I guess if you are poor in NOLA you can't catch a break, even if you're dead

The exchange on Americablog went something like this:

I give Bill Clinton 48 hours to work within his role to get things done right. After that, I expect him to call out the racist neglect and get these 9th Ward properties properly searched.

I also give key Dems (Pelosi, Reid, Obama, etc.) 48 hours to make calls - then they need to step up to a microphone and call out the responsible parties - whether FEMA, Nagin, Blanco, or the contractors.

The clock starts NOW.

Roadmaster 10.05.05 - 3:15 pm #
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Roadmaster -

and you've emailed them this.. or are you expecting them to amble over to americablog?

I emailed Reid, Kennedy and Kerry this morning...
Guess I'll get on again and email some more.

Clytemnestra Homepage 10.05.05 - 3:17 pm #
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clytemnestra:

Thanks. I'll get the e-mails out this evening. You're right, bitching amongst ourselves is cathartic, but not necessarily productive.

Let justice ring through the Outlook Mailboxes of ALL of our leaders - elected or otherwise.

Roadmaster 10.05.05 - 4:34 pm #

It was in response to an October 4, 2005 report on CNN and picked up on Scout Prime Blog. It says basically that there are 100 -150 homes in NOLA that will not be searched for the dead, even though when you pass you can smell the bodies.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: (voice- over): In pulverized portions of New Orleans's Ninth Ward, where water flows, instead of traffic, most homes bear the signs that search teams have been in to look for the living and the dead, but not in one area that spans several blocks. Here, house after house after house is unmarked.

EDWARD MENDEL, SEARCH VOLUNTEER: From here back, I estimate 100 to 150 homes that are still unsearched. And I do expect we will probably find some bodies.

. . .

MESERVE (voice-over): Federal officials say search teams came through every house and ran out of paint to mark them. But volunteer Ed Mendel believes they were not able to go where he can on what he calls swamp thing, a vehicle designed for hunting pigs and deer in the Everglades and modified for rescue work.

What? They couldn't run down to an open Walmart somewhere in LA and pick up more cans of spray paint? I think the stores in Houma, LA and Hammond, LA are probably open. Maybe they couldn't make a call and pull some out of the military stores somewhere in the United States. Maybe these huge military stores were out of paint too?

This excuse, when you have the full resources of the federal government behind you is ludicrous.

Also I thought before Hurricane Rita, the 9th Ward had been pumped dry, weeks ahead of schedule. Are they saying that they will not be able to do that again? It's been almost 3 weeks since Rita, given the speed they exhibited in pumping NOLA out after Katrina, they should be done just about now.

MESERVE: If these homes have not been searched and these people found, Roz Kay perceives it as another slap at the Ninth Ward and the people who lived here.

Roz Kay is a former 9th Ward president.

Not only am I appalled that the poor seem to be additionally undeserving of a decent burial, but there are the health ramifications of leaving those bodies there, and the question of how the government plans to dispose of those bodies remain. Do they plan to take a bulldozer and scoop them up along with the debris and put it all in a landfill somewhere?

What does this say to the rest of the world in how we treat the dead who are poor? What does it say that the richest nation in the world cannot or more appropriately, will not, take care of the dead properly without regard to race, class, social status and wealth? How did the world treat the dead after the tsunami in December '04?

And if I wanted to be conspiratorial, given that some Republicans have already spoken intentions of wanting to redo NOLA so that has the greatest possibility of becoming a "red" city, why ignore the 9th Ward? To make it the last place to be able to be re-inhabited?

Whatever the reason it should disgust every American that the dead have not been retrieved from the debris. But instead of complaining about it, go to the House of Represenatives website and the Senate website and find your Congressmen's website. Most have a form where you can alert them to your concerns, you don't even have to remember their email address.

No time in history have the people had greater and easier access to their Congresspeople. Instead of complaining, use what technology has provided you.

Timeline
Hurricane Katrina made it's second landfall as a Cat. 4 hurricane, August 24, 2005. This second landfall hit New Orleans, LA. The levee system could not handle the storm and broke.

The whole of New Orleans is pumped out September 20, 2005.

Hurricane Rita made landfall as a Cat. 3 hurricane, west of NOLA on September 24, 2005. The winds and storm surges broke through the already weakened levees.