Almost every day, another "can you top this" story comes out about the neglect or victimization of people flooded out of their homes by Hurricane Katrina. A few days ago, we had a story about hospital patients being given fatal doses of morphine because there was no way that they could be moved. It was a story that the Bushites, who never miss a media opportunity to tell us how "pro-life" they are, would prefer that we forget about very quickly.
Well, the dead tell no tales. However, I read a horror story today in the Seattle Times that was told by people who are very much alive.
The story I saw was originally published in the Washington City Paper, A Bridge Too Far, written by Jason Cherkis and Erik Wemple. It's about a first hand account from Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, a couple of emergency medical workers and amateur journalists from San Francisco, who happened to be in New Orleans for a conference when the hurricane hit.
Their account, The real heroes and sheroes of New Orleans, was published in the Socialist Worker. Their story is that they and 500 other people pooled their money to hire ten buses. The buses never showed up. A police commander told them that they should walk to the New Orleans Bridge, which crosses into the suburb of Gretna. When they got to the bridge, it was blocked by armed sheriffs, who fired over the heads of the refugees. When the sheriffs were asked why they did this, the response (according to Bradshaw and Slonsky) was, "the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans, and there would be no Superdomes in their city. These were code words for: if you are poor and Black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River, and you are not getting out of New Orleans."
You can help Hurricane Katrina victims by contributing to the United Negro College Fund.
