Friday, August 31, 2007

Katrina

While it's tempting to look at the world through a distanced and critical eye, it is when the individual stories are digested and imprinted on to the consciousness that one can truly begin to understand a situation. The anniversary of Hurricane Katrina came and went this week and this particular story about the Danziger Bridge killings, posted on Democracy Now, encapsulated the mind-blowing injustice that occurred after the disaster. I can look at the events on the bridge critically and say, "This is the result of racism and classism-this is what the police do when the overarching mandate is to protect private property." But I cannot help but think of the true implications of those moments on the Danzinger bridge as a terrified forty year old man attempted to escape the rising floodwaters only to end up shot in the back by the cops. One second running and the next lying in a pool of his own blood like Alice drowning in her own salty tears.