Thank you Leslie for this Epic Poem. I am feeling lots of anger with our government today--New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen. The government knew of this powerful storm coming in days before it hit, and many warnings were given in previous years that such a storm of this magnitude would break the levees unless they were shored up. Human destruction of the wetlands and marshes also added to flooding, as these natural areas could have helped absorb some of the water from the storms and lessened the strain on the levees. I agree with you, to blame Mother Nature for the devastation is ludicrous. This was a man-made disaster in the making, secondary to negligence on the part of our own government and habitat destruction.

When you look at the photos of the poor in New Orleans who are stuck at the Superdome, you see mostly African-American faces. The question keeps rising in me, unbidden--I don't want to think it, but I can't help wondering if this lack of government action to problems long known, and the slow pace of rescue efforts is somehow linked to institutional racism.

I think some of the violence that the "rescuees" are showing the "rescuers" i.e. sniper fire against ambulances and rescue helicopters --could be partly due to this rage, anger, boiling over from the poor, mostly people-of-color towards the system of government that has favored the elite, wealthy, white man for all of our country's history. How much have we in this country really helped the poor people of color in this country? How much has really changed in the past 120 years since the Civil War? the past 40 years since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and the Watts Riots in Los Angeles?

Anyone else feel this way? I welcome all comments, no matter how angry.

Love,
Liora Leah