As of now I haven't seen any recent diaries on where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stand on New Orleans. Neither one, nor the rest of the pack, has been treating New Orleans and Katrina recovery as the front-page issues they need to be treated as on their websites. And I just checked out Edwards' website and surprisingly (in light of the attention he's paid to that city) even he doesn't front-page New Orleans. It makes me physically ill to know that what has been happening in New Orleans and to her people matters so little to the candidates that this is not above the fold. It's as if they're trivializing her suffering or have forgotten her. In the future I hope to diary on Clinton and Edwards, but today's focus is Obama.
The fact that Katrina and New Orleans aren't included on Obama's issues page is not merely disappointing--it disses everyone who went through Katrina and now struggles to rebuild his/her life. And all other Americans who love New Orleans and want to see her come back. Obama's trivializing New Orleans and Katrina when so many are hurting saddens and angers me.
Obama needs to promote New Orleans and Katrina to front-page status as soon as possible. An Open Letter to Obama follows:
Dear Senator Obama,
During and after Katrina, you've been supportive of New Orleans and her efforts to recover. For example, early this year before you announced your candidacy, you visited New Orleans and participated in a hearing where you heard from citizens of that city. You also had the chance to tour New Orleans' devastated areas. So I'm sure you know New Orleans' needs are great. And that while Katrina may have happened 28 months ago, people in New Orleans are still living it.
Why, then, are New Orleans and Katrina mere below the fold issues on your website? They aren't even mentioned on your issues page. What sort of message does this send to a New Orleanian or anybody else who cares about that city? Or to other Katrina and Rita survivors in the rest of the storm-battered communities of Louisiana and Mississippi? To me it sends the message that the recovery of New Orleans and everyplace else in the storm zone matters little to you.
The people of New Orleans who are working very hard to rebuild their homes, their lives, and their beloved city amidst hardships, devastation, and Bush Administration criminal neglect not only deserve, but have a right, to have New Orleans and Katrina as a front-page issue. And this also applies to people in the many communities of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, along Louisiana's "Cajun Riviera," and in her other storm-and flood-ravaged parishes---anyplace where Katrina and/or Rita turned people's lives upside down.
I'm not going to argue with your above the fold issues: strengthing America overseas, Iraq, health care, energy, technology, the environment, seniors, poverty, schools, homeland security, immigration, voting rights and election reform, honoring our veterans, cleaning up Washington, family and community, and faith and politics. All are valid issues.
However, your list lacks one issue. And to add insult to injury, this is not even mentioned in the verbiage about the other issues. Your issues page would be ideal in a parallel universe where Katrina did not destroy communities along the Gulf Coast and 80% of New Orleans did not flood, and people in Louisiana and Mississippi were not still in a world of hurt. Maybe this is the perfect issues page to some blissed out, clueless individual someplace like Iowa or New Hampshire far from the disaster zone.
Someone who has never had to clean out and gut a debris-and mold-filled home. Or calm and comfort a child afflicted by nightmares who cries every time it rains and is having trouble in school. Or grapple with FEMA, insurance, or Louisiana's frustrating Road Homw program. Or struggle with his/her own depression and exhaustion brought on by having to deal with all of the above on top of his/her own psychological pain and losses, which wears a body down. Or perhaps is stuck in Houston, Atlanta or some other distant city, pining for New Orleans but unable to afford to move back.
It makes me physically ill to know how people in New Orleans and the rest of the disaster zone and evacuees must deal with all these things, and are still in agony physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially, yet you seem to think this is a low priority. The following conversation on Daily Kos says it all:
Children
Even my 12 year son gets extremely anxious when the news talks storms or the weather turns bad. In fact, the unusual tropical storm last week caused significant anxiety.....
by chigh on Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 12:18:29 PM PST
It saddens and concerns me...
to read that....
Has that been a serious problem with him? And if so, has he been getting any help?.......
by Louisiana 1976 on Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 01:13:16 PM PST
Thanks for interest in my son. To be honest there is not much consistent help available and the wait lists are months long. Initially there was a lot of band aid stuff, but nothing long term. We finally get to our appointment in January after a 5 month wait. Yes, we actually had "serious" problems in January 2006. He is writing an essay for school and Katrina is in there. It just never goes away.
by chigh on Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 02:10:41 PM PST
The fact that this sort of thing has been going on is heartwrenching--and I'm not only very sad but also very angry in light of the fact that people in Louisiana--Americans--are in such anguish and you have trivialized their pain by having below the fold New Orleans and Katrina. Your not even mentioning New Orleans on your issues page makes me wonder if you really care about New Orleans--or if you, like so many Americans including the Bush Administration and other politicians of both stripes have forgotten and abandoned New Orleans. And if New Orleans vanished it would make no difference to you.
