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Please Don’t Superdome Haiti
For those who know how race and media intersect in times of crisis, the earthquake in Haiti has probably sent a bump through your pop-cultural seismograph. Now it's becoming a flashpoint.
Following an initial wave of sympathy, the corporate media has turned an alarmed eye to the increasingly desperate masses. We see unruly mobs, bodies piled in the streets (we hear of corpses being used as human "barricades"). The insinuations and direct reporting of violence flirt with the popular imagination and evoke memories of America's most spectacular prime-time tragedy-Katrina.
The AP reports that the U.S. may consider stepping up its "security role," while its humanitarian effort continues to hobble amid transportation delays, logistical chaos and dubious political machinations. Announcing plans to expand the U.S. ground deployment, Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday, "The initial intent is to strategically place some of our soldiers so that they can help with that relief distribution. And then, obviously, we're all focused on the security piece as well,"
(That "security piece" has been a pretty huge chunk of America's entanglement with Haiti throughout the 20th century, punctuated by military interventions and occupation. Six years after the last U.S.-backed coup, maybe the Pentagon has a hankering for another extended stay.) In the eyes of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, delivering help to people requires exerting control:
Gates said the primary goal was to distribute aid as quickly as possible "so that people don't, in their desperation, turn to violence." He suggested the U.S. was aware of perceptions of its profile in the ravaged country."I think that if we, particularly given the role that we will have in delivering food and water and medical help to people, my guess is the reaction will be one of relief at seeing Americans providing this kind of help," Gates told reporters.
Military officials said they were trying to stave off banditry and lawlessness by rushing relief supplies including desperately needed water where it will be most effective, and also where it can be distributed in ways least likely to cause rioting or looting.
Gates said early airdrops of aid were ruled out because they might have done more harm than good.
"It seems to me that without having any structure on the ground in terms of distribution, that an airdrop is simply going to lead to riots as people try and go after that stuff," he said.
"It seems to me that's a formula for contributing to chaos rather than preventing it."
As the White House wrings its hands over how to keep a tight grip on its aid mission, AirAmerica's Jack Rice wonders about the role of the media in shaping, and dehumanizing, public perceptions of the tragedy:
Why is it that we don't hesitate to show a photo of
dead bodies if it takes place in Africa, Asia or Latin America? Would
we be willing to do the same thing if this happened in Boston, Los
Angeles, Minneapolis? Would we be willing to do it if it were dead
American soldiers piled up in Afghanistan? My guess is no!
Shades of Katrina emanate from the descriptions of "anarchy" engulfing the streets. Remember the Superdome, the "looting," the alleged explosion of mayhem? The media conjured images of death and destruction with voyueristic zeal, while curating the stories to fit a prevailing narrative of savagery and social breakdown.
Sharp criticism eventually emerged, too late, to debunk the initial portrayals of lawlessness as distortions, colored by latent anxieties about how black people might act in the absence of white domination. But for those initial days after the hurricane, a media feeding frenzy projected white middle-class America's fears onto a forsaken city, constructed as pathetic and threatening at once.
Jaqueline Bacon wrote in the media criticism magazine Extra! in 2005:
For some members of the media, the victims of the hurricane were seemingly foreign-or perhaps not quite human. Allen Breed's New Orleans report for the Cincinnati Post (9/3/05) described "naked babies wail[ing] for food as men get drunk on stolen liquor" and a crowd whose "almost feral intensity" prevented delivery of water to victims by helicopter. (Breed did include a quote from a man who indicated that the decision to airdrop food was "insulting, demeaning.")The New York Daily News (9/2/05) proclaimed officials "must do whatever it takes to curb the hardcore, armed, violent felons who are making it impossible to save the city," who are "a very different breed from desperate citizens who are trying to get food and water." Given that this "different breed" was largely a figment of media imaginations-later investigations showed that there was no more violence in New Orleans after Katrina than in any typical week (Seattle Times, 9/26/05; see page 9)-this kind of editorializing suggested that it is, in fact, the regular residents of the city who are inherently "other"-foreign, primitive and dangerous. As the Daily News put it: "Anarchy, Mogadishu-style, is just around the corner if they're not stopped."
