A Minor Inconvenience with a major disaster

“Carmel Cappuccino extra caramel”

“Turn the AC up it’s a bit warm in here”

“I can’t believe I’ve been waiting in line for five minutes to buy groceries, this is an outrage!”

“Can you believe those thugs and criminals in New Orleans stealing and looting, they should be all locked up!!”

Such is a life of a suburban soldier, fighting traffic and wondering how they will be able to travel for their weekend getaway with gas being at an all time record and all. How easy it is to pass judgment when we are sitting in the lap of luxury? This outrage that is displayed daily on the news about the looters and “those people”, it revels the pure malevolent thoughts that those who are the haves hold over those who are the have nots. Further more, the ghost that haunts this country since its inception continues unabated. Don’t think for a second that racism is not involved in the tragedy in New Orleans. The constant images of a black youth taking a television-a television that is no longer useful to the person taking it nor the store where it belongs-draws more ire than the fact that people have been left to fend for themselves. Those who were elected to keep law and order long ago left before the first drop of rain, and yet they want to be indignant when they see the lawlessness they left behind.
There are thousands of people starving, dehydrating, dying; and yet for the past two days all that we have been bombarded with are images of black folks “looting”. Do you blame them, the forgotten masses, abandoned to survive as best they could, when they lash out? There are thousands upon thousands of people who were not able to evacuate New Orleans, so without other options they stayed and prayed for the mercy of God since the mercy of their elected officials was nowhere to be found. They survived, now they beg for the mercy of a nation and we instead flash daily images of looting, as if the material wealth of a city is more important than the human catastrophe unfolding before our very eyes. Four days since the hurricane passed, and people are still stranded by the thousands to sleep in the streets, to “loot” for precious water and food, babies left to survive in the heat of the south, old folks dying where they sit, and parents helpless to do much.
What would you do if faced with all this, would you be civilized, and would you be lawful where the law failed you? You, the same person who is ready to “kill someone” just because someone has 16 items in the fast lane. You wonder why there are so many black folks running around “looting” in New Orleans, when you should be wondering why there are so many black folks left behind in New Orleans. The greatest nation in the world, able to move mountains, unable or unwilling to move those trapped in a hell begotten city. The president reassures us that everything will be ok while he flies over the city in his air conditioned Air Force One a thousand feet in air; unable to see the human faces and feel the hearts of grieving parents, husband, wives and relatives. If you really think about it, that is the real tragedy of this story. But wait, no time for that, hey forgot to put extra caramel in your cappuccino!