New Orleans and the Gulf Coast: The Forgotten Disaster

Talking Points Memo contributor DK hits on a topic I've been thinking about for a while... how the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina- an event we all assumed would dominate Bush's domestic agenda for the remainder of his term the way Iraq is for his foreign agenda- has all but disappeared from the national radar. That is the secondary tragedy of Katrina. It is the fault of the politicians who simply don't care because they can't benefit in any way from rebuilding the Gulf Coast, a lazy media with the worst case of ADD ever, and a populace that is simply too busy living their lives to remember those who are struggling to rebuild theirs.

DK shares the stories of how the tragedy has affected some reporters for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, a paper which won a much-deserved Pulitzer for their coverage post-Katrina. One of their photographers recently attempted a very public suicide, but was prevented by some hard-working police officers. One of the paper's top reporters writes of descending into depression over the last year or so, before finally seeking help.

This stories are not unique; they are all too common.

DK adds: "It breaks your heart. But it also makes me mad as hell. Mad that this slow-motion disaster of broken levees and shattered lives happened in the first place. Mad that the disaster is still happening, a feckless governmental response dragging out the misery and the suffering just as if the fetid water were still pouring through the levee breaches. Mad that in the face of this overwhelming catastrophe at home we are spending by some estimates $246 million a day to create a catastrophe in Iraq. Mad that in light of all of this ineptitude and indifference the party in power has a chance, a very real chance, of retaining some or even all of its power in the first national election since Katrina."

I feel the same way. If not Iraq, if not this, what would people hold them accountable for?

[PS- For the best Katrina-related blogging on the net, it's Harry Shearer as always.]