Not So Proud To Be An American
"Remember what it felt like to go back to work September 11th, or the 12th or 13th? We were mad yet proud of Americans. Well, today I felt no such pride... embarassment, frustration, sadness. What has happened to turn people in this? What happened to the 'everyone there for each other' of 2001? We can't recover because people are forming terror militias to steal diapers and Coors." - Chuck Wojack
In the early morning hours of August 31st, a massive hurricane ravaged the southern coast of the United States, destroying most of the coastal cities in Alabama and Louisiana and plunging New Orleans into a half-drowned anarchy, full of lawlessness, looting and lunacy.
Some people are glibly attributing both physical and social damage to Hurricane Katrina, but that response is short-sighted at best. If you build a city that only survives by levee's holding back the great ocean's heave, imminent destruction is a way of life. It is of very little comfort to look out your window and realize that life goes on because some state worker is tending a wall that separates you and ruin. But people lived there, bought property, raised families, knowing full well that life could, at any given moment, be swallowed by the sea. Normality depended on the public maintenance of a man-made structure.
It is in that same way that the tragic weakness of our American society is painfully laid bare. People who for decades have been taught to forsake any absolute sense of right and wrong in a meteorological instant lost the social structure that held them together. Now we have roving bands of thugs smashing store windows because the moral infrastructure has disintegrated and has revealed the anemic state of the American citizen. And to further illustrate the point, we will be the same people two weeks from now as we were two week ago, only with higher gas prices.
A song came to mind today as I read a story about looters stampeding a young woman, and I laughed a very sad laugh. "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free." At least I know I'm free? There is a fate worse than national bondage. I would gladly clamp the fetters around my ankles any day over the moral bankruptcy I saw footage of today. De Tocqueville warned that if we ceased to be good, we'd lose our greatness. I see enough chest-thumping in this country, but very little genuine goodness.
Now there is no sin in being the biggest or the strongest, if we are such a thing, but there is a great deal more expected. If a child and his father are wrestling, who is expected to restrain? I've read enough "bomb-them-to-hell" editorials and comments to be afraid for the future of this country. I do not want America to be the leader of the world if she does not deserve it. How can we preach freedom and democracy when our own moral underpinnings have been so eroded as to render these two ideals pointless? Why fight for freedom when the free people destroy? Why fight for democracy when the masses are in hysteria? I'm certain that there are planks enough in the waters of New Orleans to pull one from our own eyes.
And it is in this devastation, that tragic loss of life and social normality, we see not so much destruction as revelation: The weakness of man-made structures made evident against the surge of natural forces. It is going to take something much more than social programs and hand outs to revive the decaying soul of the American citizen. Throwing money at moral depravity is buying a rapist a new suit. It just makes him harder to pick out among the crowd. And I'm afraid that far too many Americans are sinkholes, gilded beauties with a rottenness inside that only a natural disaster can uncover.
The rains came down and the floods came up and the reality of our American depravity was exposed.
InterAction:
1 September 20052. Dad:
I see the corruption you are decrying every time I drive to work. Everyone who breaks the speed limit is living by the same philosophy. They drive fast when they don't think they will be caught. They do it because they want to and they can.
It seems like nothing to most people, but I often come home discouraged by it. It tells me that, generally, people are willing to do wrong to get what they want if they think they can get away with it. It says that doing wrong doesn't trouble them. And if they do get caught, their only concern is avoiding punishment. They are not bothered by, and perhaps not even aware of, the character their lifestyle reveals.
It's not hard to see why the Bible say that the last days will be dangerous times (2Tim 3).
