Katrina, Karma, and Criticism

Devastation.

Death.

Denial.

Hurricane Katrina swept through Miami and then made her onslaught into the Gulfcoast, ravishing the land and lives of millions. Now, days after the disaster, the sadness and horror reverberate through the marrow of all Americans. Anger and despair build a concoction that floods our hearts and minds like the streets of the destroyed Gulfcoast towns and parishes.

Response and help was delayed and the blame-games begin with accusations of racial preferencing, political affiliation, and human error. New Orleans, with its beautiful streets that I have never walked down except in the corridors of my imagination, receives the brunt of criticism as the people struggle to find food and water. It upsets me that the rescue efforts and supplies were delayed and are finally reaching the Gulfcoast, but I think the failure to reach the victims sooner depends on many mixtures of decisions and assumptions. We live in a country where we think that our power and money gives us a free-pass to disaster; hurricanes, storms, and wars just don't happen here, but we forget to look in our past at all the horrors that fill our short history and become scared and outraged when disasters happen to us that affect people around the world on a daily basis.

The help was delayed because the people were poor. All Americans of all colors were questioning those who stayed whether in New Orleans, Gulfport, Biloxi, or any other town. People assume the poor have a way out and often they don't. Most of the rich whites, blacks, latinos, and asians got out; we hear stories of people renting a limo to Chicago or a taxi to Atlanta for thousands of dollars. In New Orleans with its African American majority shows a slice of the pain of the poverished, but other Gulfcoast cities show that the poor, whether white or Latino, were also left unaided. The poor are the victims of this disaster, not just one race or culture.

Aid has come late, but there are many areas that are less populated than the major cities being spotlighted in the news that have people dying and suffering still and aid is not on its way to those forgotten and unseen places. Its becoming a contest of who can shout and scream the loudest to bring the media to their area. Let's help everyone and take the beaurocracy out of saving human life.

As I watched the Hurricane Relief Concert on NBC a few minutes ago, Kayne West refused to read his prescribe que-card monologue and began to go into a incoherent tirade about George Bush hating black people and how they are going to shoot blacks in the streets of New Orleans as a shocked, que-card reading Mike Myers looked on. I am sure West's comments will be on news programs and shows for the days to come, but to throw such an unplanned and wobbly iconoclastic speech to Americans during a Red Cross fundraising effort after a sweet duo by New Orleans' own Harry Connick, Jr. and Winston Marsalis was an awful display of humanity. To publicly criticize a delay in response, which there was, and then make a statement that West was going to call his business manager "soon" to send as much money as he can to help New Orleans is hypocritical. The federal response was delayed, but any help Kayne West thought to offer is even later than that of the government, and the Gulfcoast people of all races are hurt, deprived, and hungry, not just the media-selected people that the news channels choose to spotlight. West, who rode out the milder Katrina in Miami at his lavish MTV VMA party in which Suge Knight was shot in the leg, needs to think before he speaks. People need help not money-centered stars to begin a war of words as the citizens of the Gulfcoast pray to get diapers, MREs, and water.

There were and are fuck-ups all around. We need to get off this egotistic-pedestal we have for ourselves and understand that we are not separate from the world: we live and die, experience heartbreak and death just like the other cultures of the world. Our litigious mindset makes us often dissect and research everything so blame can be thrown upon a designated scapegoat. We need to let love light our hearts and minds, and not let hindsight and what-ifs slow our progress. We need to extend our help and hands to the victims of the Gulfcoast and follow the lead of Houston, Texas, the first benevolent people to stand up and help.

Osama Bin Laden's plan for America is and was not a secret: he wanted to attack America in a way to draw them into the Middle East so that once involved in the region, we would would be trapped in combat for a long, long time. Our country's resources are spreading thin and our resolve is being tested. We need to follow our principles more than our emotions. Principles never change, they are what keeps a country together and strong, but our principles are being tossed to the wayside for raw, unfiltered emotion because it is always easier to hate and point out mistakes than to love and spend the energy to help others. America will experience many other disasters such as the ones that have devastated our past, but we must stick to the principles we cherish like love, trust , and hardwork to light our way down these dark days that will haunt and test our basic fabrics of humanity.

Ordinary people are the heroes and humanitarians that keep this country together. Their love and help and will get us through the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. George Bush and Kayne West won't be jumping from helicopters saving others or opening up their homes for victims like Hardy Jackson. Ordinary Americans will. Everyday Americans were donating to the Red Cross, offering food, and helping the victims days before all the celebrity Fairweather Johnsons. We started the healing and our love will mend all harm and hurt that our countrymen and women are enduring. That's the American way and it will thrive in this crisis as well.

Click here to help the Gulfcoast.