When the Levee Breaks
I was afraid that this was going to happen: I start a blog and then run out of things to say on a regular basis and then dump in any pile of words. So what that I have something to say about Katrina? It’s been said already. I offer no new perspective, and haven’t really read one either. I’ve already used up the quota for certain words, as recommended by the Writer’s Association of Standards (WAS). There’s only so many times the words “tragedy,” “apocalypse,” “calamity,” “racist,” “stupid FEMA,” “his brother is not the governor of Louisiana,” “asteroid dome,” “Fats Domino,” “body bags,” “fecal E. Coli,” “levee break,” “Led Zeppelin,” “Anderson Cooper,” “idiots” and “DC” can be applied. They lose meaning after a while. Like now.
posted by fromclay at 9/08/2005 10:26:00 AM
2 Comments:
Maybe there is something to be learned from our national response — an outpouring of concern, money, and volunteerism — but perhaps most importantly: identification. We see those who suffer in New Orleans and its environs as persons to whom we are connected. We “feel their pain.” They are ours. Or perhaps they are “us.”
The hundreds of thousands who have died in Darfur of late have suffered a much crueler fate. And it does not appear that the homes of the living will ever be rebuilt. Why do we have empathy for New Orleans and not Darfur? Or for the civilians in Iraq who have died as a result of American war making? Or for others suffering tragedy in other places on this earth we share?
Is it that they are not Americans? Do not speak English? Are not Christian? Are not Caucasian?
And what does this say about our understanding of God? And whether God really loves all of us? And if so, whether we are supposed to do the same?
Why are we able to see and feel a tragedy 500 miles away but not one 5,000 miles away? To me that is the great mystery of Katrina.
still ur blog is awesomer than most despite
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