The incredible and sickening event that has transpired in New Orleans since the Hurricane makes me wonder what has become of our nation. The oldest, sickest, poorest and most helpless people, predominately black and poor, are left behind to drown and die in the streets while CNN and Fox News helicopter overhead.

From the bully pulpits of the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal the call for “ORDER!” and “SHOOT TO KILL!” goes out as if it were a priority to stop looting at Wal Mart and Walgreens. In a city where storm surges have washed over the walls and inundated homes and businesses, and bleeding ,injured, hungry and thirsty souls must walk and crawl through water to reach another Hell called the Superdome, these Republicans stanchions of law and order lecture their fellow humans on self control!

Never before in the history of the United States or indeed the entire world, has a flood ravaged city descended into the very depths of depravity and cruelty that was almost entirely preventable. Where are the planes that airlifted supplies behind the Berlin Wall in 1948? Where are the satellite phones to hook up communications? Where are the boats, the inflatable rafts, the cruise ships that could dock close enough to New Orleans and provide potable drinking water and sanctuary for the desperate multitudes? What happened to our Army, National Guard, legions of volunteers, the churches that dot the South? Where are the computers, the amphibious vehicles, the portable toilets? Who spent billions starting a war when our own cities stood on the brink of catastrophe? Can someone direct and lead this land and urban jungle out of the sea of misery?

Around the globe, other nations stand and watch in disbelief. Poor Sri Lanka, itself a vicitm of a tsunami only six months ago, is ready to send men and dollars! One woman there remarked that “not one tourist was mugged after the tsunami!” Russia, a country of peasants and paupers, donates supplies! Uncle Sam carries a tin can and accepts European gasoline, so we can still drive our Hummers on the cheap (!) but most ashamedly cannot hide the grotesque and inhumane behavior of both the American government and the victims inside New Orleans.

What will happen in a few months when the quarter of a million poor, old and abused Negroes are still sitting in Houston’s Astrodome? Who wants these people? Will temporary shelters be erected on the outskirts of New Orleans? Who will feed them? Will they riot and destroy themselves as we neglect them yet again?

Oh, what a mighty cry of anger and righteousness is needed right now as American sees its ugly face reflected in the suffering of its poorest and most injured people!