Healing the Body Politic, One Commission at a Time

Republicans aren't the only ones who push aside the Geneva conventions for political expediency. Democrats did so for the last two years, opting to wait out the Bush administration before engaging them on their crimes against humanity.

I held my breath, hoping that this bargain would be short-lived. Once we had the presidency again we could spend our national energies pursuing truth as much as we did prosperity.

Time to breathe deeply. Yes, this Obama Healing feels so good. But to keep it going, we will need constant doses of truth. Truth about the present. Truth about the past. President-elect Obama has promised that he won't lie about national problems. I hope this promise extends to recent events, too. The body politic is pocked with so many festering wounds that it's a miracle we haven't all died of infection.

So please, bring on the commissions! We need blue-ribbon commissions devoted to assembling and studying the best information possible about our past crises, including the Katrina catastrophe (for more information on the proposed 8/29 commission, click on www.levees.org). Documentaries and investigative reports shine the light. But they are not enough. Crises of this scope need the power and interest of bi-partisan fact-finders, capable of producing information that all sides can know and respect as true. This is the path necessary for the reconciliation that a "no red states and no blue states" Obama has promised to push us towards.

This is a delicate and dangerous undertaking. The questions of liability and blame loom large, and many rightly fear having official fingers pointed their way. Let sleeping dogs lay, warn some. But if we do so, how do we explain to generations to come that we were just too tired, or too afraid, to talk about what went wrong? Given what we've witnessed of Obama's even-handedness, his desire to have all sides heard and his push for conciliation, opponents should feel reassured that such commissions would not lead to blood-thirsty beheadings.

The fact is, we may never get the courtroom justice so many of us desire. The President-Elect only has so much political capital, and has so much reforming to do. But we can pursue facts. The simple act of truth-telling can help heal the aggrieved--and help the rest of us learn from the mistakes.

Without trusted fact-finders, we get trapped inside our competing narratives. Too many people still look to 24 for their understanding of the effectiveness of torture. Too many people still believe that on August 29th, 2005, the levees were purposefully blown up by explosives. Until we can get our facts straight, we will perpetuate our worst beliefs about each other. Until we honor and admit previous hurts against each other, the spiral will only keep rushing downwards.

We need blue-ribbon commissions to push us to consider the best information available, so that we move out of our comfort zones and resist the urge to accept only information that reinforces our previously held views. Done right, commissions can bring us closer to the reconciliation necessary to heal the body politic.

For without truth, pain flourishes and can harden into a hate that begets the worst violence. We must do our part, at every level, to be open to truth, even if it hurts. I'm looking to our new government to lead the way.

Comments

[2desire]

The US Army Corps of Engineers needs to be held accountable for the massive Levee failures in New Orleans. Support the 8/29 commission!

[AkinRat]

Great article! We desperately need an 8/29 Commission. To this day I am still dealing with the bureaucracy of the government on a personal level. Just the other day I had to fax a letter to the Small Business Administration (SBA) - one that they "unknowingly" mailed to me (to the wrong address originally... the letter was over a month old once I finally got it....). I'm afraid of what we'll have to go through here in Georgia where I now live... Severe drought conditions have plagued the state, water resources are getting less and less, and we went for over 2 weeks endlessly looking for gas throughout metro Atlanta area at prices over $4.29/gallon.

I wonder to what natural disaster I'll move next?

[beignet]

Levees are not one dimensional. There needs to be a recognition that this "issue" is not restricted to New Orleans and there are matters of national and international importance that need to be addressed fully and properly. This was sidestepped by the Bush Administration and its handlers as a regional issue when it clearly is not and its importance on the country and our foreign policy and culture also remain largely in how we deal with this for today and future generations.

[zulut]

"...delicate and dangerous..." -- delicate indeed. Dangerous? Hmm. What's the worst that can happen? Divide us even more than we are already? Is that even possible? (I suppose it is.)

I like the idea of pursuing the facts as a focus rather than "courtroom justice". We need serious revamping of our institutions on a scale I don't think most Americans understand.

Case in point: Katrina. Do enough people know the on-going catastrophe there? How the Corps has behaved and is behaving? If you hired a contractor that did and does what the Corps is doing, you'd have them in court after firing them -- no home owner would put up with that crap, let alone hire them again.

Or the FDA. Or the FAA ignoring the NTSB. Etc.

We can't fix anything without the facts. I'd like to see more commissions than you can shake a stick at, with understanding as the focus.

"Done right, commissions ... reconciliation ... heal the body politic"... yeah, ok, go for it, SA pulled it off once I think, but it's hard to say if they (the Congress) can really do that. Remember Kathy Lee and Honduras? Congressional inquiries turned out to be a joke.

One big problem: we haven't had the press helping much (or any) in the last 20 years.

Like Fox Mulder, I want to believe, but I'll have to see the evidence to dash well-earned cynicism.

