a few Katrina e-mails..

Here are a few of the e-mails I've received on Katrina I'd like to share...

~C

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Hey Curtis...

I was reading your blog today and saw that you had a lot of places people can donate to help Katrina victims. We have another to add to your list. We were watching Larry King last night (I can't stand Larry King), but he was having a "how you can help" program. The last guest was Irvin Mayfield from the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. He is a Grammy nominated trumpet player who is known as a cultural ambassador for New Orleans. He is spearheading a relief effort for the countless musicians of the city who have lost everything. Many of these people made their lives as street musicians in New Orleans providing the culture and sound that made New Orleans so unique - many of whom are of limited means, and some who were homeless to start with. Now, they don't even have the instrument that provided them a livelihood. The address to send donations and the web site address is below.

The NOJO
P.O. Box 82385
Baton Rouge, LA 70884-2385
Their Web site is www.thenojo.com

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Dear Sirs:

The United States of America is a great place. I am a fiercely patriotic person, as my family and this country have grown side by side. My family has been here for almost 400 years - we helped found the state of Connecticut; we were the blacksmiths who made the guns for The Continental Army during the Revolutionary War; we were instrumental in the development of The Underground Railroad and fought tooth and nail for Abolitionism during the Civil War; we worked in the labor camps during the depression and battled racism in the Deep South long before the Civil Rights Movement; we served the world's interest and fought against Hitler in WWII; and we are still fighting the good fight even today.

The history of my family in this country makes me no more an American than someone who arrived in 1980, but I wanted to mention these things to indicate my perspective on the current stage of our political development.

Where I'm going with this is simple: I want to help New Orleans and our country recover. The single most obvious way I can do that is to continue my family's tradition of grappling with the issues of the time by getting directly involved and not just sit back and pontificate. So, as my grandfather once said: "The feelings burning me up might disturb some of the authorities, if they knew. They don't...so I will tell them."

So I'm telling you now: This administration is a disgrace to the honor of this country, and they have betrayed the ideals the rest of us have fought and died for. They are criminals with no sense of compassion or respect for the dignity of the people. They are sociopaths, and arrogant to the point of insanity. Even worse, they are inept, willfully ignorant, and fiendishly power hungry. The situation in New Orleans is just the tip of the iceberg, but this horror story will be what finally forces the public to open their eyes and see the painful truth. Very soon, this administration will understand how the segregationists felt in 1963. Their time is coming - the people will not abide by this any longer. And I will be marching with them: peacefully, but with an undeniable moral puprose.


Thank you very much for your time,

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Thank God someone else is catching this too. . . Looting implies the spoils of war. . . Raiding a village after the battle.

In times of crisis it is called survival.

The media is more of an enemy to Blacks in America then any other source. I'm also sick of seeing the 10 white people in New Orleans being portrayed as the "only" people willing to help one another. . . Giving gas to strangers, buying food for strangers fleeing the city, offering the use of cell phones to contact loved ones.

Blacks, drifting out of wal-mart "looting", fighting for a spot on a bus or a bottle of clean drinking water. Black bodies floating in the water on tree branches. How is it looting when you're taking diapers, canned food, sheets, medicine, toilet paper. . . most things that will be destroyed once businesses re-open. . . That is what we pay outrageous insurance premiums for. The portrayal of Blacks during this crisis is more appauling than the flooding.

I don't know what type of news you guys are receiving up there but it is so blatant out here, yet they think we're stupid.

Dallas is about to be over-run with the displaced which will also make my job "FRANFUKINTASTIC!". We are supposed to take in, clothe, feed, and educate children who just days ago watched loved ones wash away forever. . . Will little Johnny fail if he doesn't know his multiplication tables this year. . .

I'm sorry to burden you with this Curt, but lately that seems to be all the rage around here. . . "Why are they making us look like wild animals while whites appear to be helpless victims?" "Why are they finding food, and we are looting for food?" "Why did so many whites find a way out of there, yet we are stuck for 4 days with no food or water and expected to behave rationally?"

Did you know many Blacks didn't leave because they couldn't afford the gas it would take to get to Texas? Did you know that supplies used to board up doors and windows was in short supply in black neighborhoods but overflowing in affluent neighborhoods. . . what reason was given. . . Lumber is being sent to Iraq to help with the reconstruction efforts. ARE YOU SHITTIN' ME!

Over 150 years since the end of slavery and we are still this country's doormat. It's always easy to divert the focus onto us rather than the reality of the situation. True, we're not helping the situation by shooting at rescue workers. . . but I wouldn't hesitate to believe that they are being taunted by some nasty BUTTFUCKS who are more concerned with becoming heroes then with helping poor black people.

i'm done. . . sorry Curt, but this shit is just dumb.

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....looking at the footage you almost wouldn't know if it was darfar or new orleans....watching the horror and insane conditions that people are dealing with breaks my heart and i'm so so so angry that it's taken 5 days for anyone to begin to help and people are saying they're looters and hoodlums - tell anyone to go somewhere seeking shelter and leave them with absolutely nothing and no one and ask yourself what you'd do to survive.....anyway, also knowing i was there six months ago and seeing the city now, this whole thing just makes me cry...

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I have been doing little else than watching the disaster coverage in disgust. It is bad enough the media always seem to find the least articulate, most ghetto-looking fool to interview when something happens in a predominantly black location, but this is insane. If I ever run into Brown, the FEMA director, do you think he'll understand why I walked up to him, slapped him upside the head, and walked off? He has been blaming the victims who they knew had no means of leaving the city because they are poor, elderly, infirm, or all of the above, and they were not provided adequate options to get out. And, now it is their fault? It is their fault that a handful of bad souls are shooting at doctors and fellow victims and looting?

And, if a black kid is likely floating in sewage and battery acid filled water with a bag on his back he must be looting - what if that is all he has left and he is trying to take it with him? Ugh...I'm so annoyed. If you really want to loose your mind, watch FOX News for a few minutes. At least half the CNN correspondents have officially gotten so disgusted they are ranting in all the right ways. What I fear most now is the Bush administration spin machine that is officially in full throttle. I really hope the American people are not ignorant enough to forget this first week and all the people who died because money for the levees in New Orleans were diverted to Iraq by Bush, because National Guard have been diverted to Iraq by Bush, and because for decades corrupt, racial politics have kept the poor and dark-skinned down in Louisiana. And, that's not even to mention all the people suffering in Mississippi and Alabama.
If this situation, soaring gas prices, and the mess in the Middle East don't wake Americans up once and for all, will anything?