If this past week had been a movie, you would have had Tommy Lee Jones leading a caravan of people and supplies into New Orleans. And when they tried to stop him from entering the city, he would have said "So, shoot me" and then just walked past the armed guards leading the caravan to save the day.
But this past week has not been a movie. It is all too real and horrifying, and no real hero has stepped up to save the day. We have certainly had heroic moments. Mayor Nagin. Aaron Broussard. Al Gore. The Congressional Black Caucus.
But the Democratic party leadership has stood mostly silent, carefully weighing political tactics while American citizens drowned or wasted away from a lack of food, water and medicine.
How will Howard Dean or any other party leader ever be able to tell African Americans that the Democratic party stands for them when he let the entire week pass without any real human outrage at the events that were unfolding?
The Democratic party is not going to help us. We are on our own. We need a peoples movement, and the September 24 march is now more important than ever.