Other pundits dehumanized the inner-city victims of the hurricane. Writing in the National Review Online blog the Corner (8/29/05), Jonah Goldberg advised those in the Superdome (which he described as a "Mad Max/Thunderdome/Waterworld/Lord of the Flies horror show") on how to survive: "Hoard weapons, grow gills and learn to communicate with serpents," "find the biggest guy you can and when he's not expecting it beat him senseless," and "protect any female who agrees to participate without question in your plans to repopulate the Earth with a race of gilled supermen."
In the wake of the storm, author Tim Wise reflected on the barrage of since-discredited tales of violence, rape and gunfire:
the media, feeling no need to find witnesses or to
verify claims of black deviance (because, after all, what's not to
believe?) simply went along. The result? Rescue efforts were delayed
because rescue workers had been scared for their lives by a press that
led them to think New Orleans was a war zone; the Governor and Mayor
actually told law enforcement to stop saving lives and start arresting
and shooting lawbreakers on sight; and the public, which rarely needs
reasons to think the worst of poor black people, found its stereotypes
confirmed. Not only whites, it should be pointed out, but black folks
too, like Mayor Nagin and his crony police chief Eddie Compass, both of
whom apparently think so little of their own people that they too
assumed the stories were true, in spite of no evidence, and repeated
the charges on national TV.
The recent rants of Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson (whose vile bloviating featured prominently in the Katrina coverage as well) may seem patently idiotic. But could such viewpoints seep into policy decisions?
Bill Quigley of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a longtime advocate for Haiti and Katrina survivor, has some tips for the Pentagon on how to "prevent chaos" as U.S. boots hit the streets of Port-au-Prince:
Do not allow US military in Haiti to point their
guns at Haitians. Hungry Haitians are not the enemy. Decisions have
already been made which will militarize the humanitarian relief--but do
not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Do not demonize the
people.
The government's reluctance to airdrop supplies may be grounded in a valid security concerns. But you've got to wonder: are the hints of a potential sustained military presence a rebranded attempt to "stabilize" Haiti once again through occupation? Could a too-hesitant emergency response hurt the long-term recovery effort by breeding anger and resentment against foreign forces (which could possibly, as Jack Beatty suggested on NPR's "On Point" on Friday, create a self-fulfilling prophecy of disorder, to be "fixed" by outsiders)?
As with Katrina, the 24-hour news cycle's response to the earthquake seems a few steps ahead of the gridlocked aid effort, and it's yet unclear whether Washington's tactical decisions will turn out to be prudent and effective. And certainly, the press, despite its capacity for rapid-fire news dispatches, is constrained in its ability to assess the ongoing emergency response. But as long as the world's eyes are all on Haiti right now--and as long as the memories of Katrina's media exploitation still linger--it behooves us as media consumers and members of the international community to take a step back and separate the grim reality out there, from the racialized spectacle lurking within our collective imagination.
- Posted in
35 Comments so far
Show AllNews accounts from Port au Prince airport claim that the emphasis on security as represented by the U.S. armed forces is already delaying the delivery of aid. For instance, a French air transport of medical supplies was refused permission to land as Marines enlaged their presence at the airport.
Tony Vodvarka
When a country is destroyed by the poverty that is normal in a colonial economy, it is perfectly understandable that the biggest source of that colonial poverty would send in its army to ensure that not too many of these desparate victims swim their way into the USA.
America's elites are a shining beacon to the world.
The only 'beacon' that should be shining in America is the burning of Wall Street and Washington, D.C.
Letting the US aid in anything is like asking Mr. Potter for a loan. You give up everything in exchange for what is already owed you.
There should be UN militia guarding the US military with a shoot on site order issued.
First Katrina, now Haiti, next stop Denver, Cleveland, or Detroit. The monsters have the model, "Press, Guns, Hunger, and Social Chaos". The stuff they present to you now will be repeated word for word when they apply their tender mercies to foreclosed neighborhoods near you soon. The monsters are probably putting together the Black Water (Xe) contracts for domestic oppression already. They know their jobs - kill us.
You're onto something here.
The US elites are as concerned about the health and safety of working Americans as they are about the health and safety of the Haitian boys and girls who sew baseballs for Wal-mart.