New Orleans needs to be added to your front page list of issues and she needs to be added now. Not only for the reasons given above, but also because the majority, if not all, of your above the fold issues have some sort of New Orleans, Louisiana, or Katrina tie-in, which you did not mention in the text on these issues:
1.) Strengthening America Overseas. Part of this is image, and what does it do for America's image when she is practically neglecting one of her own cities that was almost wiped off the map by a major disaster? Not just any city, but a city as internationally reknowned and as historic as New Orleans? What do you think people overseas think when they travel to New Orleans and see the remaining devastation?
2.) Iraq. Louisiana's National Guard had been so decimated by deployments to Iraq, it was unable to respond effectively to the onslaught of New Orleans' flooding, which drowned the Jackson Barracks, New Orleans' National Guard base.
3.) Health Care. New Orleans' health care system is in critical condition. What better context--and setting--for you to discuss your ideas on bringing about a health care system that works? And Louisiana is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her mental health system is shattered at the very worst time when her anguished people most need its comfort. Especially distressing is the fact that Louisiana children are suffering the same symptoms as soldiers returning from war--flashbacks, nightmares, etc. For more on this health care crisis read The Destruction Of Health Care In New Orleans, BushCo's Mental Cruelty Towards Louisiana, Louisiana's Hurting Children Need Comforting, Too and Louisiana and Mississippi Children Still Suffer.
4.) Energy. Louisiana is one of this nation's top oil producers, and were she receiving her fair share of the oil royalties, which she hasn't been, but should be, she would be bringing in enough money to rebuild New Orleans and restore her coastline which has been washing away. Louisiana's coastline is vanishing at the startling rate of a football field every half-hour. If this is not stopped, eventually oil installations near her shore will be exposed to the corrosive effects of salt water. For more on Louisiana's threatened wetlands see Land Or Water: Coastal Louisiana.
5.) Technology. I'm assuming this must cover our nation's infrastructure and communications. Katrina caused many communications systems in the storm zone to go down and that was part of the problem regarding response to it. As for our infrastructure, New Orleans' levees need to be upgraded to Category 5 so the people will feel more secure there.
6.) Promoting a Healthy Environment. Katrina was, if not the biggest, one of America's biggest environmental disasters. The storm and flooding brought about chemical leaks. Also, when the toxic floodwaters of New Orleans receded, they left behind all sorts of pollutants including lead, arsenic, asbestos, and other heavy metals in such places as playgrounds, schoolyards...all over. People cleaning out their homes and gutting them are being exposed to toxic dusts and molds which have been contributing to New Orleans' elevated post-Katrina death rate. As has what has been happening with her....
7.) Seniors. Included among the evacuees unable to return to New Orleans are seniors. Their plight is especially heartbreaking. The stress of going through the flooding and other harrowing experiences such as being stranded on overpasses or in the Dome or Convention Center, followed by evacuation to strange, distant cities combined with the loss of familiar people and places and their routines has pushed many over the edge physically and mentally. Not only those already frail or chronically ill or disabled, but those who'd been healthy before the storm are coming back to New Orleans in boxes. And then there are the elderly in New Orleans who, surrounded by her desolate, ruined landscapes and the loss of familiar landmarks, are becoming depressed and are "giving up" and dying. And contributing to their problems is....
8.) Poverty. While Katrina's destruction cut across class, race, and other lines, who not only were affected the worst by the storm and flood, but are suffering the most in its aftermath? Many of New Orleans' poor were scattered to the four winds by Katrina and now, homesick for Louisiana, are unable to return because of the lack of affordable housing in New Orleans. Or they have come back but are homeless, for the same reason. See NOLA: Just Arrest Them So We Can Do Business, NOLA: From The Overpass To The Underpass,Our Democracy Broke When That Levee Broke, and Hope Or Destruction In New Orleans for more not only on homelessness in New Orleans but also on the fact that the federal government wastefully wants to demolish fixable public housing. I realize that the projects are a sore point for some, and I wouldn't want to live in such housing myself, but New Orleans has a growing homelessness problem which will only be made worse when FEMA trailer parks close. The projects, if fixed up, could provide temporary housing until a decent permanent alternative the poor can afford comes about. And refurbishing public housing would also provide employment.