1 September 20053. Dawn Byington:
but the thing is the media is portraying some things that aren't happening. I read on a news source that lot of the police, (a lot not all) who are viewed as looting are actually pulling out supplies and bringing them to disabled people or people who are stuck
it's a sad scene down there and it's going to spread across the nation. Gas gouging is immanent
the areas where gas will be scarce for a while will be dangerous.
it's seems too sureal
1 September 20054. Jesse:
Well, the speed limit is a bit of a different story, though it reveals much of the same problem. There is no moral law about speeding, it's a man-made law enforced by man. What I was really addressing were moral laws (stealing, murder, etc.) that are held in place only by social structures, and people who have no inward strength, but rest against these social structures. When the norms crumble, they fall into corruption. But the speed limit does demonstrate man's tendency to "push it".
Said Sean Hannity today, "I'm not really sure why, but devastation seems to bring out either the best or worst of people." Well, it doesn't really bring out anything, it removes social structures, and we see people for who they really are.
3 September 20055. Jon:
"I would gladly clamp the fetters around my ankles any day over the moral bankruptcy I saw footage of today." In France after the "glorious revolution" had gotten out of control, the people gladly accepted the tyranny of Napoleon because he brought some sense of morality to a nation that had lost it on their own. Fast forward - Iraq was a moral nation plummeting and they looked to a charismatic young leader to bring some kind of moral stability to a country long torn by ethnic violence. Years later, I would write these words loving in that country stopping the same violence that Saddam did. Think about that phrase man - the very reason there can be moral bankruptcy in America is because there is moral freedom. I would not clamp my feet in ANY fetters for anyone's morality. I would use my freedom to protect my family and seek to find ways to bring morality to places where there was not any. Over here I read much about people who are decrying the loss of morality in America - what were they trying to do before this happened? I was educating young minds so they would not be the ones looting. The question is not - "Why fight for democracy when the masses are in hysteria?" (What kind of defeatism is that - are we so lost we cannot be saved? Do we give up trying to save the world - perhaps it would just be best to have all the good, moral people hide in a hole somewhere and live in nice communes while the rest of the world goes to Hell.) No my friend, we have to fight for democracy BECAUSE the masses are in hysteria.
3 September 20056. Jesse:
Would you clamp the fetters around your own feet in exchange for your own individual morality? This essay was a comment on the American individual and the spiritual depravity that's ravaging our citizens like a plague.
The examples you mentioned were men clamping fetters around other's ankles, not their own; and my essay addressed the problem of social structures trying to enforce inner morality. No structure of man can rightly impose morality.
What I was calling for was individuals to impose upon themselves a strong sense of personal morality so when the social structure crumbles, men still do right.
But how can we expect a group of people who have lived their life expecting government handouts to act any differently than they do now?
3 September 20057. dramaturge:
Don't believe all the stories you are hearing about lotters. I don't have long to really comment, but pay attention--you'll notice that most of teh lotting, etc. footage that is being shown is the same stuff over and over. The majority of "looting" is for food and water, because there isn't any anywhere else. That what most of the police are "looting" also. Food and water. Furthermore, amongst the thousands that have been still there, the number of actually lawless people is minimal. Please, please, don't buy into the stories of riots and anarchy--it's a tremendous exaggeration of what a few, very few, wrongdoers are responsible for. The majority of these people are just trying to survive and help others around them survive.
3 September 20058. Jesse:
I watched video of hundreds of boats being held back by FEMA because rescue workers in boats were shot at. I saw a Chinook helicopter dumping supplies and rushing away because they were being fired at.
But that's just a small portion of the lawlessness that I'm addressing. Shooting an MP in the leg while wrestling for a gun is just one facet of a larger problem. The attitude that you deserve help right now, and that any delay is a spite on your citizenship is both selfish and frightening.
Perhaps this discussion should be saved for the time when the emotions subside. It's hard to talk about reactions in the midst of tragedy. But if I lost my home and family, my all, I would be devestated, but I would be more than willing to do anything it took to get back on my feet. I'd be ready to wash dishes for the rest of my life if that's what it meant. We can never decide what tragedy may plague us, but we can decide what to do with the tragedy we do face.
