Less Than Zero

New Orleans is a car wreck that everyone can't help but watch . The images are horrific and solicit comments like "Where are the relief agencies?" "Why is it taking so long for someone to help these people?" And my favorite "It looks like a third world country". I am in shock but none of this surprises me. Louisiana and Mississippi have the two highest rates of children living below the poverty level in the U.S.at approximately 30%. New Orleans is a city made up of 67% Black folks and again 30% of them live below the poverty level. So yeah I'm not surprised at the slow response after and no response prior to Katrina's arrival. Yes folks were told to leave the city before the storm hit but that is only possible if you have the ways and means to do so. That there would be thousands of people who could not get out is something that should not have been a surprise to anyone. That the powers that be made no proactive plan to remedy this is sickening but again not surprising after all this is a country obsessed with race and class as evidenced by it's not so equal treatment of people of color around the world. Amerikkka will not be there for you unless you have something worth helping you for...like oil. Opening the Super Bowl as a shelter and not providing even the basic necessities like food,water and basic healthcare was insane at best...at worst genocide. Now comes the media with images of Black and Brown faces "looting". Is it so surprising that when people ask for help and don't get it they then will take what they can? Only after that did the powers that be deem it appropriate to send in the National Guard to take back the city from the "hands of anarchy". This the city that the speaker of the house stated "wasn't worth rebuilding" needed not food or water for it's citizen's who have been without for 5 days but protection from a "lawless mob taking over the streets". Not a thought to the people dying in the streets. Where have you been FEMA? How do they answer the inquiries of the foreign press who ask "Why is your government not doing anything to help?" Is the reply "All of our efforts are directed to Homeland Security at this time and that issue in Iraq?" I suggest they read the poem called Home..Land..Security.. by Letta Neely and get a clue to what humane and ethical treatment of all people is about and why folks get so angry when it is denied them. I know that won't happen ...So this month my rent will be late and I'll skip a car payment knowing I will still have a roof over my head and enough food to eat. My pay check will be better spent in Biloxi and New Orleans. Not much..I know..