Opinion Article Example

Southern

Discomfort

Eda Obey

Opinions

Editor

l Obey is a senior English/journalism major

Hurricane Katrina has reaffirmed my faith that

Americans are good people. It has also illuminated

our government’s criminal neglect of the poor and

infirm.

My Aunt Sherry owns a dog farm in Lumberton,

Miss., near New Orleans. The storm ripped up trees

and destroyed homes around her. She took refuge in

her neighbor’s house while the storm raged over her

trailer.

My family is dramatic and fractious on a good day,

but they came together immediately when they realized

Aunt Sherry was in danger. Everyone pitched in

to buy a satellite phone, they

found a generator so she could

have power and they bought dog

food and food-safe 55-gallon

drums to fill with water. They

loaded the supplies into Aunt

Priscilla’s GMC Sierra truck and

threw a huge tarp on the rolling

care-package.

My cousin, Tom, traversed

highways littered with debris and

braved back-road detours to bring

these supplies to Aunt Sherry in

the decimated Deep South.

Everyone was worried that he would be carjacked.

He later called to report cars bearing supplies picking

their way through the devastation to find their

families and bring help. Tom had to wait two hours in

line for gas in Vicksburg, Miss. He heard all the major

highways south of I-20 were closed. The man in line

ahead of him had just left Lumberton, Miss. to come

get gasoline and told him the back roads to get there.

On the way, people piled out of their cars at each

obstruction in the road to work together to clear a

path. He arrived that evening, Aug. 30: a two-hour

journey had taken eight. He knocked on the neighbor’s

door. Aunt Sherry heard his voice and ran into

the entry hall, crying. She said, “I knew you would

find me.”

This is the best of America. Our solidarity in dark

times has proved to be our greatest attribute. This

sense of unity filled us all as the news of New Orleans

became the constantly morphing portrait of human

suffering. We turned to our government like a child

turns to a parent with arms outstretched.

The people, who would not or could not leave New

Orleans, sat in the Superdome in 96 degree heat and

oppressive humidity for at least four days before supplies

were trucked in to New Orleans. Is this the best

the Department of Homeland Security can do? What

happened to all the emergency money?

After Sept. 11, 2001, I thought the Federal

Emergency Management Agency had been outfitted

like the Fantastic Four and were ready to roll 24/7.

The media did its job by not letting the tragedy be

hidden from the public eye. It is time this administration

realized that to the American people there are no

“acceptable losses” in a national tragedy. There is no

reason that the poorest of the poor in this country

should not be able to look to the government and with

relief say, “I knew you would find me.”