You're next.
Someone is giving the order. Someone is responsible for the death by "policy".
Points often overlooked;
The entire time the American media showed the suffering and “lawlessness” at the Superdome you could have driven to it, there were roads leading to the dome that were not under water and were open, had anybody been granted passage by the authorities in charge of the aftermath.
There were several caravans of sport fishermen towing bass boats to aid in the evacuation of the resident of New Orleans stranded on their rooftops.
A modern bass boat can operate in water only slightly deeper than 6 inches. A modern bass boat can carry 10 or more people at a time.
The bass boats would have been far more effective in evacuating people than the lumbering helicopters of the Coast Guard.
These caravans of rescuers were prohibited from reaching New Orleans by federal and state authorities.
Blackwater operatives were dispatched to New Orleans prior to the arrival of Katrina. Remember the reports of snipers?
Communities on the other side of the river turned away Katrina refugees, including openly shooting at them with police issued weapons. There were many reports that these encounters resulted in the deaths of unarmed refugees. To the best of my knowledge there were no civil rights investigations or criminal investigations into these crimes.
New Orleans was a very blue, democratic stronghold in the middle of the very red, republican Deep South before Katrina. Today, not so much.
There was never a time when one could not physically walk out of the Superdome and walk to high ground and escape. The way was blocked only by various police roadblocks. The bridge to Gretna, LA was blocked by the Gretna Police Dept. who fired shots over the heads of evacuees to force them back to the stadium. The word, "Gretna" should be synonymous with evil, as are "Vandal" or "Quisling".
Tony Vodvarka
I remember the incident at Gretna, Tony.
In fact, I remember it all the more because of the furiously indignant, outraged, and self-righteous denials by Gretna officials and some residents that they had done anything but humanely and prudently protect themselves against being overrun by mobs of disorderly and potentially criminal refugees.
According to them, reports of atrocious police and vigilante misconduct were unreliable slander viciously spread by deluded or misguided persons or groups out to defame Gretna's civic honor.
Methought they did protest too much.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Blocking escape from the disaster area WAS atrocious police misconduct. When large groups of fellow citizens who are in dire need food, water and shelter become "mobs of potential criminals", the scene is set for barbarous behaviour. Shame on the disgraced name of Gretna.
Your remarks of the bass fishermen reminded me of the British channel-fishermen at Dunkirk who braved a LOT more than insidious odds.
My father was one of those brave souls who piloted a small boat under Nazi fire to rescue Allied soldiers from the hell of Dunkirk.
He was 12 years old at the time.
Sean Penn was one of those patriots who towed a boat to the disaster area and was able to evacuate many people.
Never fear. Bubba Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, together at last with our new Nobel laureate Commander-in-Chief standing in the middle, will assuredly put a warm smiley face upon the US government's humanitarian relief effort in earthquake-devasted Haiti.
I saw the photo op from the White House just this past weekend.
Who better to hand pick for this humanitarian task - supposedly to help reassure the international community and the people of Haiti that America is changing course and acting with compassion - than the man on whose presidential watch we were given preemptive war, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, the debacle of Katrina and the New Orleans levees, plus the ouster of Aristede from Port au Prince into political exile in South Africa?
Less than a year after Barack Obama's inauguration celebration, with Dick Cheney and Karl Rove darkly and incessantly fear mongering and sniping away in the mainstream media, and Little George is graciously and grandiosely rehabilitated in the spirit of true DC beltway bipartisanship.
How disgusting.
How tone deaf can one politician be?
Bill from Saginaw
Similar valid points can be found at
http://counterpunch.org/valdes01182010.html
82nd Airborne's speciality is 'securing air and sea ports' they've done it from Grenada to iraq and swiftly in Haiti.
We'll stay as long as we are needed,
their spokesman has said.
Currently flying in more troops and 'spreading out throughout' the town/region.
I 've lost the link, THINK it is 'Operation Passionate Invasion.' These were the guys who shot up the population from a school in Falluja.
Sure hope for passionate compassion. Breath holding not recommended. Oh yes, and they were involved in Katrina. Well that went well. Secured airport there too.
