There has been much talk here about memes and messages; slogans and signs. And I have offered my thoughts and opinions. But now, in the depth of night, they are all words and words--empty and trivial. And then it came to me. There is only one thought that comes near the enormity of what was done. There is only one word that conveys what demands to be said.
Shame.
On banners and pamphlets, scrawled on walls; chanted outside headquarters and boardrooms; at mega-churches and government halls.
Shame.
Hear us. Thousands of Americans, mercilessly drowned. A fabled city, gone in one day. All because of a supply-side morality that dealt so ruthlessly with a despised surplus of the old and the poor. All because of this sanctimonious, racist, incompetent, greedism. Holy Mother Ann Rynd, we offer you this human sacrifice. Money for tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy; money not spent on keeping out the dark waters. Money not used to hold at bay a choking, struggling, hideous death--death for the youngest, for the oldest, for the weakest, for the poorest.
Shame.
What needs to be said is so profoundly horrible, books will be written. But what needs to be said, is so deeply felt, we need say only this word, and they can only pretend not to know what we mean.
Shame.
Say it again, and again, and maybe, deep in his gilded offices, the President--perpetually confused, so pitiably vulnerable--maybe he will hear, and someone will explain. And maybe, deep in its lair, the dregs of what was once our national media will hear, and for once, stop talking long enough to think. And maybe, deep beneath their gleaming citadels, the millionaire preachers will hear, and tremble--if they really do believe in God.
And for now, at this sad moment, we have nothing more to say. For now, at this sad moment, we have no better way to say it.
Shame, America. Shame.