(This is outside the normal military posts I toss up here at Winds, but the place is looking a bit thin this week, and I link to two military sites, so here ya go.)
In Gulfport, Mississippi is Not a Footnote, Officers' club points out a post on Blackfive titled Mississippi: The Invisible Coast:Thank you Matt for giving me the opportunity to post about my state. My name is Karen and I live in Gulfport Mississippi. On August 29, Hurricane Katrina slammed into my city as well as Biloxi, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Bay St Louis, Waveland, and other coastal cities. The destruction is indescribable and brutal. Preliminary estimates show that over 65,000 homes in Mississippi were destroyed and a further 38,000 will more than likely need to be demolished. From my circle of friends and acquaintances, 30 have had their homes destroyed outright . A further 10 had so much water damage their homes are unlivable.
There are Mississippians in Gulfport, D'Iberville, St Martin, Biloxi, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, and Waveland that are sleeping in tents while waiting on a FEMA trailer. Small communities in Mississippi such as Waveland, Lakeshore, and St Martin no longer exist. The national news media has relegated my state to a footnote when Hurricane Katrina is discussed. Even The Weather Channel now fails to mention Mississippi when discussing Hurricane Katrina. The American people have not forgotten us and for that I am grateful. There are so many volunteers that are helping us rebuild our lives.I've been troubled by the near-footnote status that Mississippi was given since, well, since about the day after Katrina missed New Orleans and hit Mississippi.
Not to minimize the trouble in New Orleans, or the scale of the city's population, but to focus almost solely on New Orleans when the truly epic damage was spread across the neighboring state's coastline was unforgivable.
Speaking of "unforgivable", why are people still waiting on FEMA trailers?
Here's a photo of downtown Pass Christian I was sent by a reader, who works with the spouse of the photographer, an Air Force Reservist sent to the Mississippi coast to help with relief efforts:
For many, many more pics of the devastation along the "footnote" coast, see Pictures from the air of Gulfport and Biloxi areas. Truly amazing. If anyone can look at these and then explain to me why Mississippi has been virtually ignored by the coverage, I'd be interested.
Also, don't miss Chuck Simmins' Carnival of Hurricane Relief #18.
--cross-posted by Murdoc
There are simple explanations.
If you are familiar with people from LA or NYC, then you'll now that there mental picture of the world is NYC, LA, and end between what they believe to be a small area of terra incognito from which they believe comes 'food' - the 'fly over country'.
New Orleans is a place that they've heard of. It is a place that they can understand. It is afterall a city, with a professional football team, albiet not a very good one. To people who believe that Baltimore and Washington DC are rural regions inhabited by near barbarians, New Orleans makes sense. New Orleans = Mardi Gras. It's as simple as that. New Orleans is a place. It's possible that they may have even visited it, an adventure that to them which is somewhat more exotic than visiting Paris. They know of New Orleans - or think they know of New Orleans - in the same way they now of Paris, never stopping to think that the only part of New Orleans or Paris that they actually know is the part behind a mask.
But Mississippi is not a place in the mind of people from NY or LA. Mississippi is a TV program. All that they know about Mississippi comes from watching 'In the Heat of the Night' or 'Mississippi Burning'. Mississippi - the fictional Mississippi, the Mississippi locked in the eternal and unchanging past - exists for them, but places like Gulf Port, Waverly, Bay St. Louis do not. The real Mississippi is beneath there notice. It is a place that they cannot imagine has any importance except that it 'unfairly' helps Republicans 'steal' elections. Which brings us to the other problem.
Beyond having no real conscious awareness of the reality of Mississippi, the other problem is that in NY and LA they believe the people of Gulf Port 'got what they deserve'. They were rooting for the Hurricane. The interest in New Orleans and in the people of New Orleans is pretty much confined to the sort of story that they can spin about the people of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina became a big myth making fest for the press. It wasn't about reporting the facts, which is clearly scene from the fact that they did not take any care to do so and are not now much upset to have gotten the facts so utterly wrong. What it was about was telling a parable, a fable, a story which illustrated the things that they believe. In other words, Hurricane Katrina provided the press the same sort of material it provided a few charismatic pastors - the oppurtunity to sermonize and castigate people.
So in this sense, the real New Orleans isn't any more interesting to press any more than real metrology and barometric pressures are interesting to a pastor that wants to use Katrina as vehicle to decry the depravity of Bourbon street. It's more interesting to pigeon hole all the residents of New Orleans into neat little sterotypes, and tell a story with a compelling narrative arc but little relation to actual events. It's much more interesting to the press to have a fictional New Orleans in which a mob of 'African Americans', suffering from the lash of George Bush and dying in droves because they had been forgotten by those people that were supposed to be taken care of them, readily turned into animals. That's the sort of story that the press likes.
Nevermind the inconvienent facts.
But, there are no stories to tell about Mississippi that they like, or at least not anyone stories that they currently wouldn't feel embarrassed to say in public. But, I can gaurantee you that behind closed doors in the news rooms, if they ever bother to think about Mississippi at all its something to the effect of 'those bastards got what they deserved'.
The fact that rural Mississippi and rural New Orleans were hit harder and more directly by the hurricane and are possibly even more devestated than New Orleans is mostly just another inconvienent fact. Best not to talk about it, lest it distract from the fable.
One might as well ask "Why, when covering the New Orleans levy breaks, the media focussed almost entirely on the levies for the primarily poor African-American communities of the 9th ward, while ignoring the levy breaks in the relatively prosperous and white Lakeview District?"
I must give credit where credit is due. Fox cable 6 or 7 o'clock show(the guy w/ the grey mane) was there last week reporting live. I could not believe the devestation he showed but I was more sickened looking at Americans living in platformed pup tents this late into the year.
Another part of lack of coverage has to do w/ not only media bias but a feeling you got what you deserved for voting for Republicans. Your seen as white right wing Republican bigots, though the coverage I saw on Fox made it clear that wasn't the case, Republicans being against government in all forms unless it benefits large corporate interests. As a result you will pray, not complain about lack of government help and make do with what God gives you.
It is really irresponsible and stupid this attitude but thats how I read it. The one political note I will add is Trent Lott is not one of Bush's good ole boys. As they have shown in the past the Administration is not above playing payback at the expense of the nation.
I just recieved an email from a friend of mine online about this article. Let me tell you about how it feels to be forgotten about by the news media. I knew this was going to happen. While I wish no ill will to our neighbors in Louisiana, it's a damn shame that Biloxi, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, the whole of OUR coast is hardly mentioned in any story. It's always New Orleans. Well, I got news for you. There are people still living in tents on golf courses here. Our landscape is destroyed, nothing left. People see the pictures on the news , guess what, you ain't seen nothin'. I met a lady from New York , when Hwy.90 opened up, and we were both taking pictures. Her words, and I quote, "I had no idea how bad you guys were hit." But that's ok. Dont worry about us "rednecks" in the South, go ahead forget about us. We will do fine on our own. Rest assured though, when we get back on our feet (and we will), we will never forgive or forget those that said with a loud voice, "IT'S ONLY MISSISSIPPI." If I seem somewhat angry, go figure. The Muslim lands that want to kill us had there tsunami, and they get more air time than we do. I guess our 15 minutes of fame has expired. It's no wonder 9-11 has been dismissed in the memory of Americans in 4 years, we have been dismissed in a matter of months. Thanks a hell of a lot.
Jeff
Gulport, Mississippi