8/28/06: A report from Jamilah
Hoffman, a World Can’t Wait organizer who is in New Orleans for the anniversary of
Hurricane Katrina
“It is what it is.”
That’s a saying that has been going around town and it’s part of what
makes New Orleans
the “Big Easy.” People are up against a
lot and while they know what is going on and want to do something about it,
sometimes the enormity of the situation can be too much. People just want to move on.
Hurricane Katrina not only exposed the link between race and
class in this county, it also alerted the world to the lengths that this regime
will go to implement their program. The
statement marking one year after Katrina on the World Can’t Wait website sums
it up clearly: This is not government ineptitude, it is the beginning of
genocide, colored with racism and excused by religion.
Going into the neighborhoods, especially the 9th
and the Lower 9th wards will make you rethink everything you had
thought about in the aftermath of the storm.
Talking with residents will open your minds about what they went through
and are still going through. At the same
time, it gives you an understanding of the despair people feel. Yet there is so
much potential and possibility to build a movement here that The World Can’t
Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime can be a force to turn that despair into hope.
The message of World Can’t Wait resonates soundly in the
African American community because of the racist and genocidal history of
Blacks in this country. The reaction of
the Bush regime after Katrina hit reinforced this so when we brought the
message of this movement out in New
Orleans, the responses were entertaining as they were
enlightening.
In the Lower 9th ward we ran into two women who
were with their children. They had grown
up around the block we were standing in, but their homes, if still standing,
were devastated. They talked about being in the Superdome for four days. They told us about a woman who was walking
around hysterical, looking for her children.
She would go to other people’s kids and try to pick them up. Of course everyone thought she was crazy. It
was found out that she was in a helicopter and was holding her infant in one
hand and her toddler in the other. She
was losing her grip when she reached for her child with her other hand and lost
them both into the water. The only
rescue attempt made was to throw a rope down to the drowning babies.
One woman was in her last trimester and had to walk through
water with her two children to the Superdome.
Another woman said she used bleach, literally, to get the smell off of
her skin. While residents in New Orleans had to risk a helicopter ride, which itself
wasn’t guaranteed to be safe or make their way in neck-deep water; in Lebanon, nearly on the other side of the world,
the US
military airlifted thousands of Americans in a matter of days. The criminal nature of the response from the
Bush regime must not be ignored.
These are real people.
They had jobs and houses. They
had lives. A little girl we spoke to
said, after looking up and down the block exasperated, that, “I just don’t
recognize it anymore. It’s so sad.” She
then told us she wanted some more flyers and that she had some things she would
like to say to Bush. We joked that all
she needed was a microphone and she told us she was ready. Her mother, whose grandfather had helped to
pave the first streets in the 9th ward, who built the home that she
lost in the storm, was more weighed downed.
“Twenty-one years, gone,” she said.
“I’ll never forget it.” As it
began to thunder around us and her son started to beg his mom to leave, she
told us that he’s afraid every time there’s a storm. “The people want to come back,” she
said. “They need to pour money into
cleaning up the area.” When asked about
President Bush coming to New Orleans
to mark the anniversary of Katrina, her friend said, “He [Bush] must be trying
to get impeached. He says that they’re
doing everything to redeem themselves but, whatcha doin?”
We talked to one 65 year old man who was in the process of
rebuilding his home. He was drenched in
sweat and while talking to us a friend of his had drove by. She yelled out to him and asked if he was
going to the party that night. “Of
course,” was his response.
The culture of New
Orleans is unique.
We stumbled upon a jazz festival and saw people of different races, ages
and economic situations all dancing together and listening to some great
music. This is the New Orleans that I’m used to. That we’re all used to, and the Bush regime
is working to remake this town into a place that does not reflect that culture
or the people. Enough is Enough! October 5th, we must all…Bring This to A
Halt!