Sometimes I look at the statistics of visitors to this site, and wonder who these folks are. What do they think, in Holland, Sweden, Bahrain, Tasmania, the UK…or in Ohio, California, and Idaho?
Many of these anonymous visitors come and go without a ripple, but often they come again – and then again. Are they worried, too, about what’s going on in Louisiana? When they read my blog, can they feel my growing sadness?
Do they sense the despair?
It’s been over three months since Katrina blew in and the levees failed. 98 days. An eternity of anguish manifesting in hundreds of posts and thousands of words. Tell me, anonymous readers: do you see anything rising from the ruins of New Orleans yet? Can you give me some hope? Because I badly need some.
Every day that passes is another mark of betrayal and forgotten promises – to Americans by Americans. Something very ugly was exposed by Katrina, and it’s so much bigger than it seemed initially.
The Republicans don’t trust the Democrats (and vice versa). The Blacks don’t trust the Whites (and vice versa). The North doesn’t trust the South (and vice versa). The Governor doesn’t even trust the Mayor! (and vice versa…) And apparently nobody trusts New Orleans or Louisiana.
Taken individually, none of those is a terminal illness – but the hurricanes and flooding did more than shatter homes and lives. They took all of those toxic and carefully avoided distrusts and dropped them into a cauldron, heated them to a rolling boil, and spewed them into our faces.
We’re so broken. The United States? What a sad joke.
Talk to me, Ukraine and Japan, Washington and New York. Are you laughing? Or crying…