Over the last few days, I have really tried to refrain from writing about Katrina and her aftermath. Other people are saying what I would say and saying more eloquently. And, quite honestly, I've needed a break. But a conversation I had with the Grill Master has been simmering in the back of the brain and I need to get it out.
We have been appalled by the looters. Not the people who have been taking the food and goods they need to survive but the looters. I have been appalled myself. And yet, as I sat on the deck, warm and safe and dry with a fabulous dinner being prepared inside by the Divine M and spoke with the Grill Master, I got to thinking...
You have lost everything. Everything. There is nothing left but the wet, filthy clothes on your back and your crying baby or your eldery mother. You are wading through water up to your chest with your child on your back because the water is too high for him to walk. You have walked away from your dog knowing she will probably drown because your child is more important to you. You have no idea where your sister and her children are, or if they are even alive. Maybe you have a garbage bag of belongings floating out in front of you. You are heading to the Convention Center because, although it's in squalor, there is no where else to go. And, there, in a window are diamonds. A $10,000 necklace. A $5000 bracelet. A couple pair of earrings that would go for $500 a pop.
No one is looking because they are all in their own, personal struggles and too preoccupied with their own shattered lives to notice you. Or no one is looking because there is no one left to look.
In a day or a week or a month you are going to have to start over. From what? With what? When there is nothing, how do you even begin to start over? And who's to say those aren't great-grandmama's jewels? Who's to say they haven't been in the family for years and have just been too treasured to sell, even when times got a little tough? You've got a child on your back and all that is standing between you and having something to start over with is a thin plate of glass.
Or there is no child ~ and you've still lost everything.
I'm 35, no kids, and there is nothing because the flood waters took it? And there is a something. Right there. Behind a thin piece of glass. There is tomorrow. There is a glimmer of hope when I've lost everything else.
Honestly, I think I might just break that glass. Shove those jewels deep in my pockets where they would be harder for someone else to find and keep wading. I don't know. I might not. I might trust my friends and family and God and just keep on keeping on until I was out. The point is...I don't know.
Some of the looters were out of control and using the chaos as a cover for violence and crime. I have no doubt. But some of them...I'm more willing to give the benefit of the doubt than I was. Walk a mile in my shoes and all that. It's something to think about anyway. And something I hope I never have to truly learn.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
6 comments:
If I have lost everything material I've ever owned, and was struggling to find my family, the last thing I can ever imagine myself doing is victimizing my neighbors even further. I'm not saying I wouldn't take food, water, medicine...I think I would. But in the midst of a flood, where nothing is left, there is no electricity or water, to take a big screen tv just because you can isn't merely struggling for survival. Raping my neighbors isn't struggling for survival. Stock-piling weapons and taking over wings of the convention center, murdering the police to keep them from stopping you isn't struggling for survival. It is evil, and beyond excuse. To excuse the behavior by saying that they couldn't help it because they are poor and destitute is the same thing as saying that every poor person can aspire to be nothing more than a thug and a muderer. To capitalize on the misfortune of your neighbors is disgusting at best, but I think it's plain old evil.
Losing my possessions could not make me capable of becoming something I'm not. I'm not a criminal, I don't hurt people because I can, I could never rape or murder someone for financial gain. New Orleans has historically been one of the most violent cities in the country, with the murder rate only being surpassed recently by Camden, NJ. The group of people who would commit these crimes are the very people who held entire neighborhoods hostage with their violence, preying on the good people in their midst. I think that by giving them the benefit of the doubt, you are romanticizing the reality. Many of the victims were poor, yes, but poor isn't synonymous with criminal. To say that they couldn't help it because of the poverty etc., is an insult to those who had very little and didn't turn to crime and violence as a means of getting a little something for themselves. I'ts not a Robin Hood scenario. There were those who were violent and horrible before the storm, and they took full advantage of it, at the expense of others who also lost everything.
Just my opinion.
And I pray, pray, pray that I would do ~ or not do ~ everything you just said. I just don't know. I would like to Think I wouldn't. And, just to be clear, there was nothing in the blog about what the person had to start with. There was no comment on the being poor and destitute beforehand. That was intentional. This is not a statement about race or poverty. Just a realization that I have never been in that situation and, while I would like to think that I would not break the glass, as I did not take the $310, I just don't know. And I learned a long time ago not to say "never."
Do you have any idea how grateful I am for these conversations?
Well, thank you, Ms. Pobble. Not everyone is interested in my opinion these days. I, too, enjoy these conversations.
I didn't mean to imply that race has anything to do with this behavior, because I don't believe it does. And I know that you didn't mention either race or social status, but quite frankly, poverty was wide-spread in that community, and one of the journalists I was listening to on NPR said that while he was in the convention center, it was the "have nots" who were preying on the "haves." That was my own interjection in the conversation, partially because I sat in my car for 10 minutes after arriving home yesterday to hear the whole interview...it was so interesting. If you were capable of breaking the glass to steal a necklace, you'd have kept the $310. No one knew you'd found it, and you couldn't be accused of stealing it. So without potential repercussions other than your own sense of morality, you still chose to do the "right" thing. Breaking the glass becomes a felony. Rape and murder become evil. I just don't see you crossing that line when you didn't do it without fear of prosecution. Make sense?
i wrote about this somewhere, but i can't remember where.
here's the way i see it. we have a culture that values people for the amount of stuff they have. if you have just lost the little that you had and then there is everything you always wanted... like it or not, most people would do similar.
I really don't think MOST people would do similarly. Most people are good, law-abiding people, who wouldn't see fit to victimize other people who had also lost everything. Just my opinion.
This is a great post, because it really does make one think. I remember telling my peers at work that if I were in New Orleans during this devastation, I would have gladly given the food up to those who needed it and hit the wonderful art galleries on Royal Street. But then again, where would I put those paintings? Of course I was looking for reaction and needless to say, I got some nasty ones (justifyably)! What continues to bother me is some of the damage done by the looters.... it's ok to take the food, but do you have to destroy the store? I also believe that some refused to evacuate for the specific purpose of looting. Maybe not that many, but enough to make some major news coverage. I'm a frequent traveller to New Orleans. I've known the poverty, some of my friends live it; I've also seen the enormous wealth. (staggering) I honestly don't think much will change. There will be great oportunities to train in jobs and earn some excellent money. They're already paying $125.00 per day to help pick up debris. Black, white or green, those who want to work will, those who don't... will continue to take.
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