The Elephant in the Bayou

(CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blasted the slow pace of federal and state relief efforts in an expletive-laced interview with local radio station WWL-AM.

"I told him we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice... You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their freaking necks...

We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here. I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans. That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man.

This is crazy... every day that we delay, people are dying and they're dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you. We're getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart, from people saying, "I've been in my attic. I can't take it anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak...

And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now."

-- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin
(read whole interview here, it makes the point better than I ever could)

As I write this, I am sitting at the Providence shittle counter at the airport waiting for the 2pm shuttle to Brown. I am already feeling a bit homesick but I am also looking forward to what should be an amazing senior year and the fun and challenges that lie ahead. However, my mind is dominated by thoughts about a place I’ve never been.

I’ve spent the last 48 hours transfixed in front of the television watching the horror taking place in New Orleans and the rest of the South that has been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans (the 35th largest city in the United States with 462,269 people – for comparison, Cleveland’s population is next largest with only 3500 less people, Boston has about 100.000 more people) has been totally destroyed.and rendered uninhabitable. If you’ve been any where near a TV in the last couple days, then you know words can not do the scene justice.

As I’ve been watching, two questions keep popping into my head: where is the help and where are the white people? Death, dying and desparation seem to permeate the streets of the city. Every time you see a rescue or a survivor they are a white person who has survived the storm but whenever you see old people literally dying in the streets and babies limp bodies in their sobbing mother’s arms there are a crowd of helpless black people. The mayor of the city has said thousands are probably dead under the waters and as the days pass, the number of deaths that could be prevented with some clean water, food, and shelter continue to mount. One scene that was especially heartbreaking was a man with dozens of children that he had to raft to dry land and leave their mothers behind to die.

At the barbar shop yesterday someone remarked that this was the Black 9/11. I’d say it’s much worse. In a city where nearly a quarter of the people are below the poverty line, mostly Black, disaster struck and the underlying racial/economic inequalities rose to the surface. These are the types of events that make me feel hopeless and helpless in this country. Maybe if I had a reassuring voice of a Bill Clinton or a Peter Jennings to reassure me I’d feel better but with Jr. as president and a bunch of flustered stand-in TV anchors showing the action, I just don’t know what to hope for. We miss you Peter.

I plan to write my Congressmen and ask for them to appropriate funds for volunteers to move into the disaster zone and help out (maybe through Americorps or something). I am strongly considering traveling down there after graduation and trying to help out in some way. I’m tired of beng helpless.