Spent most of last night trying to follow what was happening in New Orleans on the Internet. It was the same old news. It was almost like an information vacuum. Where were the rest of the people? I had finally gone to bed. It was now around 10:00 am PDT on Thursday, 9.1.05. Then it happened. In the rush to feed the appetites of a global audience, including myself, MSNBC turned its photo-journalist Tony Zumbado into a reporter and put him on the air live. He had just come from a tour of the Morial Convention Center, and began to describe to the world what he saw. As he gave a heart wrenching account of what he saw inside the convention center, the news producers were rolling tape of what he and his sound man shot and recorded earlier.
My heart just dropped. I could not believe what I was seeing. It was like I was witnessing a slow agonizing death, live and in living color. I immediately saw a relationship between the “looping looters” and the disaster victims whose ages appeared to range from newborn to centenarians. The so-called looters were feeding the people, filling in the void left by the “normal” relief agencies. It was like I was looking at Mogadishu file footage. Refugees in America. “Please help us!” “We need food!” “Where’s the Mayor?”
M. Darryl Woods, Literally Responder
thecontraflow@yahoo.com
It’s now Wednesday morning 8.31.05. The local news is covering a Las Vegas restaurant owner at the Orleans Hotel Casino who is from New Orleans; a French Quarter business owner who is stuck in Las Vegas; and of course, the “looping looters.” I begin search news websites such as CNN, USA Today and FOXNews and still cannot tell what is happening down there. Then I catch a breaking news on local television and it’s Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco talking about the Superdome. I said to myself, ok, all of the New Orleans people must be at the Superdome. The Gov was flanked by Sen. Mary Landrieu and Sen. David Vitter. Now, I have always prided myself on keeping up with national politics. But I had never heard of any of these public servants. Anyways, I’m listening to Gov. Blanco press conference, mostly paying attention to body language. I saw nothing but terror. I got scared for her. I then started to wonder where was New Orleans’ mayor who I now know to be C. Ray Nagin, another political name knew to me. Later on that day, I read on the Internet that Pres. George W. Bush did a low-altitude flyover of the Gulf Coast; and, yes, those same “looping looters.” What is really going on? I need more info…
M. Darryl Woods, Literary Responder
thecontraflow@yahoo.com
I woke up Tuesday morning, August 30, 2005, to my usual routine of checking my email and there it was. AOL Breaking News, “New Orleans is 80% underwater.” What! My heart just dropped. It seems that the yesterday’s headlines were a pre-mature assessment of the situation. I immediately went to turn on KLAS-TV, the Las Vegas CBS affiliate. They were still showing the “looping looting” footage of the same men “liberating” the same flooded food and athletic store. I switched channels to the NBC affiliate KVBC and saw the “looping looters.” I switched to the ABC affiliate KTNV, again, the same “looping looters.” It was like the Rodney King beating tape. These same people were being shown over and over so much that I had family members and friends tell me those people down in New Orleans were all criminals and they are getting what they deserved. I am talking about like-long African American card-carrying Democrats. The nation was being desensitized by the media’s “looping looting” policy. I then realized that the Big 3 networks are not providing me with what I need, which was the facts about what has happened to the other 99.9% of the New Orleans people.
Even though my cable was turned off a few weeks earlier, I still had access to the Internet. But four years ago, high speed video streaming was not the norm as it is today. So I went to visit my business associate Darlene Russell who had it on FoxNews, and there it was. The Big One. The Biblical proportion. The disaster to beat all disasters. Look at New Orleans. A major American metropolitan area was underwater.
M. Darryl Woods, Literary Responder
thecontraflow@yahoo.com
Four years ago today I woke up to watch the Hurricane Katrina national news coverage. I was happy to hear that New Orleans “dodged the bullet”; that the bowl had not filled up; that the levees had held. The only damage I saw on TV was a truck crushed by bricks from a New Orleans CBD building wall. Then came the looping looting footage in heavy rotation. It was reminiscent of the 1977 NYC Blackout, the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, the 1999 Seattle WTO Riots. Nothing new here, just history repeating itself. It was time to get busy with my Southern Nevada business of life. The weather man was predicting 113 degrees today. One could say this was our daily natural disaster, the summer heatwave season.
M. Darryl Woods, Literary Responder
thecontraflow@yahoo.com
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