Blowing in the wind

1st August 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis,
Editor

As we inch toward the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and move into the busiest period of hurricane season, we find ourselves still trying to come to grips with questions whose answers have been blowing in the wind for as long as anyone can remember. Some of the specifics may have changed, but the dynamics that led to the situations in which we find ourselves are hardly new. Because knowing is half the battle, we continue to ask questions in the hope of waking up the sleeping giant that some call “the people” and building “a more perfect union.” So here we go:

• How many local elected officials do you suppose voted for a redistricting plan that doesn’t increase or maintain their political power and enhance their chances of getting re-elected?

• When was the last time a New Orleans policeman fatally shot an unarmed white person?

• Why do residents and community activists have to constantly embarrass local elected officials into doing their jobs?

• How pathetic is it that Elysian Fields Avenue — a major thoroughfare — still hasn’t been repaired nearly six years after Hurricane Katrina and more than a year after New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu was sworn in?

• When did Faubourg Tremé become the new Harlem or Georgetown, with rising real estate prices pushing people of color out of these historically Black neighborhoods?

• How does a NOPD supervisor in a city that recently got slapped with a scathing report detailing corruption, police brutality, racial profiling and ineptitude get away with pressuring subordinates in the Mid City Security District to harass more motorists and pedestrians without reasonable suspicion?

• What do you expect President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to do about the New Orleans Police Department’s defiant attitudes and practices less than three months after the Department of Justice’s unflattering report on the city’s police force?

• Why is it that New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is downright giddy about all the “tall ships” that will gather in New Orleans to commemorate and kick off next year’s bicentennial of the War of 1812 but still hasn’t said a mumbling word about the 200th anniversary of the 1811 slave revolt, the largest U.S. slave rebellion in history?

• How many more times will the mayor have to be embarrassed by the New Orleans Police Department before he decides to make some real changes?

• How many more people will have to suffer at the hands of the New Orleans Police Department before more people who want justice, democracy and equal protection under the law get out and support Community United for Change during its protests on Thursdays at noon in front of City Hall?

• What makes some elected officials and others in the Digital Age think there will be no repercussions when they send images of their body parts across Cyberspace?

• How much would productivity in the U.S. workplace go up if people could find a way to sever all ties with Facebook?

• If Saints running back Reggie Bush’s 2010 performance didn’t justify the organization paying him $11 million this year, how does Saints quarterback Drew Brees get away with throwing 33 touchdowns and 22 interceptions — hardly a stellar performance — and still earn $10 million in 2011?

• How do nonprofit organizations whose mission it is to help those less fortunate get away with paying those who run these groups such hefty salaries?

• If FEMA is adamant about collecting funds from Katrina survivors the agency says received more in disaster assistance than they were supposed to get, shouldn’t they also revisit cases involving Katrina survivors who were eligible to receive FEMA assistance but didn’t get a single dime?

• Why hasn’t anyone from local, state or federal government gone after insurance companies who cheated Katrina survivors out of millions in insurance proceeds they were entitled to?

• Why are local elected officials still saying that most New Orleanians have returned after Hurricane Katrina when in fact tens of thousands are still displaced and many of those living in exile have simply been replaced with New Orleans transplants?

• Why are so many New Orleans parents, leaders and elected officials still letting charter schools and the Louisiana Department of Education get away with “experimenting” with the city’s children and using them like lab rats to see what works best in “real-life” schools?

• When was the last time you read a book about Black history just for the joy that comes with learning and knowing who and whose you are?

• As we approach the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, has everyone gotten over the fact that the American Red Cross collected tens of millions in donations from people all over the world to help Katrina survivors that it decided to use for other disasters?

This article was originally published in the August 1, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper