There is a fantastic essay in the NY Times by Anne Rice–you know, the queen of vampire and strange literature. I’m not that fond of the subject matter of many of her books, but this opinion piece is superb. And many people will read this because, well, because it is by Anne Rice.

What I like about it is that it gives a wonderful history of the city, shreds the notion (which much of the media has been emphasizing) that the whole population is just a bunch of lawless thieves and murderers, and explains very simply why so many people stayed behind. And on a very optimistic note, she shoves aside the pessimism which is proliferating all over the place–the city will survive, the city will rebuild, and life will go on. Afterall, this is not the first storm that has ever hit. And I hope that the environmental conditions which contributed to this will be reversed, and that the city will be elevated before homes and buildings are rebuilt.

Elevated you may ask? Yes, elevated. In 1900, a devastating hurricane wiped out three quarters of Galveston, killing between 8-12,000 people. The mother of all hurricanes, and one would think that the survivors would have closed up shop and left. But instead, they elevated the city of Galveston by something like 17 feet (done with 1900 technology), built a seawall, and the city has successfully weathered all storms since then.

New Orleans will also survive, be rebuilt, and thrive once again.

Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans?

I know that New Orleans will win its fight in the end. I was born in the city and lived there for many years. It shaped who and what I am. Never have I experienced a place where people knew more about love, about family, about loyalty and about getting along than the people of New Orleans. It is perhaps their very gentleness that gives them their endurance.

Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.

This is a great letter that Michael Moore wrote to George Bush, and published it up on his website. I couldn’t have said it better, although Mike does need to distribute the blame to other politicians as well–namely that incompetent twit of a governor Kathleen Blanco (LA).

Anyway, here it is:

Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Vacation is Over… an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It’s Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren’t there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn’t want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don’t like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don’t let people criticize you for this — after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don’t listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn’t cut the money to fix those levees, there weren’t going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them — BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn’t stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It’s not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C’mon, they’re black! I mean, it’s not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don’t make me laugh! Race has nothing — NOTHING — to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

And that’s a kind remark, I think, that the brain of George Bush is filled with mere sewage. I’ve heard worse, in language that I don’t want to repeat on my blog.

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees,” Bush told reporters this week, inexplicably enough. As quite a few influential outlets have already begun pointing out, this statement may be the most demonstrably false utterance to have ever passed the president’s lips; the Federal Emergency Management Association has long listed the New Orleans levy as one of the top three national concerns, and it was only a year ago that FEMA conducted a practice run of a response to this very occurrence. Newspapers across the region have been predicting 20 feet of water and thousands of casualties for years, and as the initial shock of the disaster passes, more and more newsroom types have become wise to these inconvenient facts.

The story goes on to point out that if Bush were merely being his stupid and ignorant self, and had just ignored the problem–as did the governor of Louisiana–the lie would not be so damning. But in 2002, the Bush administration cut funding to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – and when former Republican congressman Michael Parker, who headed the organization at the time, blasted the move in public, he was quickly “ousted” and replaced with someone more in line with the Bush ideology of greed and more greed. Parker now is saying that that proper funding would have reduced the scope of the disaster.

How could anyone not anticipate the breach of the levees? It should have been top priority, to reinforce them before the hurricane, and then to immediately check them early Tuesday morning. And yes, the engineers could have gotten over to the levees, and reinforced them even if they didn’t see a noticeable leak.

So not only is Bush lying through his sickening smirk, and not only has he done nothing – but he actually cut the budget.

Do you think that this would have happened if New Orleans was a rich predominantly white city? Aside from the glitter and glitz of Mardi Gras and jazz clubs, and the quaintness of the French Quarter, and the elegant mansions lining the streets of the Garden District, NO is a poor city. And I don’t have exact numbers, but I think that at least 50% of the residents are black. And many live below the poverty line or near it, and their neighborhoods were the ones most likely to flood.

And in Mississippi, many of the people affected are also poor and black, or they’re insignificant po’ white trash. The people who don’t contribute much to political campaigns, and who aren’t help line the pockets of the Bush crowd. And in fact, 77% of the people in New Orleans did not vote for Bush.

In Florida, rescue operations have been far more efficient, seamless, and immediate. Could it be a coincidence that the governor of Florida is Jeb Bush?

I’m far from alone in looking at these discrepancies, and how race and class are playing into this scenario. Connect the dots, look at the big picture.