Long before Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans flooded, it was a failed city. Despite the image of the Big Easy, carefully manicured to draw big-spending, heavy-partying tourists to the French Quarter, many of the city’s residents were abandoned by society long before federal, state and local disaster managers left them adrift.
The poor – in New Orleans and in many other major metropolitan and rural areas – have been left behind for decades to cope with miserable schools, crushing poverty and crime.
Former first lady Barbara Bush has rightly been criticized for her callous comments regarding low-income refugees from New Orleans. Referring to people who had lost everything but had finally made it out of the city, she said, “This is working very well for them.” It was a comment completely out of touch with the hardship that families have faced with dislocation from their homes and their communities.
However, we have the opportunity to make sure things do work out well for the residents of New Orleans. The destruction of the city has shown, in graphic detail, the great divide that separates rich from poor in this country. Many of those who failed to evacuate before Katrina hit were abandoned to help themselves. Living paycheck to paycheck and without a car or money for a plane, train or bus ticket, they had little chance but to try and ride out the storm. For even a middle-class family, the loss of household goods would be a major setback, but one from which they could recover. For a poor family, cooking pots and a bed could represent the bulk of a month’s pay. With limited resources, it’s easy to understand why some would try to protect what little they have.
New Orleans ranks toward the top for the number of homicides each year. In 2003, the city witnessed 265 slayings, almost eight times the national per capita average. As part of a university experiment, police fired 700 blank gunshots into the air one afternoon. So used to gun violence, residents didn’t call the cops. Not once.
In 2000, 28 percent of the city’s population was living in poverty. In 2004, Louisiana ranked second only to Mississippi among poor states. Among blacks, who make up two-thirds of the city’s population, 35 percent were living in poverty.
And the schools. An Associated Press story from April put it this way: “In the dismal gallery of failing urban school systems, New Orleans’ may be the biggest horror of them all.” The city system accounts for 55 of Louisiana’s 78 worst schools, the AP reported. Two-thirds of fourth-graders don’t have basic math skills, and the system almost went bankrupt earlier this year. The schools are plagued by corruption and criminal investigations.
No wonder Bert Sperling, who compiles an annual Best Places to Live survey, nicknamed New Orleans “The Big Un-Easy,” due to the high violent crime rate, high unemployment and high numbers of suicides and divorces.
For too long, political leaders have shunted aside the poor, condemning them to a life along the margins of society. Every day, in Detroit, New York, Atlanta, and even Lewiston and Auburn, people are left to struggle along while politicians debate the merits of whether to cut their health care, their food stamps or their heating oil assistance.
The country abandoned thousands of poor people in New Orleans; the television images make that clear. But we have also abandoned millions of others who die just a few at a time.
Barbara Bush is wrong. Things aren’t working out well for the displaced from New Orleans. They’ve lost everything, and many of them are living at the Astrodome or other shelters. We have an obligation, however, to make sure that eventually she is right.
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