Ray St. Louis
9/3/05
BETWEEN THE LINES
“How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!”
William Shakespeare, the Tempest
“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.”
Aldous Huxley
Tuesday – I am racing what’s left of Katrina from southern Ohio to my summer place in Upstate
New York. Every time I stop, the heavy rain catches up with me. Nevertheless, I stop for fuel in
Pennsylvania just before the New York state line. A local lady also getting gas tells me prices at
this particular travel center have risen twenty cents in the past few hours.
“Probably going to get a lot worse,” I tell her. She wants to chat further, but I need to keep
moving. “Katrina’s right behind me,” I tell her; “She’s been chasing me all day.”
Wednesday – I tell my fiancé I am going for a newspaper and venture out into the pouring rain. I
drive to our small town quick stop and notice with a shock that regular unleaded is going for
$3.29 a gallon. I grab a morning paper and plop it down on the counter. The front page provides
another shock: New Orleans is under water. The thought occurs to me that somehow, overnight,
the world had changed. “It’s a brave new world,” I say to myself.
Thursday – My morning paper is full of news of a tragedy spiraling out of control. I read it all,
even the business section which is as frightening a business section as any I have ever read. It
speaks of disrupted oil and gas production in the Gulf, gas prices jumping to four dollars a gallon
and higher within days, ripple effects on the economy including inflation and higher interest
rates, the possibility of recession. At our local gas pumps the price of regular has jumped
another 20 cents to $3. 49.
In New Orleans the situation has turned grim. I become glued to my TV set. Like many other
Americans, I struggle to comprehend the pictures I’m seeing. This cannot be my country. People
are dying in the streets. Bodies are being left to rot on the curbs of abandoned highway
overpasses. There is gunfire and rampant lawlessness. Anarchy reigns.
Why isn’t anyone helping these people? Why doesn’t someone take charge? Can our
government possibly be this inept?
The feeling returns that the world has changed. I remember feeling this way after 9/11. But then,
it was different. The country pulled together. We rallied behind our Commander in Chief. We felt
hope.
This time the corresponding feelings are shame and disgust. We are witnessing a national
disgrace.
Friday – Again I am glued to the TV. New Orleans has become hell on earth. People are living in
their filth. There are reports of rapes and murders. Conditions in and around the Superdome and
Convention Center have moved beyond desperate. Dante in his wildest dreams could not have
created a more nightmarish scenario.
Finally, there are signs of help. A National Guard convoy is moving into the city. The President
makes an appearance – actually more of a fly-by. At the airport he tries to offer words of hope
and condolence but his words ring hollow. What took you so long, Mr. President?
In the evening, I watch part of a TV telethon on NBC. Musicians and actors with ties to New
Orleans are raising money for hurricane relief. A black rapper comes on and speaks. Diverging
from his scripted lines, he says the thing the stranded, mostly African-American survivors
suffering in New Orleans must be feeling: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Wow! I hurry downstairs to tell my fiancé what I have just heard live on network television.
Saturday – Finally, busses are moving thousands of survivors out of the city, but the fury over
our government’s pitiful response to this catastrophe is growing. Pundits are pointing fingers – at
FEMA, at the Department of Homeland Security, at the President. I catch a news item explaining
how DHS has five massive stockpiles of disaster relief supplies placed strategically around the
country. Those stockpiles have not been touched.
A spokesperson for the DHS gave the excuse that the stores of supplies have not been tapped
because none of the governors of the affected states had made a formal request.
People are dying in the streets and these bureaucrats are worried about protocol?
Is this America? Has our government ever appeared so incompetent?
Brave new world, indeed.