A Hard Rain
Never doubt your white privilege. Never forget that you were never made to enter from the rear, never questioned after dark, never denied a place to sleep or eat, or the sun in which to walk. In your hands a weapon renders those before you foes, never you the aggressor.
As many of you are aware there is a terrible tragedy unfolding, one that has affected hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and will continue to do so. It has robbed people of their homes, of their livelihoods, of their security, of their hope.
You think Im talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, dont you?
Strange how you might assume that.
After two and a half years, Iraq has seen nothing but death, destruction, and deprivation. Basic services in Iraq are still intermittent, sewage remains a drastic problem, and the unemployment rate is over 50%. And now, beyond the insurgency, which has grown, diversified, and shown amazing resilience and adaptation (in Al-Anbar province it has fought the United States to an absolute standstill), Iraqs constitutional crisis may very well act as the last nail in its coffin. After two and a half years of foreign occupation and grief, the people of Iraq may now have to face a civil war.
What is the difference between the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the devastation in Iraq? There is absolutely nothing that anyone can do about a hurricane.
Its disturbing how an agenda can alter how much value we place on life, not to mention race. How much death is excusable for the promotion of democracy or to fulfill the gas guzzling needs of others? Is the life of a child worth a quarter off of a gallon of gas? How about twenty children? Were they white children I can assure you that alternative fuel technology funding would be through the roof.
For the most part, we view death through a surreal filter, through a soft lens, from the comfortable confines of living rooms, from the cushioned warmth of couches. We watch as one dimensional personalities detail death with perfect hair, their exquisite dental work giving death a smile. We have become so accustomed to a sanitized reality that it has become nearly impossible for us to fathom our own culpability.
-
Reaching Safety
Its times like these that we of sublimity are given a long look into the gaping, repressive, black hole inhabited by those little considered. Its times like these that the differences between us and them are blatantly exposed. While those in Darfur not only have to live as refugees but also in fear of violent attack, those who have fled Hurricane Katrina do not. Unlike those who were devastated by last years tsunami, many of Katrinas victims will be able to rebuild their lives because of insurance, a generous outporuing of public and international assistance, federal aid that wont be halved or disappear after this event is no longer a headline. International aid will not be misappropriated, fail to show up, or arrive only to be a tenth of that promised. Those who survived Hurricane Katrina will not be so easily forgotten.