Meanwhile, let's push. What have we got to lose?

[FreeSpirit04]

Great article, Stacy! Issues like these are so important, especially the 8/29 commission. A world renowned levee expert (Gerald Galloway) said recently that there are two types of levees in the U.S. - those that have overtopped and those that will. We need to make decision that protect citizens not governmetn croonies!

[Nolalover]

President Elect Obama has promised to address the failing infrastructure in the US ASAP. There is no better place to start than the flood protection system in NOLA. The Crescent City requires working pumps to be installed immediately and also ALL of the 10 foot pilings in the Levees to be replaced with 17 foot pilings. After this is done, they must address the erosion of the delta and wetland habitats. To quote Barack, "YES WE CAN"!

[peady57]

THE COE MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[holidayk8]

President-elect Obama is dedicated to renewing the aging infrastructure of our country. I think the levees fall under this directive. Not only for New Orleans and Galveston, but cities like Sacramento that have miles of old and crumbling levees. We know the Corps of Engineers will likely be given this job, but first, they must be held accountable for the devastation of the city of New Orleans. PLEASE convene the 8/29 commission to look into what happened.

[NewOrleansParent]

Thanks Stacey - great article, right on the money. Bring on the 8/29 commission and hold the USACE accountable for their gross negligence. Levee failures are not a local New Orleans issue, they're a national scandal and the Corps is fully culpable.

[joetruck]

There is MUCH that could easily be called criminal activity within the Army Corps of Engineers, ESPECIALLY since the criminal Bush Gang took over. There has been so much death and destruction caused by the Corps, that I HOPE upon dashed hope that they will be investigated by some sort SOMEONE and held to account for all the dead bodies.

[peterrabbit]

I certainly hope President-Elect Obama does something about this. What people don't realize is that just about every county in America has some danger of the same exact thing happening there. As long as the Army Corps are allowed to investigate themselves, you will always be in danger.

[Kodjo]

So far the Army Corps of Engineers has essentially investigated itself. They've conclude that they're largely not to blame, but there are plenty of others who are.

But the Army Corps of Engineers was solely responsible for the planning, engineering, building and maintenance of the levees & the failure of those levees was catastrophic & systemic.

Only an independent inquiry can make clear what really happened so we can undertake reform that will prevent similar catastrophic failure in the future.

[EzKing76]

In many ways, the 8/29 Comission would be to the Corps advantage, especially given the alternative venue for setting the record straight: the court system.

If the lawsuits continue (and they will until the victims receive fair and just compensation), then the American people will get the facts through subpeonaed documents and emails, whistleblowers, and technical experts as presented by high-paid lawyers with big budgets. It could prove to very embarassing and costly for the Corps.

In contrast, with a comission the agenda, the evidence, and the questions are set by the appointed members of the comission. Unlike the lawyers, they are not out to get the other side, the "badguys". Rather they are focused on obtaining a balanced presentation of the facts and on lesson learned that allow us to move forward. I think that this process will be much kinder to the Corps. Instead of the American people further losing confidence in the Corps, the Corps may actually earn some confidence back.

I also think that once the "8/29 Commission" is complete, Congress will quickly agree to fair and just compensation for damage that resutled from the engineering failures. In exchange, I think that the class action lawsuit for $1 trillion dollars may be dropped.

[laurensx]

I believe we sometimes forget that we have a Democratic government. For this government to work, its citizens must raise their voices and demand change. Look what happened during this last election! Americans must become determined to hold their leaders and those who work for us, accountable for their actions, as we pay their salaries with our taxes. The failure of the levees nearly flooded an entire US city, displaced an entire culture of people, and plunged remaining New Orleanians into financial turmoil. The Army Corps of Engineers were well aware that the levees were in trouble. My mother, who passed away a month ago, repeatedly contacted officials, to express her concerns over the canal nearest her home. What do you know.... that was one of the canals that flooded Gentilly. I say it's time for Americans to lift their voices, pick up a pen, compose an email and whatever else is necessary, to let our voices be heard and to take back our government!

[gildareed]

If we as a nation do not hold accountable our erring officials then leaders who follow will think they have permission to act likewise. Power corrupts and cannot be allowed to run amok. This fear-mongering administration has shredded parts of the Constitution selling their craft and masking the damage as protection from terrorism. They cannot be allowed to get away with it in the interest of preventing divisiveness.
The Army Corps of Engineers must also be held accountable for the engineering disaster that drowned New Orleans. This was not a natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina barely glanced us. The federal disaster of complicit insensitivity, blame shifting and criminal incompetence followed to complete the rape. Where is justice hiding? What is to prevent similar atrocities from happening to millions of others "protected" by faulty levees? Bring on the 8/29 commission investigation! 3 years and 3 months later and nothing yet--unbelievable!