Looking at the images of an entire corner of our nation laying wasted, the numb, sobering reality sets in... New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, and countless other communities are missing.
Although some may think it inappropriate to dedicate an entire commentary to something that is not POW-MIA related, the truth is it is inappropriate NOT to comment. And it is very closely related... but not in the manner you may think.
People are missing. Entire families missing. Entire communities are missing. And now, entire cities are as well.
In New Orleans alone, as many as 50,000 people are unaccounted-for... stranded and waiting to be rescued; or casualties of the storm, floods, time and predators - human and animal alike; or lost in a diaspora of citizen evacuees strewn about the South like the tempest tossed boats, roofs and debris laying about wrecked counties and parishes.
Countless other communities dig through the wreckage searching for their missing as well.
Eventually, the numbers will be too grim to bear.
But something else is missing and it is not something that disappeared when Katrina showed up on our shores.
That something is responsibility and accountability. Something we in the POW-MIA issue have seen in very short supply all these many years. It is a chronic, pervasive problem that gets much lip-service, but very little meaningful action.
From our local, state and federal officials - elected, appointed and disappointing. From our own communities and in our lives we see and hear the endless parroting of 'we should do something' but little if anything being done.
Yes, many, if not most of us have taken a higher road in the purpose of our lives. We donate, volunteer, and champion those who need champions. We open our hearts and our wallets. Many of us have dedicated our lives to helping others and making a difference. And a difference we do make.
But too many, way too many, of those who are vested with the job, the obligation and duty, to make a difference, serve and protect, have clearly failed in some of the most basic tasks. The events of the past week have simply magnified and brought into focus those failings.
From the first news reports of the complete and utter devastation that we would witness this week we heard the first utterances of those officials... and what did they immediately say? It was someone else's fault. Their very first words were those of who was to blame... and it was always someone else.
I have heard more about who SHOULD have done what, when, where and how than I can digest. I have NOT heard anyone, anywhere, say 'we screwed up' 'we are sorry' or 'we should have, could have done better.'
It's like my Nanny used to say, "Everyone wants to be in charge, but no one wants to be responsible."
Amen.
For too many it is too little, too late. They are beyond our reach now, beyond any worldly cares. All we can do is gather them up, identify them and return them to whatever remaining family they have for a proper burial.
But, for the majority, those tired, huddled, homeless masses crammed into make-shift shelters, sports arenas, churches, community centers and lean-tos constructed from salvaged flotsam and jetsam, the requirement of our nation and its leaders to finally be responsible and accountable is just beginning.
As of today, we have close to 1 million new homeless folks. Washed away with the storm and floodwaters was their past. Whether or not they have a future or whether or not they remain lost in America is something that we, each and everyone of us from the kids collecting coins on the corner for relief right on up to diplomats and heads of state and agencies are to determine.
I DO NOT care who did not do what. I DO care who now does what.
New Orleans is gone. It is buried beneath billions of gallons of water and toxic sludge. A once vibrant, glorious American city is now the nation's largest sewer. I cannot, no one can, undo that. Biloxi is a barren, windswept landfill. Mobile is submerged, drowned. Harsh? No. Because buildings and streets do not make cities. People make cities. And the people of these tortured places are alive. Alive within them is their culture and the essence of what made New Orleans, New Orleans and Mobile, Mobile and Biloxi, Biloxi. They will make those cities come alive in time.
People like us will also make those cities come alive again.
But in that process - recovering, reclaiming and rebuilding - what will our leaders do? Will they be responsible and accountable? Or will they rush to get the job done on time or on budget, rather than right? Will they have learned the brutal lessons of this catastrophe or will they move on to a feel good campaign designed to lift the spirits of a heartbroken nation and make everything 'look' like it's on the right path to restoration? Will they waste millions of taxpayer dollars with endless Hearings and Investigations for the sheer benefit of placing blame and playing partisan politics? There is enough blame to go around the world a hundred times over right now. Across every inch of those thousand miles of misery in the Gulf we can write a name to blame. And in the end, what purpose does it serve? What does it change?
Nothing.
Albert Camus wrote, "Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day." For a lot of folks in power that judgment day came roaring in with 145 mph winds.
George Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." That past is yesterday, and the day before, when we saw what happens when we and those who we appoint and anoint are unable and unprepared to cope with overwhelming calamity.
A hurricane, inept and inefficient city planning and funding, and incompetent leadership combined, did what no terrorist was able to do - destroy an American city. If we learn ANYTHING from this ongoing tragedy it should be that this was our dress rehearsal for the future. Be it Nature made, man or terrorist made, the reality is that we, all of us, are just as vulnerable as the poorest people of the Gulf Coast, regardless of our per capita income, the stability of our dwellings and whether or not we live above or below sea level and can afford to buy a plane ticket out of town.
The immediate needs of this nation are self-evident... we must heal and house those 1.4 million people whose lives, families and communities have been washed or blown away. The long-term needs of all of the 298 million in this country must be realized as well.
New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile and the other communities must be rebuilt. In the process we must also rebuild our confidence, faith and trust in those that govern and guide. We must KNOW that much was learned from this neverending lesson in pain and that responsibility and accountability will be words that everyone in public service and policy understands and is willing and up to the task of showing.
And not just in city planning, catastrophic response and humanitarian aid. It is something that must be visible in every aspect of government from the local dog catcher to the state assemblyman on up to the President and his serviant agencies. It is not just responsibility and accountability with respect to Hurricane Katrina and flooding and the War in Iraq and Troop strength and deployment of National Guardsmen. It is in every issue, every event that affects this great Nation. Medicare, Education, Immigration, Health Care and yes, the POW-MIA issue.
In the end, the most important element for us, as voters, taxpayers and citizens is we must be assured that as of this day forward, we all remember what that thousand miles of misery in the Gulf looks like and do everything in our power to insure it remains a memory and not a glimpse of things to come.
May God Bless America and her People, especially throughout the South.
May God Bless Our Troops both at home and abroad.
May God Bless our Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, and Those Who Wait.
Andi
AII POW-MIA