Post Scripts: Look again at New Orleans

Americans will feel the impact of Hurricane Katrina one way or another for a long time. All of us were witnesses to this terrible storm via television and the printed media, plus the slow response to its impact by government. Spread out before us we shared not only Mother Nature’s wrath of rain, gale winds and flooding, but also looting, rape and outright murder by lawless bands of looters and worse.

Kathy and I visited New Orleans some years ago with a tour group. Millions were shocked at the destruction in New Orleans, but I was not particularly disturbed after noting that an area dedicated to undisciplined behavior, gambling, prostitution, alcohol and girlie shows, the French Quarter, had also suffered damage. The only attraction there for me was the equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson on Jackson Square, which was both beautiful and memorable.

Some of you may think my attitude deplorable. Of course I feel sorrow and regret over Katrina’s assault which will ultimately touch every American’s pocketbook. For what? New Orleans, a beautiful city, has one of the highest murder rates in the country, nearly ten times the national average. University researchers conducted an experiment last year during which they had police fire 700 blank rounds in a neighborhood on a random afternoon. The AP reported not one person called to report the gunfire.

The New Orleans coastal region was ripe for collapse or tragedy, due to its location. Lawlessness, as well, is not a stranger in that city. It is accustomed to thievery, killings and rapacious acts. Such incidents were bound to surface under the pressure of a natural disaster. Some 300 murders had been forecast for this year but that number now appears conservative. According to the New Orleans Police Foundation, most murderers get off easy with only one in four getting a conviction, while 42 percent of all serious crime cases are dropped.

Even so, most of us never dreamed thousands of troops would be needed, including armored vehicles, to try to stop the raping, the looting and mayhem, just so rescue operations could be carried out. This is not what we normally expect during a natural disaster. From my reading I am now aware the New Orleans situation has developed from a natural disaster into a man made debacle.

So… I’m thinking New Orleans’ lurid past has finally caught up with it. That doesn’t mean I feel no sincere sorrow for the decent people there who have been devastated one way or another. The city is important to U.S. citizens. The gulf region is a significant source of oil for the U.S., plus the fall harvest is just beginning and more than half the world’s grain and soybeans go down the Mississippi to be shipped to Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Last, but not least, this administration may have missed the scope of the Katrina storm early on. Even the best of presidents can be beset by problems or crises to the extent their power can be hollowed out. The verbal bullets fired at Bush over his slow response to Katrina could become significant and he’s already been introduced to political quick sand.

Mother Nature can be a fearsome terrorist and a tough teacher. For the first time in our history a major city, New Orleans, has become the first American city to be classified as "uninhabitable." It may remain that way for sometime. We still have no solid idea of how many people became victims of the storm, with perhaps several thousand buried beneath the water and the rubble of homes and businesses. We may never know for sure.

Those of us who escape such tragic acts of nature can be thankful.

Some people may still be trapped by the water. One old grandma told rescuers: "You just git! I’m not running from God. I’m going to sit right here and let King Jesus ride on." What do you do with people like that? Do you leave them behind? Do you club them over the head, knock them out cold and kidnap them to safety? No, of course not, but I hope this old grandmother made it out okay with all her dignity intact.