Anger in New Orleans

So many things strike me as I read article-after-article (and watch CNN) about the massive evacuation underway in New Orleans, and I’m struggling with understanding how and why this long anticipated disaster and the evacuation was fumbled so badly. People I’ve talked or emailed with in the last 24 hours seem taken aback that there is so much anger being spewed on TV and in print from those left behind and who are now refugees…especially with the seeming reaction that the root cause of the delay in assistance is due to racism.

This article had one passage that makes me stop and wonder: if I’d been in the filth and stench of the Superdome for four days with people dying around me, rapes occurring, people relieving themselves anywhere and everywhere, nothing to eat or drink, how would I feel if I was a poor, African American person and was in line waiting to be evacuated?

At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.

“How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?” exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

My favorite idiom is “actions speak louder than words.” As a self-proclaimed Christian who has expressed using his beliefs as a basis for decision-making, courting the political support of others who believe the same, and taking the moral high road to save stem cells (while being OK with the death penalty, Abu Gharaib, Guantanamo Bay, etc.), perhaps President Bush and others will contemplate this one saying by Christ, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.“

The actions are speaking louder than the words.