POST-HURRICANE POEM
As Orwell said, “some people are more equal
than others”.
Kanye West found that out when NBC censored him
for speaking the “inappropriate” truth about
George W. Bush not caring about black people.
He found it out again when he performed a song
at another telethon and the microphone just happened
to malfunction for part of the first verse.
The people of New
Orleans found that out when they
were left to fend for themselves for days,
in overcrowded shelters and praying to God that someone
would take them off the roofs of their flooded homes
before death arrived.
Those of us watching TV at home have found out
that hard-news lapdog Ted Koppel was willing
to put just about all of the blame for Louisiana’s misery on the Governor
and the New Orleans mayor and let
the White House skate away
from the emasculation
of FEMA and the cutting of funds to strengthen the levees.
But Ted got to be embedded with the troops in Iraq-
and he can’t dare be rude to the White House
and lose Access to power.
We’re also finding out that a state with a Republican
governor
-my former home state of Texas-
doesn’t have difficulty getting a more rapid
Federal response to hurricane threats.
Of course we can’t risk losing the refineries.
The refineries are important;
all the rest is merely collateral damage.
And we’re now finding out that the people from Houston
and the rest of South Texas
that can afford to drive are
coming home to check on their property-defying a
“voluntary” order to return in orderly fashion.
Presumably, Federal troops won’t make them return
to their previous temporary residences.
Last of all, we found out that some moral cretin
I won’t name here credited God with clearing what he
termed undesirable people from New Orleans.
Perhaps he wants New
Orleans to be rebuilt
as a gentrified theme park with the poor replaced by
grossly underpaid guest workers from Mexico
on 6-month-only work visas
and no African Americans
unless they’re people like Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Larry
Elder or Allen Keyes-
people who are eager to distance themselves from the poor
and suffering and say that the misery of the Underclass
is the sole fault of the Underclass.
Some people ARE more equal than others.
And global warming will be an important part
of the New World Order
determining who will live and who will die.
