Sometimes, journalism consists of "discovering" things that everybody knows -- at least, everybody in the affected area -- but that have slipped off the national radar screen. Such is the case with a remarkable three-part series this week in -- wait for it -- the Washington Times.
Yes, the paper owned by you-know-who has reported on one of the two long-running crises in New Orleans that have been ignored by the national media since so-called Katrina fatigue set in: the mental health crisis among the city's population. (The other long-running crisis, in affordable rental housing after the flood damaged or destroyed 80,000 units, remains undiscovered by outsiders.)
The Times stories focus on all the salient points of the mental health mess: the long-term depression of many Katrina survivors, the degree to which the crime rate is swelled by mentally-disturbed people acting out, the heroic efforts of police crisis units and volunteer organizations to find and help people who can't seek out help themselves, and the increasing disparity between the need and the resources available for care and help.
All this is welcome, if overdue, and admirable.
And yet...Even from three reporters who've been in New Orleans for weeks researching these articles there is a remarkable lapse: a failure to explain why the disaster happened, why the city was inundated. Instead, in addition to the numerous references to "Katrina's floodwaters", there is, in the series' second article, this strangely bland sentence:
"City, state and federal agencies have pointed fingers at one another for four years, seeking to lay blame for the failure of the levees that allowed the floodwaters to wash over the city."
In two words, not true. The United States Army Corps of Engineers, in its June, 2006 IPET report, acknowledged what had already been amply documented in the ILIT and Team Louisiana reports, namely, that Katrina was not a natural disaster in New Orleans (as it was on the Gulf Coast), but rather a massive, catastrophic failure of poorly designed and constructed levees and floodwalls -- a project under the supervision and control of the ACE. Odd that a paper in Washington, home of the Corps, would choose to ignore, and obscure, these facts.
Do we have to wait four more years for a non-New Orleans newspaper to discover them?
What the city, state and feds have been fighting about, in fact, has been the fate of downtown's large and iconic Charity Hospital, flooded but (according to doctors who worked there) not destroyed. Closed since the flood, it's been the subject of a tug of war between LSU, which ran the Charity Hospital system and which desires to build a new hospital in a new location, and FEMA, which has resisted paying the tab for the replacement. (And the Bush Administration actively sought the closing of hospitals like Charity, part of a "two-tier" system that specifically served the working poor and indigent -- for ideoglogical reasons) Charity, many knowledgeable people report, could be reopened more cheaply than the cost of the new hospital LSU wants. While this fight goes on, the folks once served by Charity (including the mentally ill) go ill- or un-served.
And the Obama Administration's response to all this? Are those crickets I hear?
Yes, I know, he's "only been in office six months." And, of course, the presidency gets less complicated as you go along, doesn't it?
Thursday August 06, 2009, 6:38 PM
Haven't taken the time to really digest what it says or understand what it hopes to accomplish. Thought you might be interested in reading it.
The one thing I will comment on is that according to doctors and nurses who remained in New Orleans post-Katrina, there was no substantial damage to the infrastructure of Charity Hospital. Without a doubt, it's an old facility that is in desperate need of renovation. But from it's my understanding that hospital staff took the initiative to thoroughly clean and sanitize the first floor of Charity. It was up and running, not to full capacity, but it would have enabled them to begin seeing low-income patients who needed medical care.
However, when they went back to continue their cleaning efforts they found the doors CHAINED.
They were able to gain access and once inside they saw that the place had been trashed, with sinks and toilets filled with debris and overflowing.
At the time, hospital staff DID NOT believe it was the random act of vandals but the actions of individuals who wanted Charity to be shut down so that a new facility could be constructed. Incidentally, the time frame in which this occurred also coincided with the closing of approximately 3-4 local hospitals throughout New Orleans. Curious, isn't it?
You posted way down there somewhere, that despite its relative high elevation, the 9th Ward is not coming back like it really should for several reasons, one of them being the prohibitive cost of rebuilt and new structure elevation requirements.
I fully support elevation requirements----I'd like to see ALL rebuilt and new structures elevated at least above the Katrina flood level. What I also support is federal assistance to elevate those structures, regardless of who owns them. After the structure is rehabbed or rebuilt, let whomever lived in the home before Katrina have first dibs on renting it before opening it up to allcomers.
I can't help but think the rebuilding & elevating & repatriating of what was once a vibrant, historically significant bastion of black/creole middle class could do wonders for the city's mental state.
