Whatever you do, try to make some time to catch this week's "This American Life". Your local NPR station will have it on at least once sometime this weekend. The website is here, but there won't be an audio to stream until later next week. What's in it? For example, there are several first hand stories from people stuck in New Orleans during the Katrina crisis, trying to survive, trying to get out, and being lied to (and other things, such as not being allowed to leave on foot on pain of being shot at) by the officials on the ground. It's essential listening. Check your local schedules. Find your local station through the NPR parent site. Arun already mentioned on another thread one such story, transcribed at this site. Extract:
As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move. We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans.
But there's much much more detail on this story and other stories in this week's This American Life. For example, there's an excellent rebuttal by a New Orleans teenager Ashley Nelson of the remarks by certain pundits about the issues concerning those abandoned in New Orleans not "being about race, but about class" (I paraphrase). The kid's immediate remark (paraphrase):
I dod not know it was a crime to be poor.
How frighteningly pointed that show's title seems now. -cvj
