It doesn't take long for a tragedy to be exploited by those
more interested in self-serving agendas than the victimized. The
man who entered the crowded R subway car was hidden from my view,
but his voice was loud and clear.
"Can you help me, please? I've lost touch with my family in
New Orleans," he said. "I need money to get back home.
Please. If there's anything you can do to help, I'd appreciate
it."
The people on the train ignored him, probably recognizing him as
a regular panhandler who had simply changed his act. That man, of
course, might be considered by some to be enterprising, but
there's simply no excuse for our local politicians to seize on
this horrific tragedy to score points with Bush-hating voters by
linking it with the war in Iraq.
The legitimate question to ask is whether a natural disaster
could inflict similar damage here, and the answer to that is:
probably not. Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans dared to compare the
government's response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, as
"lickety-quick" and angrily blamed the president for
showing up two days after the event was over.
Even overlooking the fact that the September 11 damage covered a
sixblock area and not the immense acreage destroyed by Hurricane
Katrina, that the city rebounded so quickly was due in large part
to the leadership of Mayor Giuliani. He was always on the scene,
walking amid the debris and coordinating the rescue efforts,
while keeping the public aware of the situation. Most important,
he had established and set in place an emergency center that
would be at the ready to handle catastrophic events. In addition,
most of the infrastructure of Manhattan was untouched by the loss
of power and services.
But still the comparisons to the World Trade Center attacks keep
coming, and they border on the surreal. I regularly get e-mails
from a site dedicated to monitoring the use of the N-word in
films and other entertainment. I'm presuming that the anonymous
author is a black man, because of other links and comments made
in previous mailings. I usually find his information interesting
and thought-provoking, but I was very surprised to see his latest
entry, which read: "As for the 'looting,' more went on
during 9/11 but that was barely mentioned and quickly muzzled
when brief references were made early on. And the 9/11 looting
wasn't for food and water - it wasn't for survival. We'll leave
it at that, but we all heard the talk about the missing valuables
- much more than could ever be taken from anywhere in Louisiana.
New York vs. Louisiana - no comparison monetarily."
This man claims to live in New York City but must be getting his
misinformation from the Internet. That looting hoax is still
widely disseminated - even after being discredited. The facts are
this. Looting at the WTC site was done by civilians, not firemen,
cops, or construction workers, as was charged by a reporter who
did no fact-checking. It was limited to the site, and the looters
were caught and convicted.
It's less than two weeks since the storm of the century, and so
much time is being wasted on recriminations and finding blame.
Mr. Giuliani has displayed his usual grace by stating that there
is no place for second-guessing during an emergency and he is not
interested in criticizing government officials and their handling
of the crisis. He also said it is too soon to draw any
conclusions about how agencies reacted or who was responsible.
Hear, hear, Mr. Giuliani, and a pox on the term limits that drove
you away.
Heeding his advice, I will refrain from passing judgment on
anyone until all the facts are in and simply urge all to join me
in donating help to legitimate charitable organizations working
to alleviate the sufferings of the Katrina victims.
I do, however, have this one criticism to make of the president,
and it's not about Katrina. I wish he hadn't told the nation
after September 11 to go about our normal lives, because much of
the country seems to have forgotten that we were brutally
attacked and we are now at war.
This Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the creation of ground
zero, and I honestly thought that by this time the heartache I
feel every time I ride by that hole in the ground would have
abated. I'm not the kind of person who is easily angered, and yet
there is something about that open space that tightens my jaw and
narrows my eyes and makes all happy thoughts disappear.
Oh, to walk in the shadows of the twin giants again!