I accept that the history of the Haitian people has been filled with slavery, discrimination, foreign and domestic exploration, and disasters.
I have studied the history of the Chinese people. For them the 18th, 19th, and much of the 20th centuries were filled with enslavement, discrimination, exploration, horrible wars, destruction and natural disasters, possibly far worse than what befell the Haitians.
I draw no conclusions. I make the observation that the Chinese people have overcome much better than the Haitians. I do not really understand the difference. Is the reason that most Haitians are uprooted people but the Chinese are not? If so, how does one repair "uprootedness"?
There are many, many Chinese. Not so many Haitians. So they are easier for the militarists and imperialists to "keep in their place."
Although there are more Cubans than Haitians, there are also hugely more Chinese than Cubans. Your "numbers game" explanation obviously makes no sense at all. I maintain that my question "how does one repair forced uprootedness" (notice that I have added the necessary word 'forced') may remain at the core of any attempt of the Haitians themselves to 'overcome', an incredibly apt word on MLK day.
The comparison of Cuba and Haiti is not without merit. Why did the Cubans revolt and kick the "militarists and imperialists" out but the Haitians did not?
I am trying to understand, not to criticize the Haitian people. Simplistic explanations such as "So they are easier for the militarists and imperialists to keep in their place" no longer satisfy my urge to understand.
Crowsnest;It is not a question of race but of proximity to US guns,etc;everytime the Haitians have tried to do for themselves the US or the French,UK have interfered in their affairs with their much stronger militaries to allow the corporations to do whatever they pleased and then because the cesspool dwellers AKA like we have here had taken everything not nailed down whatever gov. existed had to borrow money,money that was AGAIN taken by those parasites and the people got nothing probobly less than nothing;a vicious circle.The latest of this tragic country's life,or should it be existance is the coup involving Aristide.This cesspool has wrecked the ecology and economy of Haiti.Aristide would be the man for the job to get the country back on its feet but my bet is that the US wont allow it after all they did kidnap him last time.The UN better not let the US take over and it looks like they wont as they are already pushing back against the US.Draw the line in the sand!Tony
The Bush flooding of New Orleans: an unnatural disaster.
To the Editor: (of The Berkeley Daily Planet)
"We don't care, we don't care" was the chant of pro-war, pro-Bush hecklers across the street from the Camp Casey peace vigil in Crawford, Texas in late August, 2005. This "we don't care" chant pretty much sums up the attitude of the Bush Syndicate (B. S.) towards the rest of us in America. Actually, Bush, Cheney and the rest of this idiotic neoconical government believes that the only true function of the federal government is to create private money-making opportunities for themselves, their friends, and their corporate contributors. Any activity other than waging aggressive war to steal and colonize other countries' natural resources falls into the category of "we don't care."
The Bush flood of New Orleans happened after the massive Hurricane Katrina had passed the city. It was both predictable and preventable. The Bush flood and the slow-as-molasses-in-January Bush response to it has ripped off the facade of the inept Bush Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its subsidiary, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The upper echelons of both of these massive federal bureaucracies have been staffed by incompetent and uncaring Bush buddies, cronies, hacks, frat brothers, former roommates, horse attorneys, contributors and other miscellaneous nincompoops. In making his appointments to the executive management of DHS and FEMA, Bush gave little if any thought to their actual qualifications in the field of emergency management.
Over the last several years, Bush and the GOP-controlled House and Senate have poured over one hundred billion tax dollars into "Homeland Security." What did we get as the federal response to Hurricane Katrina? We got homeland stupidity. After the massive flooding of New Orleans, which initially covered about eighty percent of the city, thousands of residents were herded to the Superdome where they denied water, food, medicine, bedding, toilet facilities and police protection for several long days, meanwhile the Bush gang partied and carried on with their "business as usual" and "let them eat cake" imperial attitudes. George strummed his guitar, raised campaign funds, cut cake with Senator McCain, while Connie Rice did her Imelda Marcos imitation, shopping for expensive shoes in New York City before going to a Broadway play, while Cheney went on vacation, first fishing in Wyoming and then mansion shopping in Maryland, and Rumsfeld went to a professional ball game.
