40 acres, a Mule, and Other Fables of the Reconstruction

Donna Brazille just doesn’t get it. Apparently, Karl Rove doesn’t either. But the rest of us sure do. Bush’s polls fell after his prime time speech last week for good reason. A whole lot of Southerners tuned in to hear what he had to say. And a whole lot of us couldn’t believe our ears. First off, the word “reconstruction” doesn’t set too well with folks in this part of the country. Bush threw it around like a kid with a hand grenade, demonstrating how out of touch he and his administration are with the people they supposedly serve. Down here, reconstruction stirs up unpleasant memories of a raped and pillaged and burned South, descended upon by carpet bagging masses like vultures. It means Yankees making big money off of a land laid waste and a people without hope, not unlike Halliburton today. It means a lot of focus on property and greed and profit over attendance to the needs of people. And that’s exactly what we would have liked to hear in his speech: less talk about the economics of recovery and more about what to do for a million folks who have been unleashed in this country with nothing at all left.

Maybe we’re lucky he didn’t talk about how to help the folks any more than he did. Because when he did unveil his plan, we could see how misguided he really is. He promised an “urban homesteading act”, where folks made homeless by this event in New Orleans could lay claim to federal land parcels and rebuild. Black folks have heard this talk before in this country and are still waiting for reparations now. 40 Acres and a mule is not going to get them out of this mess. Maybe that’s why only 43% of those polled said they would come back to New Orleans.

Whether they decide to go “home” or not, Bush assured us that they would all be out of shelters by mid October and made good on his promise: within hours, the Houston Astrodome had been all but emptied-- leaving many to wonder, where did all those people go?

But why worry our pretty little heads about housing? All those folks will be eligible for $5,000 to get training and education for a “good job”, promised Bush. He made similar promises during his last campaign circuit, and as usual, I am reminded of the thousands of folks out of work in this part of the country, not simply due to lack of education, but because of down-sizing and out-sourcing. In this country, education no longer means you get to work.

Across the country eyebrows raised at the price tags GWB slapped on this disaster, like the one above. And Southern Democrats and Republicans alike share one value for certain: fiscal conservatism. Where exactly does he think the billions of dollars needed to deal with the damage will come from, especially since we are in a costly war abroad? We’re already bleeding our budget dry overseas for Mideast democracy and freedom. How are we supposed to rebuild an area the size of Great Britain? Mr. President, this ain’t a handful of buildings in New York City and we’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t recycle your speeches and high-flown rhetoric.

Speaking of New York and 911, which this administration loves to do, the first we southerners have heard about a number to call to locate lost relatives in this mess was during Bush’s speech last Thursday, three weeks after the actual disaster. The contrast to 911 is remarkable, when, within hours a similar number flashed along the bottom of the television screen on any station one cared to watch. His recitation of the toll free number last Thursday was so bizarre and surreal as to be almost laughable, if the circumstances weren’t so tragic, reminiscent of infomercials and Saturday Night Live skits.

Maybe even stranger was his promise that in the future, we’ll just let the armed forces handle disaster. Terrific. Since our president doesn’t read the newspaper or watch television, he probably isn’t aware that 300 members of the National Guard were present in the convention center, where the worst of the New Orleans debacle took place. Those folks are actually trained in disaster response and they barricaded themselves away from the crowd and hid. I can’t imagine that a national military, with no training in disaster relief could have handled the job better. Let them eat guns, says our fearless leader. We’ve got news for you, George: munitions are not the answer to starving masses; food and water is all that is required.

If only this had been a normal hurricane, than normal disaster relief would have worked, Bush reminded us in his speech. Ah, but that is precisely the point. Disasters are by nature abnormal. Yet on this president’s watch they have become almost expected.