Re-printed below in its entirety is a piece I ripped off from Black Commentator. It speaks for itself.
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The people of New Orleans have a right to return. It is not too early to say
so. In fact, it is imperative that we demand the Right of Return now, before the
circumstances of the displacement of this population create facts on the ground
that cannot be reversed. We have seen, elsewhere in the world, how those who
have been displaced are effectively shut out from returning to their origins,
and how quickly the public says, well, that’s just water under the bridge – or
over the levee. Others, newcomers, will benefit from the tragedy of the previous
population’s displacement. This cannot be allowed to occur in New Orleans.
Not only does the Black two-thirds of the city have the right to return, but
the federal government has an obligation to direct every resource to making it
possible and practical for them to return, and to live productive lives in the
city from which they were driven.
The circumstances of displacement are clear. The Bush regime set New Orleans
up for a fall, cutting back on funding for the levees in every year of George
Bush’s administration. The scenario for precisely the catastrophe that Hurricane
Katrina wrought was played out in a regional and federal computerized hurricane
war game, just last year, involving a hypothetical Hurricane called “Pam.” The
Bush men chose to ignore the data. In legal terms, they showed a depraved
indifference to human life – or worse.
After the deluge, this official depravity was compounded by the Bush men’s
indifference – or worse – to the plight of those who had no choice but to stay
in New Orleans. The facts of federal depravity are so manifest, there is no need
to elaborate in this commentary. But the New Orleans diaspora is spreading,
uncharted, with no paper trail, and only an ad hoc, improvised charitable money
trail. The displaced persons of New Orleans, like the Blanche DuBois character
in the Tennessee Williams play, “Streetcar Named Desire,” are now largely
dependent on “the kindness of strangers.” That is nothing to celebrate
about.
The people of New Orleans have the right to be made whole, again. They are
citizens, wounded by their own government. The rights of citizens cannot be
privatized, or churched-out, or Salvation-Armyed out. All help is appreciated,
but we must also focus on rights – the right to not be permanently displaced by
depraved government policies or the corporate greed that will certainly try to
swallow New Orleans whole – just as whole as did the waters of Lake
Pontchartrain.
Displacement based on race is a form of genocide, as recognized under the
Geneva Conventions. Destruction of a people’s culture, by official action or
depraved inaction, is an offense against humanity, under international law. New
Orleans – the whole city, and its people – is an indispensable component of
African American culture and history. It is clear that the displaced people of
New Orleans are being outsourced – to everywhere, and nowhere. They are not
nowhere people. They are citizens of the United States, which is obligated to
right the wrongs of the Bush regime, and it’s unnatural disaster. Charity is
fine. Rights are better. The people of New Orleans have the Right to Return – on
Uncle Sam’s tab. For Radio BC, I’m Glen Ford.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
In light of Hurricane Rita, perhaps it best they were not allowed to return. While I agree that I would want the right to go back in, there are other things to consider.
I enjoy your blog.
Public safety is one obvious concern, but the right of return is nevertheless important to advance for planning purposes. At least 20 families have found their way to my city, and while they are welcome here - indeed might find Madison congenial and prefer to stay, perhaps they have relatives here, or work, or simply would like to put the trauma of Katrina behind them - our responsibility to them as citizens, as displaced people, is to keep in mind that they may just as likely prefer to return to their homes or their home place. Our responsibility in fact goes one step further, because just as we opened our homes in the emergency, it’s not over until we’ve helped the people made homeless by the storm to be again at home.
I’m glad you enjoy my blog!
Foolish, idealist babbling.
What’s happened is that several of the blacks from New Orleans have found a new start in other communities, where most of the people are white. We have, in effect, an integration, of black and white. Would we rather return to grouping all the poor and the black into one community, surrounded by water, susceptible to whim and with no hope. Is this what you all want returned?
I agree that any who wish to return should have the opportunity — but not to the way it was. There needs to be more white integration in New Orleans, as other white communities need black integration. And for those who return, they need something to come back to.
We do not need these isolated pockets of race and economic class again–pushed out of mind, and forgotten once the rhetoric has died down.
Shelley, I think your concern is with the poverty and racism, and not with the sense of place, the sense of home, that roots many of us to a particular location. To the extent that the dislocation results in a cultural enrichment for other places, and economic opportunity follows for those uprooted, well… that is certainly not a bad thing. But to the extent that those pushed out by circumstances are not permitted to return due to the exigencies of some kind of urban renewal, well… that is what we should be prepared to encounter and to correct. And the planning must start now.