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September 2, 2005

New Orleans is drowning and I live by the river...

Tonight I was dragged out of the house by the family, to go to the Millenium Center to go bowling and skating. It offered a distraction. I tried to have fun.

Katrina has put me off my bowling game though. The first game Gina almost beat me...while she bowled left-handed because her right hand still has a tae kwon do contusion injury.

My second game, which I played myself, I bowled a 48.

Yes, a 48. I bowled six gutter balls in my first four frames. I still had a score of 0 as I started my third frame. Highly embarrassing.

In the car, we alternated between listening to the Clash (by request of the kids), and listening to WWL. 870 AM out of New Orleans comes in pretty clear in Austin at night, when AM stations carry the farthest.

I kept skipping songs on London Calling because they reminded Gina and me of the disaster.

"Cause London is drowning and I live by the river..."

Tonight two guys from Washington Parish were on WWL talking to Garland Robinette. Washington Parish hasn't been on the news at all. Nobody thought to check up there. FEMA and the Red Cross both didn't even know Washington Parish existed.

Apparently there are 45,000 people in Washington Parish with no food or water. Nobody checked on them. FEMA said they send help wherever it is requested. But Washington Parish had no way to communicate. These two officials had to drive to Baton Rouge to ask for help. They haven't gotten any yet.

"I'm all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily..."

I have heard news from Louisiana that is more than rumor, but not confirmable enough to post. But I believe...I don't want to believe, but I believe, I fear...that the number of dead in New Orleans is expected to number in the tens of thousands. Numbers to rival Nagasaki.

"The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you..."

The Millennium Center is on the east side of Austin. Many African-Americans skate there, bowl there, have birthday parties there.

For the past week, I have seen hundreds, thousands of black faces on my TV. The abandoned, the angry, the despairing, sick, dying, and dead. And I see these beautiful black kids skating around in Austin and I smile, it feels good...and then I get unbidden flashes in my mind of dead black children floating in the flooded streets.

I feel this horror coming and I'm not ready for it.

Listen to WWL. They're screaming over there. They think the world has abandoned them. Not just the ones at the Dome, or the convention center. The local media. The local leaders. Hardened journalists. Garland Robinette has been on the air in New Orleans as long as I've been alive. He was the anchor man on the 6 O'Clock news on Channel 4 for decades. And he's in tears on the radio.

They are dying. We're letting the most beautiful people in the world die in the streets like dogs.

I can't bear it.

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me

Did you stand by me
No, not at all

Now I got a job
But it don't pay
I need new clothes
I need somewhere to stay
But without all these things I can do
But without your love I won't make it through

But you don't understand my point of view
I suppose there's nothing I can do

You must explain why this must be
Did you lie when you spoke to me?

Did you stand by me
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way
Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way

Posted by ray at September 2, 2005 10:46 PM |
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Comments

When I was a kid, I once bowled a 1.

Posted by: Brett at September 3, 2005 12:08 AM

This morning, I stopped at HEB on my way into work and bought some groceries to contribute to the food drive. It's funny, the things that act as emotional triggers. Until this morning, I was kind of stunned by the enormity of what has happened to New Orleans. I understood it, I felt it in a distant way, but it hadn't "struck" yet, the way other disasters have.

But while I was shopping, and as I nodded hello to literally DOZENS of other folks that were all buying EXACTLY the same things as me --- bottled water, tuna fish, granola bars, diapers, and so on -- it started to sink in, finally. I felt so proud of the other folks there, stopping first thing in the morning to buy some stuff, to help out, and I was proud of HEB because every single item I bought had been put on sale for this food drive to make peope's charitable contributions go further. And I felt proud of myself, got this big old lump in my throat, for participating.

And then I went outside to put the food and whatnot in the boxes to be packed into the trucks, and I saw just HOW MUCH stuff there was. More peanut butter and tuna fish and bottled water than I've ever seen, in a single place, in my life. And once again I felt proud of my community.

And then it occurred to me that all of it was desperately needed, and all of it, this entire truckload, wasn't nearly enough.

I barely made it to my car before I started just plain ... trembling. The enormity, the reality of this disaster just sort of collapsed in on me. This is so completely terrible, and the scale of it is so large, I'm just starting to grasp it.

Posted by: Gregg P. at September 3, 2005 3:30 AM

The strange circles we all move in. Hear I am searching for a Tae Kown Doe school for my son come summer, I and stumble in here.

Posted by: Markus at January 9, 2006 8:04 PM

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