I watched the news for the first time in days yesterday. I’ve never been a big fan of television news, opting for the Internet instead. The Internet provides one-click cross-referencing, making it more desirable to me. Also, television news is as much about entertainment as anything else, and I’m a Joe Friday, just the facts, sort of guy.
But I turned on CNN yesterday, and I almost wept openly.

I saw the people wading through belly high water. I watched destitute children being pulled into flying helicopters in what amounted to a milk crate and string. I saw the man weep about being unable to find his wife and clinging to the only thing he said he had–his grandchildren. I saw folks posted up on the Interstate because they’re above ground, but those folks have no idea where they’re gonna go, and it’s gotta be hot as hell up there on that concrete. I saw cats running up and down the street stealing things they could never use (c’mon, pimpin–in shoulder height water, the last thing you want is something you can plug in).
The worst, though, may have been a station manager that called Larry King to say that dudes were robbing the news crews for whatever they had, including cameras, because they needed something with which to barter.
In what are probably its last days, New Orleans has turned into a soggy, lawless hell, and it’s hard to watch.
Is there anything good that can come from this? For the first time, I think folks are getting to see how bad things are for a lot of people in this country. Right now, the people left in New Orleans are the people that were unable to get out, the brokest of the broke and the poorest of the poor. What we have left is an unfettered view of what attempts at survival will make people do.
This is a third world scene. First, we’re dealing with a state and city with shitty roads, horrendous infrastructure, and a history of spectacular corruption. Look at those houses on television. Many of you didn’t realize that people in this country still live like that, but they do. Now, consider the poverty of those who are left. Also consider that white folks are hard to find in these pictures. The income stratification is unreal, and you can tell that now by whose not on the news. No white folks on the news because white folks in New Orleans, for the most part, have money. They have cars. They had ways out. What’s left now are scores of poor black people who couldn’t go anywhere.
Now, think about when you see refugee scenes like that in other countries. It’s always the same, poor people stuck in place while those with bread have moved on.
And adding to the third world theme, I saw cops looting in Wal-Mart on the news yesterday. On camera.
Didn’t realize the third world existed in the United States, did you? It does, Jack. And if these folks can’t come to New Orleans, the third world’s coming to a city near you. Prepare to get an up close and personal view of something entirely American that seems completely foreign.
And now, it’s only going to get worse. My brother told me that he saw that some looter shot a cop. That, my friends, means all hell might break loose soon. Looting will shut down quickly. We’re talking about one group of people trying to come up before what they might presume to be their death while men with .45s, licenses to shoot them, and easy ways of disposing of the bodies are walking around on edge and justified in being jumpy.
Calling for martial law ain’t gonna be good enough.
The conversation that prompted me to take the previous post down was with someone who broke down in tears in a public place when he realized that the city he grew up in was under water, and the area he was from was hit hardest. I called my ex-girlfriend, and her parents are all but certain that they’ve lost everything. From what I’m told, Gentilly, 9th Ward, and New Orleans East are no more. We’re seriously watching Vesuvius erupt. This is a catastrophe of biblical proportions.
And the only thing that makes sense is that things don’t make sense. It makes no sense to loot with nowhere to take the stuff. It made little sense staying around–though most that did probably had no choice. It makes no sense that folks always thought, in the backs of their minds, that a big one might come, but they had no plan of action.
But it all makes sense. It makes sense that illogical behavior will triumph in chaos. It makes sense that folks would shrug this hurricane off because so many were supposed to take the city out but never did.
(And while I’m on it, how the hell did Brett Favre become the face of this situation? Huh? To remind the world that white folks are catchin it bad, too, not just their precious tourist locales? Where you at, Rell?)
I’m done. All of this is tragic, but the things to really be upset about have been going on for eons.