Here are just a small sampling of news articles that represent the impatient anger from those who have lost much of what matter to them:
"Many people didn't have the financial means to get out," said Alan LeBreton, 41, an apartment superintendent who lived on Biloxi, Mississippi's seaside road, now in ruins. "That's a crime and people are angry about it."
Police Capt. Ernie Demmo said a National Guard military policeman was shot in the leg as the two scuffled for the MP's rifle. The man was arrested. "These are good people. These are just scared people," Demmo said.
"I don't treat my dog like that," 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair. "I buried my dog." He added: "You can do everything for other countries but you can't do nothing for your own people. You can go overseas with the military but you can't get them down here." John Murray, 52, said: "It's like they're punishing us!"
In a sign of growing lawlessness, Tenet HealthCare Corp. asked authorities late Wednesday to help evacuate a fully functioning hospital in Gretna after a supply truck carrying food, water and medical supplies was held up at gunpoint.
The Biloxi Sun Herald newspaper said in an editorial emergency supplies "simply are not getting here fast enough" and asked "why hasn't every able-bodied member of the armed forces in South Mississippi been pressed into service?"
Kayne West: "George Bush doesn't care about black people" and said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."
Jesse Jackson: "How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and trapped in the suffering?"
5 September 20059. dramaturge:
I wasn't implying that there weren't bad things happening--there were. My problem is that the media is only showing that--and they are grossly exaggerating much of what happened. I can completely understand the anger people felt that help did not get there fast enough. That was shameful. These are poor people who couldn't afford to leave, and so they get stuck with the worst suffering. And these are particularly the people who have been robbed, by their own "leaders," of the self-preservation instinct--they have been told they deserve help, that poverty isn't there fauly, etc., so in this tragedy, they don't all have the drive to do for themselves. That is also shameful. Kayne WEst is an idiot. The black mayor of New Orleans and the black mayor of Baton Rouge have both publicly stated that this had nothing to do with race, everything to do with poverty. I didn't mean to seem over-emotional and condemning, I just have seen too much in this to believe half of what the national media is saying about the crisis. They used words like "choas" and "anarchy" while their own photographers were panning very orderly, seated crowds of people waiting. There all kinds of rumours on the news of fighting and rioting in the shelters in Baton Rouge--never happened. I'm just appealing for discernment. Yes, there is always a bad element, esp. when your mixing in addicts and dealers, but the majority of those people were not fighting, were not firing weapons, were not stealing goods (I'm not counting food and water) and it is just as shameful as the delay that the media has focused on that instead of on the people who are even now volunteering their time and boats to continue to search for people, on the people giving time and money to help the evacuees in shelters, of the people who helped each other and the infirm on to buses out of the city regardless of ethnicity. I just want people to take their news with a hefty grain of salt rather than settling for the cynical. That's all. And I know this is very close to home for me. . .very. Every day close to home. But I still think it's true.
6 September 200510. Dawn:
Dramaturge, thank you for your post (now I know you are ok)
I feel the same way, that these people have been robbed by their own government, of self preservation. These people did not get out of the way or their own way.
The other thing that irritated me and maybe you can shed some light on this for me, is the fact that the busses were running at full fee out of New Orleans before the hurricane, while they were telling everyone to get out. Why weren't these busses running for free to evacuate everyone?
I'm ashamed that help did not arrive quickly, but there must be a reason!
I'm so tired of the media and the things they blow out of proportion. I just pray that someone out there will dare to tell the truth
YourThoughts?
(Minutia)
This entry was written by Jesse on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 8:56 PM and appears in the America chapter. The previous article was entitled, "You Know You Want To Comment", and the next entry is called, "PlasticMario". Bookmark the permalink, save it to del.icio.us or Digg it.
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1 September 20051. xpressionccr:
"I'm certain that there are planks enough in the waters of New Orleans to pull one from our own eyes."
When will we learn?
One of the saddest bits of footage I saw was of police officers looting along side the others...May God revive us...we are SO lost.