Looters, rapists, corpses, and gangs armed with stolen guns.
Nothing but chaos and lawlessness. It isn’t Iraq, and it
isn’t a third-world refugee camp. It’s America. For
those of you complaining about paying $3 a gallon for gasoline, I
would hold my tongue because thousands of other fellow human beings
are in disarray because of Hurricane Katrina.
It is discomforting and heartbreaking to see how much the
situation in New Orleans, a city America was once proud to display
as the city of jazz, degraded to a place of bedlam and death. If
you imagined yourself in that situation, would you be stealing
seven pairs of jeans from the local store because you could? Would
you be shooting with a stolen firearm at helicopters, threatening
them to take you instead of the bedridden, dying hospital patients
they were transporting?
I think all of us would like to think that if we were in that
situation, we would behave appropriately. Like human beings. But
maybe we would act exactly like people in New Orleans. Like human
beings. Maybe that is what we really are, deep down, mob mentality
and all. As one of the victims articulated, “We are out here
like pure animals,” in the Associated Press article,
“New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes.”
It is a little unsettling to see that civility is thrown out the
window once disaster introduces desperation and survival into play,
but it’s true.
Moreover, the world watched us crumble, not from a direct
terrorist attack, but a natural-turned-manmade disaster.
International headlines described the Katrina aftermath turmoil as
“apocalypse” and “anarchy.” Has humanity
forgotten what it is like to be humane? Or should the definition of
humane be changed to a characterization of crudity and
corruption?
Granted, this disaster has seen some merits. Not all of the
looters were stealing for the sake of stealing material
possessions. In addition, some of the people who stayed to wait the
storm out remained to help with the rescue efforts of the
aftermath.
Katrina has even transformed news reporting from showboating to
serious media coverage as reporters have begun to watch their words
regarding racial and class bias and have shown better, accurate
representations of people who were only taking necessities in
moderation, such as food and clothes.
Here in Los Angeles, we are very far from the disaster zone, but
that doesn’t give us the freedom to move on with our lives
and ignore the mayhem of our fellow Americans. Our hearts should
reflect the grief and misfortune the victims experience so that we
can understand and empathize. We have no right to pass it off as
another random event of history because it could be us one day.
We have seen how New Orleans has dealt with this tragedy, and we
should learn from the messages it sends us about preparation,
anticipation and reaction. But also, there is the lesson about
humanity. So when an 8.5 earthquake hits California resulting in
destruction and disorder, what will the headlines say about our
actions?
Lin is a fourth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular
genetics student.