Word from New Orleans
I made a couple of visits to New Orleans during my Road Trip period, staying at a youth hostel both times. The hostel is now destroyed, and the road it was on can't be seen in satellite photos.A couple of friends of mine, one of whom is one of my editors, evacuated this past weekend. One made it to Lafayette and the other is in Memphis in a hotel with the Neville Brothers. They've received word that they cannot go back to their homes for at least a month. With the news that someone had committed suicide at the Superdome, friend #2 said, "I'm not the only one I know who lost everything and who left his pets to die."
Of great concern to me is the looting of non-essential items. I heard an NPR report yesterday that quoted a National Guardsman as saying, "we're not saying it's legal, but we're not stopping it, either."
I wasn't here for the L.A. riots, was in Cabo San Lucas for 9/11/01, and have never been close to an occasion of national disaster (unless you count certain ex-girlfriends), so I don't understand how the course of 48 hours can make someone think it's OK to toss a brick through a store window and load up on cosmetics. Food and water, yes. Alcohol, undoubtedly. Tents and camping supplies, yes. Travel Scrabble, no.
When I heard about the looting I thought, "bad form." The image of someone pulling a stolen TV/DVD player combo through the streets of New Orleans or Baghdad sort of levels things off in my mind. It doesn't take much to turn poverty into savagery, because poverty is all about lack of choices.
You can't convince me that looting a plasma screen TV during a hurricane is either a victimless crime or plucky American opportunism. I might feel differently if Godzilla comes back.
posted
by Marty Barrett at Thursday, September 01, 2005
1 Comments:
Stunning.
On so many levels.
Metaphor, imagery, words.
Thank you.
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