I thought I'd remembered something about this pre-Civil War black NO history, and I look forward to investigating it further. Thanks again!
"let your affairs to be dealt with" ?????? We wish we had a choice. We are required by the US Congress to depend on the USACE for flood protection, inadequate as it may be.
Release us from USACE dependence and let us keep our oil and gas rents and royalties from off our coast and we will rebuild our storm buffer wetlands and build great storm surge flood protection without any help from any of the other 49 states.
I have been following this series as well, but more from the perspective of WTF?
They continued to slog the Lie that "Katrina-did-it".
But then, as the series progressed, the comments started to really grate on yer'oh'so humble Editilla's Toof.
I found each of these articles garrulously slanted and even a tad Yankee racist in their framing of New Orleans Mental Illness Post Federal Flood (PFF).
They opened with The Lie.
This was a piece of subtle misinformation, black marketing.
The more I read these articles the more I resent them.
It is a Quiet Lie that New Orleans is Hopeless.
It is a Quiet Lie that we should not have flooded.
It is a Quiet Lie that we are beyond recovery because we were crazy in the first place to live here.
It is a Quiet Lie that what befell New Orleans was something most Americans can get their mind around.
It was not... something to "get over". The only way Editilla has found to try that about the Flood, is with this Ladder and the Hand of the Goddess who takes care of Fools and Errant Troubadours. Yeah, I went pretty batshit crazy too.
But, what is the rest of America's Excuse? I was there.
What say da'Jury? Here come da'Judge!
I can forgive God for raping Mary, but I Will Never Forget the Crucifixion of New Orleans by the Exquisite Corps of Engineers.
Sinn Féin New Orleans!
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
Anyone who returned to New Orleans Post-K suffered from some form of depression. How could anyone not have been depressed living in trailers next to our destroyed homes, or standing in lines for hours just to get groceries, or smelling the stench of the discarded refrigerators? Not one of my friends returned to New Orleans. The blue-tarp roofs, the empty lots, the school system in disarry, jobs cut because businesses left, sky rocketing prices of everything - how could anyone not be depressed? My depression lasted for years - even though I was functional and able to take care of my family.
I know we aren't the only area in the US to be hit with devastation. Those who have been blessed without this type of tragedy should be emphathic to our situation. Many wonderful people outside of New Orleans have been super supportive, and we thank you, but those that aren't supportive really don't understand this type of pain, and have been vocal about it.
Mr. Shearer, I truly appreciate you for keeping our plight on the front burner. With so much going on, it would be easy to forget about us. But you don't. You keep fighting for us, and I am so grateful for you! Thank you so much!
He didn't mind weighing in on the professor Gates controversy. Sacrificed his entire health care reform message that week, to wade into that morass.
How many white (I'm white by the way) insurance, Wall Street, banking industy and police department folks does he have to appease, before "nervous white people" get it that he's not Al Sharpton?
If Obama's letting a major city flounder (after it was practically destroyed by Federal incompetence) because he's afraid voters might see funding that city's recovery as "a black thing," then he's behaving criminally.
People come to this blog to brag that THEY would never live in a "dangerous" area, and (not the least bit subtly) imply that the folks of NO "deserve" their misery.
What kind of people have we become?
Those who love to smugly taunt, "fix NO yourselves. Quit expecting a handout." obviously never bothered to read the stories of those volunteers wading into hell, trying to help those poor people cast aside by our wealth obsessed society of ME.
"Get over it! Sh*t happens. Get a job. Let them eat cake!"
What kind of people are we now? What do we value as a society?
Corporations send busses filled with poor, angry and ignorant people, to disrupt the democratic process. An angry mob of ederly people on Medicare, either paid or brainwashed into screaming against "socialized" health care reform.
Health care reform that the nation desperately needs, and which is particularly needed in NO.
And our president? He's been pretty much absent on his cornerstone campaign issue of health care reform, so I guess NO getting lost in the shuffle of billionaire bailouts shouldn't be too surprising.
I just wish Rod Serling was still alive, so he could explain this Twilight Zone episode to me.
However a huge portion of NO's problems stem from the interpersonal conditions that its residents must endure. I've lived in all of Louisiana's major cities and have heard the same story multiple times. New Orleans evacuees flooded into town and brought along senseless gang violence (continuing to battle between residents from different zip codes), theft, and armed robbery.
Living in this sick culture of violence has to take its toll. I know people who never carried guns before now arming themselves. The roots of this disorder pre-date Katrina.