9.) Schools. New Orleans' school system is not sufficient for a city even of her diminished size. Children have been staying home because there's not enough room for them in the few schools that are open. And many schools remain shuttered because their neighborhoods are far from being repopulated. Which is a waste when such schools can be cleaned out, fixed up, and attended by children now unable to attend school who could be bussed in. See Return To Jean Gordon Elementary for the story of such a school and its neighborhood, Gentilly, which like the Lower 9th, was devastated and has been very slow to recover. Extremely ocntroversial is what happened to New Orleans' school system after Katrina. All of her teachers were fired and all of the public schools still open have been converted to charter schools. Unlike public schools, charter schools are not subject to federal laws governing schools--so they can exclude disabled children or anybody else they want to exclude.
10.) Protecting Our Homeland. How good a job did the Bush Administration's FEMA, which has been a part of the Department of Homeland Security, do during Katrina, at "protecting our homeland?" Brownie did a "heckuva job." And I doubt he'd have done a better job had there been a terrorist attack instead.
11.) Immigration. There's been a controversy in New Orleans due to the fact that immigrants from places like the Dominican Republic and Bolivia have been working as day laborers at reconstruction and it's not certain whether or not they're documented. And people are wondering why Americans aren't being hired to do this work.
12.) Protecting The Right To Vote. The evacuees from New Orleans are in effect disenfranchised from their city because they've been unable to return. And New Orleans' recovery and repopulation (the return of these voters) has been a trickle because there are groups who want to keep Louisiana the Red state she became when New Orleans was in effect ethnically cleansed of those who, had they stayed, would have been Democratic voters.
13.) Honoring Our Veterans. First of all, among New Orleans' many homeless are veterans. According to an article I read recently, Louisiana is one of the three states with the highest population of homeless vets. Secondly, during Katrina, New Orleans' VA hospital was flooded and there are plans to tear it down when rebuilding plans haven't been finalized.
14.) Cleaning Up Washington. About getting rid of lobbyists--this is a good idea. Because there are so many special interest groups, those who have no such groups sticking up for them--like Katrina survivors in New Orleans, the rest of the disaster zone, and the diaspora--are not being paid attention to or even heard. They have no loud voices demanding recognition and the paying attention to their needs. I wonder if this is why you have not front-paged New Orleans and Katrina--survivors aren't backed by any noisy, well-moneyed special interest groups.
15.) Strengthening families and communities. Katrina played havoc with both as it flooded neighborhoods and forced their people to disperse. Especially spirit-shredding is how both extended families and the social networks of neeighborhood friendships were torn apart by the flooding. Around Katrina's second anniversary, I read about this has been causing a lot of depression among New Orleans' black women. And if there ever was a city that needs help strengthening families and her communities--devastated neighborhoods--she would have to be post-Katrina New Orleans. For more about New Orleans' families and neighborhoods and how their having been torn apart has been having a deleterious impact on survivors' health and lives, read Gentilly Friday, NOLA Speaks: Meet New Orleans East, NOLA Speaks: Meet Jennifer And Eva, and NOLA: Forget Me Not-Meet Pearl And Margie
16.) Faith And Politics. Many faith-based groups have been helping with disaster clean-up and recovery in New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast--and while they have done a lot, they can't do everything that needs to bring a city back, such as rebuild infrastructure.
Bear with me for the extensive reading list in this letter, but in light of the fact that New Orleans and Katrina are not above the fold on your website or even mentioned on your issues page, I thought you were clearly in need of having your consciousness raised on this pressing issue. I hope this letter and the readings I've linked will persuade you that New Orleans and Katrina need to be above the fold. New Orleans and her problems should not be written off as trivial. Please listen to your conscience and promote New Orleans and Katrina to front-page status.
Currently I'm an undecided voter, though I will be voting Democratic. You're on my short list. I will periodically be checking your website to see if New Orleans and Katrina have been promoted to above the fold. If they have not been promoted by Feb. 5, 2008, which is when my state holds her primary, I will be voting for John Edwards.
Very truly yours,
Louisiana 1976