Tom Barnes’ story, “Pa. sending troops, other aid to Gulf Coast,” (Sept. 1, 2005) made me realize the power photos and video images to serve as cues to action. It is only human to ask how TV cameras and news reporters can find thousands of people suffering and dying in the aftermath of Katrina and yet find few, if any figures of authority, keeping the public safe. How can it be that cameras can videotape buses arriving in New Orleans from Houston, Texas to rescue the refugees and yet see no caravans of water trucks, no tractor trailers filled with meals ready to eat, no dispatched supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile of medications and no medical teams? If the roads are good enough to bring buses from Houston, then it only stands to reason that they are also good enough to bring help. Where is the evidence of Homeland Security’s command and control? Where is the satellite and wireless communication? Where is the demonstration of disaster preparedness paid for by our tax dollars in the aftermath of 9/11?

 

Today, I witnessed television coverage break from the typical program of “reality TV” and show the American people true reality. CNN exposed an authenticity that caused me to wonder, is this America? CNN’s Anderson Cooper failed to fight back tears, and a NBC camera man was stunned and horrified by the neglect of the people waiting in an orderly way at the convention center. Real newsmen are not supposed to cry, but humans do. So where do we go from here? We must listen to the voices of the refugees in New Orleans. Listen to the angry black men and women demanding help from the most powerful and rich nation in the history of civilization. They, too, are Americans. Listen to the whispered agony of elderly citizens left vulnerable to the heat, thirst and hunger that has engulfed their community. They, too, are Americans. Listen to the babies cry and the adults who love them cry like babies. They, too, are Americans. Listen to the silence left by death that could have been prevented. They, too, were human.

Katrina was a storm, an act of nature that has exposed the ugly underbelly of poverty and racism in American society. One can not help but wonder how the poor of New Orleans can be all but abandoned in the middle of an American city. Race still matters in America and as a nation, we should be mindful of how the color of one’s skin can predetermine where people live, the quality of their education, and their capacity to survive a disaster. Unfortunately, for far too many black people who have lost all hope in the system, Katrina has provided the evidence that the system does not respond to them in their time of greatest need. Just as they are trapped by swirling, contaminated waters, they feel trapped in a society unequal and divided by race.

In another dark period of America’s history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “…the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.” If America is to be a great nation, we must hope that our ship of state will catch the winds of justice and move us toward that day when we will come together as one nation, under God, in liberty and justice for all. That day cannot come too soon for the citizens of New Orleans.

Stephen B. Thomas, Ph.D., FAAHB
Director, Center for Minority Health
Philip Hallen Professor of Community Health and Social Justice
Graduate School of Public Health
University of Pittsburgh 
Pittsburgh, PA 15261