The Re-Opening Of New Orleans

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THE RE-OPENING OF NEW ORLEANS

The realities behind the headlines' happy ending

By Melinda Barton | RAW STORY COLUMNIST

A single human life isn’t worth much when compared to cold, hard cash. Not in this country anyway. If every difficult experience has a lesson behind it, this is the lesson behind the government’s and Red Cross’s response to Hurricane Katrina and its victims.

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After being promised so much for the last few weeks, I’ve learned that all I’m getting is the shaft. Monday, just two weeks after the “perfect” storm ravaged New Orleans, my area of the city is set to reopen. Problem is, for me at least, it’s not physically or psychologically safe to return.

You’ve all seen the pictures of the devastation: contaminated flood waters, the mosquito swarms taking over the city, bodies everywhere. And you’ve probably heard about the aftermath: the contamination, the black mold, the E. coli, etc. ad infinitum. Yet, now Mayor Ray Nagin, who made us so proud with his challenges to the state and federal government, is reopening a city not yet declared safe…especially for people like me.

I’m severely allergic to black mold for starters. Since I now have a heart condition, antihistamines are out of the question. Then, there’s the PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, once limited to war veterans and abuse survivors, reached out for those of us who witnessed the horrors and the aftermath of 9/11.

I was there. I’ve seen it all before. I have had enough of death and destruction for one lifetime. I can’t bear to see my city like that right now. A mental health worker here at the evacuation shelter has said it may be months before I’m psychologically ready to return.

But they’re reopening my neighborhood and if my building’s still standing, I’ll be obligated to uphold my lease or pay it off. FEMA and the Red Cross will offer me no further assistance, or so I’ve been told. How do I begin again in an environment that’s physically and psychologically dangerous for me? In a place where I have no job anymore and probably won’t for a very long time?

Obviously the government and other aid agencies will have no sympathy. The reopening of New Orleans so soon isn’t about lives, it’s about money. They’ve done it before.

Remember 9/11? Remember how they reopened downtown Manhattan only weeks after that disaster? Do you remember the EPA’s admission months later that the air downtown was toxic and that they’d withheld vital information on orders from the Bush administration? Remember how they exhorted us to live our normal routines, to reclaim our lives from the terrorists through the shopping malls and the stock market?

It’s all about the cash. To get the money flowing again through the Big Easy, governmental officials on all levels are willing to expose tens of thousands of people to untold dangers. For those who have liquid assets to spare, there is the freedom of choice. For those of us that don’t, there are few if any options. They’re not going to come and physically force us to return to the city. But the refusal of assistance in relocating to a safer, saner place will have the same effect. The money must flow. If the blood must flow as well, what concern is it of theirs? This is the price of living in the United States.

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