As politicians from both sides of the aisle converge on New Orleans, Gulfport, and Biloxi to make themselves seen and heard, and while the President makes statements a year after the storm that amounts to the same statements that he made in the storm’s wake: essentially absolving himself and the federal government of any and all responsibility with regard to the storm while simultaneously touting the reconstruction money sent to the Gulf Coast as his own, the victims of Hurricane Katrina in both Louisiana and Mississippi are struggling and praying to see a few dollars of the so-pledged billions to rebuild their homes, their communities, their businesses, and their lives.

The cars may have been towed away and the mud washed over, but the homes still stand in ruin, and parts of the gulf coast are still in horrible states of disrepair, with local governments and development corporations failing to offer the victims anything near their homes’ value in trade for a spot to build a casino or strip mall-and that’s if they’re lucky enough to get an offer from someone. Many survivors still live in FEMA trailers that they only recieved a few months ago, waiting for word from the authorities as to whether or not they’re eligable for help. The story on the gulf coast a year later isn’t completely bad, though-there’s signs of life all across the storm-ravaged region, but it would do us well on this anniversary to look back and remember not only the failed conservative policies that favored the insurance and business interests that subsequently abandoned, under-insured, or completely washed their hands of the people who lived on the gulf coast, the dissection of FEMA-touted at the end of the Clinton Administration by both parties as the “one thing the federal government is doing right,”-in the name of “homeland security,” and champion private industry who happily leave the poorest and most vulnerable high and dry because they’re not “profitable” while similarly dismantling the public social service programs aimed to give even those Americans the faintest glimmer of the hope and opportunity that their wealthiest countrymen see every day.

This series of articles is another look back at how we got here, and a look forward at where we’re going, and whether or not we’re ready to get there.

[ Katrina's Second Crisis ]
Source: TomPaine.com

[ When Government Shrugs: Lessons of Katrina ]
Source: The Progressive

[ Bush’s Broken Promises to Katrina Victims ]
Source: The Progressive

[ Planning for Disaster ]
Source: TomPaine.com