Breakdown
There are growing incidents of New Orleans evacuees coming into conflict with their new surroundings. The most noted at this time include students transfered to new schools; typically high school and college males.
As we've discussed before, there are core differences between 9/11 and Katrina, things that we must seek to understand in order to heal from Katrina [and 9/11!]. These are not absolutes. The effect of Katrina, the true devastation, came from the lack of any effort during the aftermath. The utter break down of an American City came as a shock to us all, and we watched it all unfold, piece after piece crumbling before our eyes. The city fell into chaos as each staple of a society unfolded. First, the storm, then the flood, then power, sewer, food, water, and finally, in the end, law, morals, order, peace, hope. All broke apart.
And so we can't be surprised that such conflicts come when evacuees move between communities, seeking some place to settle.
In Houston, a high school has had huge fights and problems with evacuees and locals, possibly from rival gangs. In Boston, two New Orleans evac'd students studying at Boston University because of the flood were stabbed in an argument.
This post certainly isn't intended to place blame- those who are responsible [in Houston, surely students from New Orleans are involved negatively; in Boston the students from New Orleans were clear victims] must be held accountable to their actions in these situations. But we also must seek to understand it. When an entire society rips at the seams like we witnessed in New Orleans, the effects will be drastic and far reaching. To some extent, this country has become psychologically scarred; Katrina was both the memory of an impoverished, racially charged past resurging from the depths, and a new problem of empathy and political accountability bubbling up into the consciousness.
This problem will have huge effects. The South East Asian tsunami, as massive as it was, had an inevitability to it. There is little that humanity can do with such horrifying scale.
But in New Orleans, the failures were in the aftermath: society crumbled in New Orleans because we sat idly by and let it do so. We spoke of values of compassion and acted upon values of indifference. That is the pain that will endure in this country for years.
As we've discussed before, there are core differences between 9/11 and Katrina, things that we must seek to understand in order to heal from Katrina [and 9/11!]. These are not absolutes. The effect of Katrina, the true devastation, came from the lack of any effort during the aftermath. The utter break down of an American City came as a shock to us all, and we watched it all unfold, piece after piece crumbling before our eyes. The city fell into chaos as each staple of a society unfolded. First, the storm, then the flood, then power, sewer, food, water, and finally, in the end, law, morals, order, peace, hope. All broke apart.
And so we can't be surprised that such conflicts come when evacuees move between communities, seeking some place to settle.
In Houston, a high school has had huge fights and problems with evacuees and locals, possibly from rival gangs. In Boston, two New Orleans evac'd students studying at Boston University because of the flood were stabbed in an argument.
This post certainly isn't intended to place blame- those who are responsible [in Houston, surely students from New Orleans are involved negatively; in Boston the students from New Orleans were clear victims] must be held accountable to their actions in these situations. But we also must seek to understand it. When an entire society rips at the seams like we witnessed in New Orleans, the effects will be drastic and far reaching. To some extent, this country has become psychologically scarred; Katrina was both the memory of an impoverished, racially charged past resurging from the depths, and a new problem of empathy and political accountability bubbling up into the consciousness.
This problem will have huge effects. The South East Asian tsunami, as massive as it was, had an inevitability to it. There is little that humanity can do with such horrifying scale.
But in New Orleans, the failures were in the aftermath: society crumbled in New Orleans because we sat idly by and let it do so. We spoke of values of compassion and acted upon values of indifference. That is the pain that will endure in this country for years.
posted by General Stan at 12:26 AM
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