administration wants New Orleans to die

[DeepModem Mom]

Reckless Abandonment
By Douglas Brinkley
Sunday, August 26, 2007; B01

Over the past two years since Hurricane Katrina, I've seen waves of hardworking volunteers from nonprofits, faith-based groups and college campuses descend on New Orleans, full of compassion and hope.

They arrive in the city's Ninth Ward to painstakingly gut houses one by one. Their jaws drop as they wander around afflicted zones, gazing at the towering mounds of debris and uprooted infrastructure.

After weeks of grueling labor, they realize that they are running in place, toiling in a surreal vacuum.

Two full years after the hurricane, the Big Easy is barely limping along, unable to make truly meaningful reconstruction progress. The most important issues concerning the city's long-term survival are still up in the air. Why is no Herculean clean-up effort underway? Why hasn't President Bush named a high-profile czar such as Colin Powell or James Baker to oversee the ongoing disaster? Where is the U.S. government's participation in the rebuilding?

And why are volunteers practically the only ones working to reconstruct homes in communities that may never again have sewage service, garbage collection or electricity?

Eventually, the volunteers' altruism turns to bewilderment and finally to outrage. They've been hoodwinked. The stalled recovery can't be blamed on bureaucratic inertia or red tape alone. Many volunteers come to understand what I've concluded is the heartless reality: The Bush administration actually wants these neighborhoods below sea level to die on the vine....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401209_pf.html

[merh]

1. then thar refineries need to expand

then thar corporate interests are more important.

:cry:

[niceypoo]

2. New Orleans voted democratic...

...need I say more...

[peacetalksforall]

3. Yep, get them Black-Americans outta there. Then, after it's all

flattened with no humans, you will be hearing about a presentation by a corportion who will announce their plan to raise the ground level for a resort or industrial complex- high end.

[acmavm]

4. Finally the truth is starting to dawn on people. Here's an EXCELLENT

thread on how this was KKKarl's greatest triumph.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x303826

[peacetalksforall]

5. Excellent op-ed. It's been interesting watching Brinkley face the reality

of this administration.

[biscotti]

9. I agree

with him finally facing reality. He has ticked me off over the past 2 years.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. Yes. A historian should have had better perspective from the start. nt

[Stuckinthebush]

6. New Orleans is all but dead

Professionals moving out, gang violence on the rise, homicide rate on the rise, expensive housing, business moving away, and a local political structure that is incompetent all signal a city that is in decay.

I finally went back to New Orleans this summer after almost two years. I love New Orleans and have spent many vacations there. The French Quarter was moving right along as always, but there was something in the air that didn't feel right. When you drive in to New Orleans from the east, you see the devastation still there. You see business closed, houses abandoned, and grass growing over the parking lots in suburbia.

The once eclectic and beautifully diversified Jackson's Square was populated with a handful of artists. I talked to one artist who admitted his racism with glee to me; "I tell you what", he said, "That Katrina was actually a good thing. It got rid of all the riff-raff and godlessness from this town. You watch! New Orleans will become the most righteous town in America! God will turn this evil place into a shining example of Christian love!"

When I found out he was actually from the North East and had just recently moved to town I was saddened because I knew he had no clue about what New Orleans is...or was. I confronted him about his "riff raff" remark, told him that the "riff raff" he spoke of was the soul of New Orleans and he had no clue about this wonderful place or its people.

Plus his art sucked.

I left New Orleans with the sad realization that it was gone. I think the Republicans are very happy about that.

The inaction in New Orleans during Katrina and the subsequent inaction to help bring the city back from the brink is just one more reason that Bush and his buddies will rot in hell one day.

Bastards.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Thanks for your report, and a great, sad post, Stuck. nt

[Joanne98]

8. Gotta make room for the casinos...

[Doctor_J]

11. The Rove admin, from day one, considered NOLA to be nothing more than

several thousand dead Dems.