You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘The West’ category.
I have been hearing so many comparisons between the disaster response for the California wildfires and Hurricane Katrina. Yesterday there was a story on NPR about it, and it made my blood boil. I had to think about it for a while, and figure out why it got me so excited. Part of it was that I was jealous, that I wasn’t there. I know it sounds horrible, but I think that my time in Louisiana made me a sort of disaster junkie. And it wasn’t just the volunteering, helping those in need, giving your all for a good cause Red Cross Disaster Relief Operation volunteer moments either. It was every minute I spent in Louisiana.
Louisiana, New Orleans in particular, is the modern equivalent to the Wild West; kind of a backwards sort of analogy, but I really don’t know of any other way to describe it. Roads are bad. The infrastructure is very poor; I read a statistic a few months back saying that an astounding sixty (I think that was what it was) percent of the water in New Orleans water system leaks before it reaches its destination; crazy. Crime is rampant. The government is corrupt. It is filthy. Bourbon Street is wild; every Western town had its share of brothels and bars. And it is hard to do anything, just as I imagine it was in the Wild West-or New Orleans 150 years ago. New Orleans is always like this, but pile on top of it the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and well, you can see what happens.
I felt like kind of a pioneer living in the city. When I first moved there, mail wasn’t yet being delivered. It was 2005 in the United States of America and there wasn’t mail being delivered. I understand; hurricane, flooding, etc., but that just takes us back to the “How could this happen in America?” theme that we have all heard a thousand times. It was just weird, eerie even. Imagine living in your neighborhood of normal, family homes, and then take away all of the people. Oh and throw in a flood that damages and covers in mold everything below eight feet above the ground. Now move back in without all of your neighbors. Electric service was scant when we moved in, and yes my house had been remodeled, but it was still creepy to be the only house on the street; even the church in the backyard was abandoned.
There is no way this could happen in San Diego. There are many reasons for this, the majority of the areas evacuated were younger than New Orleans and had better infrastructures being the main reason. But I think the key difference between New Orleans and San Diego (and I feel silly even comparing the two because the things that happened were so different) is the people. I think that the majority of people in New Orleans are out of touch with reality and live in some alternate universe, which only operates during banker’s hours mind you, where things like goals, ambition, self-responsibility and even small things like being on time for appointments do not matter a whit.
Think about the city’s moniker, the Big Easy. Where did this come from? The overarching attitude of the city. Everything slows down a bit in the city, and not in a good way. It is impossible to get anything done between all of the stores closing before you can even get off of work (or maybe they just didn’t open today because there was a Saints game?), the tourists and the heavy, horrible air. And try and do anything on a Sunday? That is just crazy thinking!
People lounge in New Orleans. Drive through any neighborhood-rich, poor, black, white-it doesn’t matter, and you will see people milling about porches and corner stores, at any time of the day. Don’t these people have jobs? And why aren’t the kids at school? I have a friend who teaches in one of the city’s urban schools. She told me that it is the culture for students not to show up the entire first week of school. The culture? This is absurd! No one would even think of doing something like this where I grew up, or in most other places in the United States.
The biggest symbol of people not, no refusing to, take care of themselves in New Orleans, is the unbelievably large chunk of society depending on the government to take care of their every whim; I am frankly surprised that some of them can even use the bathroom without being told to do so. (I have to write a disclaimer here: let me state that I am not racist, classist or anything of the sort. I think that all people are equal, some simply chose to make the best of the attributes they have while others do not, and this has nothing to do with race, heritage, sex, anything; it is a personal choice. ) Many of the people living in New Orleans public housing have lived there for generations. Public housing was built as a temporary solution to the lack of housing for the poor, now it has turned into a lifestyle.
Someone told me that kids in the projects had two paths. If they were a boy, they aspired to be a drug dealer. If they were a girl, they had babies. How unbelievably sad is that? It is sad, and having lived in the city, it is definitely believable. People are born in the projects, watch their parents, and sometimes grandparents, live off of the system. They don’t need to work, so why should I do well in school so that I can get a good job? The government will take care of me! For some reason there is this attitude (among those stuck in the system) that the government will take care of me (food, shelter, money to buy rims, but not birth control) because I am owed it; my great, great, great grandfather was a slave after all. This attitude angers me to no end, but explains a good deal about why and how so many people were stuck in the city following the disaster.
As I noted earlier, the government in the city is corrupt; members are looking out for their own welfare, not their constituents (William Jefferson? $90,000 cold cash). The project living people waited for the government to step in and rescue them when the hurricane’s howl was starting to wane and the flood-waters were beginning to rise. But they weren’t there; they were looking out for their own well being. I have heard about the poor people in the city being stranded. Are you kidding? I honestly don’t believe that if someone had really wanted to get out of the city they couldn’t have. Everyone was leaving; I am sure that a church group, busload of carpoolers, for God’s sake they could have hitchhiked, and found a way out. But they didn’t. They waited for the government to step in and take care of them like it had for their entire lives. Come on, show some personal responsibility people!
There aren’t nearly as many folks living off of the government in San Diego. Granted the fire burned in much more affluent areas (strange since New Orleans was once the wealthiest city in the world; WHAT HAPPENED? Laziness?) but why were these areas more affluent anyway? Because people took responsibility for themselves, and didn’t look to the government to care for their every need. And when the fires came, people listened, packed their things and got out, when they were told to; they didn’t wait for anyone to come and rescue them. My 82 year old grandmother has lived in Poway for over 50 years and got out of the way. My brother-in-law in Fallbrook got out of the way. My various aunts, uncles and cousins scattered about San Diego county got out of the way. Why? Because that is what they were supposed to do, they were concerned about their personal safety so they got out of the way; they didn’t wait for the government or someone, anyone else to come and get them.
The information card in the seat pocket of the Boeing 747 is emphatic about placing the oxygen mask on yourself before placing it on your child, or anyone else needing assistance; it doesn’t show everyone waiting for the flight crew to come and put the passengers’ masks on for them. That would just be silly. And so is depending on a (corrupt) government to take care of you during a disaster.
