A Moment Of Reflection...

Above is a picture of hurricane Katrina as the outer bands made landfall. When this photo was taken no one knew the devastation that was to follow in Katrina's wake.

One of the troubling things about this is it was not the first time African Americans were left in the lurch following a natural disaster. In what is referred to as The Great Mississippi flood of 1927, almost the identical thing happened. As the Mississippi River flooded it's banks in 1927, Whites evacuated and the mostly poor African Americans who lived in the area were left behind.

As with Katrina, huge numbers of African Americans were moved into "refugee" camps, where the suffering was as it was in the aftermath of Katrina. The person in charge of rescue and relief efforts was a man who would later become President of The United States, Herbert Hoover. At the time the press presented Hoover as a hero for the handling of relief efforts with regard to African Americans. It was after his election that reports of the true suffering emerged. It seems that Mr Hoover conspired to keep the real story of the devastation of the African American population quiet by making promises to make changes for African Americans. He didn't keep those promises.

So we see that African Americans being left to suffer during times of natural disaster is not unique to hurricane Katrina. And the media painting a distorted picture of the disaster and the suffering is nothing new either. That's the trouble with history, as soon as you forget it, it repeats itself.

Let's not Forget hurricane Katrina, let's not forget the suffering, otherwise...