Part of the problems you mention are a chicken-egg thing. Racial strife, low education levels and poverty contribute to the self-perpetuating cycle of the people electing and re-electing substandard public servants from that area, and poor public representation leads to inattention to public infrastructural issues at all levels, with deadly consequences. However, even if their local, state, and federal elected officials were all of the highest caliber, I'm not sure N.O.'s challenges could or should attempt to be met without significant federal involvement.
Yes, I've lived around LA, too, including New Orleans. There has long been a pushiness, an "I'm gonna tread on you before you even think about treading on me" , kind of "gotcha" attitude among some N.O. residents that I personally find offensive. Perhaps it does help pave the way for real violence, but perhaps if there had ever been adequate mental health facilities and public infrastructure, it would be less so.
The opposite side of the coin is the GENERATIONS of black families who have championed the cause of post-secondary education for themselves, and their children. Example: Xavier University, was founded by "St. Katharine Drexel of Philadelphia and her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious community dedicated to the education of African Americans and Native Americans, established Xavier as a high school in 1915. The four-year college program was added in 1925. Today Xavier retains its distinction as the only historically Black, Catholic University in the Western Hemisphere."
There are large segments of the black population who are hard-working and decent people. They contribute much to the state of Louisiana, and could be considered middle- and high income, owning homes and businesses. This self-sufficiency dates back to the early 1900s. My grandparents, both paternal and maternal, are included in this segment of the population.
It's easier to feed into the perception that everyone in Louisiana is poorly educated and sitting around waiting for 'government handouts' though. This gives folks a convenient target to take their frustrations out on.
And while it's true that many in the community are scared to cooperate with the police because retaliation for doing so often meets them on their doorsteps shortly afterward, many communities are fighting back by organizing neighborhood watch groups. Yet, despite their efforts they usually encounter fierce resistance, indifference, and a general lack of cooperation from NOPD. I don't understand why this occurs.
As it stands, residents of New Orleans are catching it from all sides: the criminal element, judges who impose light sentences, if any at all, and a police department which fails to do follow-up on cases to ensure a conviction. Perhaps if the criminal justice system in New Orleans was not broken, dysfunctional, and basically ineffective, then its citizens would have a better quality of life. Unfortunately, that won't happen until this major problem is resolved.
I was there for the flood but left for much of the recovery because I flat lost it.
Since then, I cut my teeth on this very blog. As a form of Anger Management, I became somewhat of a Nolatroll Stomper. Then I started my own blog to have New Orleans on this very long road home.
I still eat the enemies of New Orleans for breakfast, but had laid off these general American Thugs to focus more on the local Corps Astro-turfer Spin'filtraitors who continue to plague the New Orleans media. And, my anger at American Denial has grown. Because the story has become clearer, due in no small measure to our Herolero Harry Shearer no lie.
But it was when I spotted the comment CrescentCityRay that I lost it all over again.
Comment #6: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/05/clash-of-solutions-from-powers-that-be/comments/
With thanks to Charlotte.
Harry has read some of my anger here. It is hard to explain. Ray does a fine job of it. Better than I can. Hell, I'm lucky to be alive.
Thanks for keeping it all On Point, Harry. Really.
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
I got clotheslined by the health care system when I came down with ankylosing spondylitis in 2001. I've been in continuous agonizing pain ever since... but the HARD part, was the way health professionals treated me, because of insurance.
I've lost faith in humanity. Our doctors conspire with insurance companies, to get richer, by torturing and killing people. And many of my fellow Americans WANT IT TO BE THAT WAY. They KNOW what that means: they think poor people deserve to suffer. It makes MY NEIGHBORS happy, that people they think are inferior to them, are suffering and dying.
It doesn't happen to me often: but how many times would YOU have to be verbally assaulted by a stranger, ranting that you ought to leave the country or die because your expensive illness is paid for by his taxes, before you decide to just avoid people? I have a lot of trouble even trusting my wife.
I wish I could afford to leave the country, and move somewhere "socialist," where, I assume, people actually know how to care about each other, still. Here, they not only don't know how to care; they're PROUD of that.
Oh. Never mind.
You are dead on regarding this issue - keep up the good work!
Those wishing to learn should Google "Flood Control Act of 1965" and "ILIT Berkeley" and read what they find.
Most of the ignorance routinely displayed here would be alleviated.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/interactives/post-katrina-mental-health-woes/