As I stand idly by in a foreign land, I cannot but help think why we are still rapping Rove for all things bad, yet never mention his total lack of commitment to the rebuilding of the South after Hurricane Katrina. Sure, it is much more savvy to pretend to be an insider of the Beltway than take notice what happens in Mayberrys across the land, but being from a Mayberry that barely escaped Rita's wrath I have a bit of emotional investment in what happens in other small towns across our land.
Eric Gentry, a FEMA operations specialist, said the agency set up a base camp at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi, to insure rural communities weren't forgotten.
[Update]: Rove is still in charge, or seems to be. Who can tell with all the shinagins in D.C. right now. Thanks to JimWilson for this link
FrankLautenburg of New Jersey's Letter Addressing the Issue Let's not let this one fall into the news black hole, even if it is Friday.
I failed to see Rove mention his FEMA work once last night in his speech to the Federalist, but I did see him say 'conspiracy' no less than 10 times. So here is my conspiracy on those forgotten:
"It was 41 [degrees] this morning, and the night before, the wind," said Debbie Drum, 40, who's been living in a tent with her husband, Ray, 45, for a month and a half. "I don't know how long we can hang on."
The story was the same in Lakeshore, a loose collection of homes in the woods that surround Bay St. Louis in rural Hancock County (Louisiana).
Green mold caused by flooding covers the walls and ceiling of his house. Lee, 50, who received a FEMA trailer after about a month, looked around at his demolished neighborhood and shook his head.
"I can't see where it's gotten a whole lot better," he said. (He lives in Pearlington, Louisiana)
But people do live here, back among the pines, in small houses and single-wide trailers. Most are black, and most are poor, and they have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
But they have been forgotten. They have no food, no water, no gasoline, no electricity, and little hope of getting any anytime soon.
"I ain't got nothing to eat and I'm hungry," moaned 81-year-old Dorothy Maxwell, who has diabetes. Clutching at the collar of her thin cotton housedress, the old woman moves between despair and anger.
"They got to send us something. We got nothing. People back here are going to starve," she said, her voice picking up an octave.
Eula Richard, a cafeteria worker at Stone Elementary School near Bond, drove five miles to a Chevron station to get water out of the thin hose normally used to fill car radiators.
"We carried it back in jugs," she said, and there's very little left.
She has other worries, including how to get her paycheck and how to cash it when she does. The nearest banks are in Hattiesburg, and they've yet to reopen. She doesn't know when she will be able to work again. The school is closed.
"I haven't heard a word from them," she said.
She isn't able to. Though there is sporadic telephone and cellular service in Hattiesburg, there is none here. But this is low on the list of priorities in Bond.
When Tanya Harris returned to what was left of her home in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans earlier this month, she feared that her few remaining belongings would end up buried in the rubble being carted out of the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
"People's property was being bulldozed, not just the streets," she said in a recent telephone press conference to announce the launch of the ACORN Katrina Survivor Association (AKSA).
"None of us have had access to that area," she said. "We wanted to make sure that we were able to go in and see what we could salvage."
Harris and a group of fellow neighbourhood residents in her southern U.S. city proceeded to put up hundreds of signs up that read, "Save Our Neighbourhood: No Bulldozing!"
Malcolm Suber, a New Orleans resident for 27 years and an organiser with the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, said the government's treatment of survivors echoed the brutality of the slavery era in the United States.
"The method and means of getting us out left us on the auction block again," he said. "When you got on the bus, you didn't know where you were going. Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives got split up. There were police and soldiers with guns; they wouldn't let people off the bus even if you said hey, my kid's out there."
To Anybody
We're O.K. House O.K. Minor damage.
Praying for you all.
Jack & Ruth
So in essence, I hope you all take a little time to think about what is more important, the current zeitgeist hip thing to do by following Rove's Washington failings, or how he failed the entire South.
Sure, I hate the guy for his act of treason, but what really chaps my britches is how he is betraying all those affected by Katrina, and how everyone seems to be giving him a pass on it.
Just like 9-11, I will never forget how my government failed me and others, and continues to do so.