orichalcum

Thinking about the 5-10-15 meme, and times of changes.

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It's pretty cool, come to think of it, that two of the people reading this were my friends 15 years ago, and came to my 13th birthday party. Thank you - you're still amazingly neat folks. And thanks for helping me get through 1990 - I doubt I knew how to express my gratitude well at the time.

OTOH, it's 2 AM, I have boxes to pack still before I can sleep, A's collapsed and gone to bed, and I have to get up in 5 hours because the movers arrive at 9 AM, supposedly.

On the other hand, I'm not in New Orleans, where armed thugs have taken over the New Orleans convention center, the secondary shelter for people still in the city, and so far repelled 88 armed cops, and are freely raping and assaulting people in surrounding neighborhoods. The Governor of Louisiana's response is to send in 300 National Guard troops from Alabama "with F-15s locked and loaded." I'm not saying I have a better solution at the moment, but this is going to get very ugly very quickly.

Meanwhile, the Astrodome in Houston is full and turning away refugees, and people are still showing up at the Superdome in New Orleans, where some people haven't had _water_ for four days and there are apparently dead bodies all over the place.

I can't help but be reminded of the immense contrast with New York City four years ago. We had no warning whatsoever, obviously, and yet - we had more emergency supplies and medical attention than we knew what to do with, everyone helped each other, and Giuliani, bless him for once, brought leadership and guidance to the city in its time of need. Yes, the catastrophe was more isolated, but still - they predicted riots, and food looting, and so forth - and it didn't happen. I never loved New York City more than on September 12th, 2001.

The press is starting to note that some of this chaos and horror may lie at the doorsteps of two things - the massive restructuring and underfunding of FEMA in the last 2 years, including reduction in levee funding for New Orleans, and the simple lack of National Guard troops to do what they've normally done in times of natural disaster - move in and _stop_ this sort of thing peacefully by sheer numbers. I'm terrified that the paltry number of troops being sent to New Orleans will have to use their weapons - precisely because they can't establish order by their simple presence.

But some of the difference between NYC and New Orleans may be a matter of who's being affected, as well. September 11th killed people from all walks of New York society - dish-washers and investment bankers, and we all hung together. New Orleans was abandoned to the people too poor to get out, mostly, and what has seemed to happen over the last 48 hours was a lack of concerted effort to help them in the needed ways. And for people who may never have been able to buyt into society in the first place, it's all too easy in the absence of government, and in desperate need, to resort to extreme measures.

I don't know what the long-term political effects will be. Right now, I just pray that New Orleans can be a city again.