New Orleans and other parts of the central gulf coast region were hit by hurricane Katrina today. The storm was preceded by plenty of warnings to evacuate, however the authorities fell short of ordering an evacuation. What this meant was that individuals wanting to evacuate had to do so via their own devices. Who then was left in the city to ride out the storm? People without cars and people without means to hire transportation, whether it be bus, train, or plane. Those folks unable to evacuate were invited to spend the night in the New Orleans Superdome, but not after waiting in line outside of the stadium as the edges of Katrina began to touch New Orleans bringing torrential rains.
In an interview with an individual staying in New Orleans during the storm, NPR asked why he "chose" to stay. His answer was that he didn't have a working car. My immediate assumption (and I'm actually ashamed to admit this because it both buys into a grossly shallow and consumer-based notion of identity, and because it denies the reality of my own class background and experience) was that he was some poor homeless or near-homeless person. As the interview progressed, the individual let it be known that he was in fact a working high school teacher. The NPR correspondent questioned him further regarding whether or not he had heard from any of his students. In response, this vehicle-less, employed teacher, said that yes, he had in fact heard from a couple of students whose families wanted to evacuate. Those families weren't evacuating because they didn't have enough money to fill their working cars with gasoline. In response, the vehicle-less employed teacher abandoned to the forces of nature, gave his students' families money for gas so they could flee.
Where are our priorities? Poor people left in the path of a potentially devastating natural disaster. Teachers who can't afford to keep their cars running. Working families who can't afford gas for their cars and turn to their children's teachers, who then in turn give them money. Does anyone besides me see a huge problem here?
The winds are blowing, unfortunately they're not really the winds of change.
1 year ago