Envision all the souls lost in huge New Orleans jazz funeral. I try, but I can't. The corporate media is saying hundreds dead. Even a fool can see that the losses will be counted in the thousands. This will eclipse 9/11 in death toll. What follows is a very personal integration of many elements that evidence the disintegration of our once great country.
I started out this year in what now seems to have been a prophetic manner. As 2005 unfolded I planned a trip back to my childhood hometown on the way to D.C. to participate in the "counter-inaugural." I wanted to hold the hand of and say good-bye to my brother who was dying. And I wanted to protest the austentacious imperial inauguration that blatantly mocked the working masses and the gaping distance between the haves and have nots in this country.
My brother was dying far earlier than he should have largely because our country has no reasonable health care system. When he retired he had to give up his reasonable health care "insurance" and lost access to the physician who had found other cancers extremely early on and removed the small bits of the type of slow metastisizing cancer that my brother developed. After he retired (in his 50s) he had to change physicians. The new physician wouldn't authorize the frequent monitoring he needed. The next cancer that developed was not caught until after massive metasticization occured.
I now have a memory that makes me weep with its recall. My tall, blue-eyed, ever kind and gentle fisherman/hunter brother was sitting in a recliner next to the hospital bed in the make-shift bedroom that had been set-up in the first floor living room of this home. He could no longer get to his bedroom on the second floor. He was wrapped in a heavy comforter, hands swollen, flesh loose from the rapid loss of weight, and his eyes no longer blue, just hollow and very, very weary. During that last conversation in which I could look into his eyes, I told him I wanted to stay with him and not go on to the protests. His demeanor changed and he quite determinedly told me to go and continue the fight. Then he smiled at me. I was to continue to fight the ever increasing injustice in this country -- for him.
So I continued on to D.C. to lend support to CODEPINK events and actions. I was at the "Halibacon" action outside the Boots and Black Tie ball where the exceptionally mega-wealthy celebrated and hurled some of the most condescending comments at us that truly let anyone present see just how much contempt these robber-barons have for the serfs". I ended up having a sash put on me at the CODEPINK rally and I helped out with the March by keeping the folks within the permitted area and the flow moving peacefully and properly, and by dispensing information... while Medea and Diane and Jodie and a few others got into the inauguration to remind the world that there is resistance to the corporate coupe that has stolen control of our democracy.
But now, in retrospect, what I look back on is the ironic "theme" of the march. It was New Orleans-style Funeral lead by jazz musicians. We greeted the year and mourned the death of Democracy in an eerily prophetic way.
The situation seems surreal. The europeans must be laughing their asses off at us for our stupidity. I can hear the more cynical of them telling us, this is what you asked for by allowing your country to be taken over by corporate thugs in 2000, and then by believing the propaganda spewed from the media controlled by a fascistic australian who came into power because of the repeal of media ownership laws by his friend Ronald Reagan. And you know what? They have a very stong case. We have allowed the richest corporate "lords" to dismantle the few social programs that protected the poor and looked out for the common good.
From my perspective and understanding, the last few days are a model of what we can unfortunately expect to be a regular occurance as the rich run and hide and the rest of us face the consequences of global waarming, wars for profit, and massive disreguard for sanctity of life.
We know a storm that is on par with the four worst hurricanes in history is headed toward a heavily populated area. What do our leaders do in this situation? Well King George the Yellow continued on with business as usual. He travels to Phoenix for a canned program to a small and carefully selected "stepford" audience. Then he moves on to do the same in San Diego and in an unreal "let them eat cake" moment actually partakes of a celebratory party fundraiser the Hotel Del Coronado that is eerily reminiscent of another Oceanfront community that is dying as the party rages on.
This same man is the one who sent our homeland security forces overseas to fight a war to gain control over the oil reserves (finally he is beginning to admit that oil is the reason we are occupying Iraq) his buddies need to insure their continued rape and pillage of our economy and resources before the environmental collapse begins. Well it is already happening and these purported leaders criminally continue to refuse to acknowledge global warming and continue to CUT funding to essential domestic programs. The environmental collapse is happening. Those of us who live in the "liberal" world near academia have been screaming about the inevitable andrapidly approaching environmental devastation. The government refused to acknowledge this.
Calls are issued for mandatory evacuation, but no assistance is offered to those too poor to drive or fly themselves out or even to afford a hotel room while evacuated. The poor are left to drown. Where were the freight trains and cargo carriers turned into human transsport? Why are the halved guard troops only now being activated. Why was our government sleeping at the wheel? They were not sleeping, they'd jumped out of this unstoppable vehicle a couple of streets back.
This is what communities can expect to experience when weather diasters become common occurance and our largely dismantled social support system fails in the near future.
In spite of the bleakness of our situation, we can build peace. We must build peace. We must establish the human to human links that are our support structure and the reason we have been such a successful species up until this time. We must bring our troops home. We must have at least one-half of our leadership roles filled by women. We must stop war-profiteeering and disaster-profiteering (carpet-bagging). We must build a human governance based in cooperation not competition.
May the Goddess bless the souls of all those who are dying on the Gulf Coast to teach us these lessons. And may the whole U.S. begin to hear truth and hope in the voice of those leaving Crawford today as they make their way in three caravans across the country to the three days of action to Bring the Troops Home Now! in D.C. on Sept. 24, 25, 26.
Namaste and Blessed be.
Hurricane Katrina
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References:
Site that shows the economic and cultural makeup of the areas of New Orleans that were hardest hit and other pertinent info can be found at:http://www.gnocdc.org
President's absenteeism before this year is discussed.
Global warming and emergent weather patterns.
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