In the first several days of the flooding of New Orleans cable news reporters had to point out the severity of the suffering of thousands of people in the Superdome to the heads of FEMA and DHS. These two had apparently followed the lead of the ever-clueless Bush by not watching the unfolding disaster being revealed on television.
The searing images of human suffering that were shown on television in the first several days after the flooding of New Orleans showed thousands of poor people herded into the Louisiana Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center without any water, any food, any medicines, any toilet facilities, any bedding or any police protection.
The conduct of the inept corrupt Bush regime in this unnatural disaster (the Bush flood and the slow spastic Bush response of flood relief) is nothing short of criminal. Since the illegitimate Bush regime came to power in January 2001, they have allowed and encouraged massive developments in the natural low-lying wetlands around New Orleans. The presence of these wetlands traditionally helped to protect New Orleans from the storm surges which accompany hurricanes.
The first actions of FEMA after Hurricane Katrina and Flood Bush struck New Orleans was to try to stop almost all of the volunteer, state and federal help from coming into the disaster area. FEMA blocked volunteer help from WalMart, the Coast Guard, the Red Cross, AMTRAK, hundreds of airboats from Florida, the City of Chicago emergency teams, Loudoun County (Virginia) sheriffs, the Nevada police, the New Mexico National Guard, fire-fighting planes from the U. S. Forest Service and even the U. S. Bataan, a hospital ship stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. FEMA also stopped or ignored offers of help from foreign countries including Canada, Cuba and Venezuela, over twenty European counties and Asian countries including Iran and India.
One supposes that volunteer help and aid undercuts the Bush Syndicates system of private corporations making bags of money off of the Bush war on Iraq and the Bush expedited flooding of New Orleans.
It is troubling to see many no-bid federal contracts being given to large corporations for reconstruction along the Gulf Coast. The terms of "no-bid contracts" mean that the corporations get to charge their profits as a percentage of costs incurred, so there is no incentive to be thrifty; in fact, it is the opposite, the more money that the corporate contractor spends on construction, the higher their corporate profits. Add to this the fact that Bush just signed an executive order that suspended the traditional requirement that federal contractors must pay labor the prevailing wages, instead the federal contractors can now pay workers as little as minimum wage. So the folks who are the poorest, get kicked again by Bush. He kicks 'em again when they're down.
New Orleans should be rebuilt on a cooperative local basis. Habitat for Humanity should be the model used for the reconstruction of the many flood-damaged homes in New Orleans. As many physically-able local residents as possible should be quickly trained and employed in the reconstruction of their neighborhoods. All of the poor renters in New Orleans whose houses suffered flooding should be given title to their new homes and the land beneath them, after the landlords have been properly compensated for the pre-flood fair-market value of their properties. We owe these people a lot as some compensation for the years of neglect that they have suffered at our hands.
Yours truly,
James K. Sayre
11 September 2005
And every one of those little FEMA trailers is a lethally toxic off gassing chamber.
Maybe criminalizing disaster profiteering would get Democrats some support.
Tv coverage seems more and more like disaster porn. Especially the "looting" scenes. Lurid scenes that provide distractions from a more nuanced understanding of the situation in political and economic context.
It sells. If it bleeds it leads. Of course of the three million plus victims, how many are rioting? Enough surely, but what about the others that are working hard to rescue people and survive themselves. I want to hear about them, not rioters.
"With President Aristide, the man the US considers too radical for its tastes, anxious to return, there is fear that a possible revolt against the lack of help could turn angry and political ... Aristide's Lavalas party is the most popular in Haiti and wants a more profound transformation than the US wants to allow. It had been banned from taking part in scheduled elections next month, that are likely to be canceled now."
Is the Haiti Rescue Effort Failing? / Danny Schechter
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-the-Haiti-Rescue-Effort-by-Danny-Schechter-100118-932.html
A sin against mankind. How could one (Gates) promote such an inhumane policy? Not in my name do you withhold help to people. Just drop the stuff and get the hell out of the way.
We just can't trust us anymore can we?
Did anybody see the video on teevee of a storm trooper in Haiti with combat boots and in full riot gear kicking the Haitian on the ground with the heel of his boot?
Yep. He's probably one of the Brazilian UN 'Peacekeepers' the local Haitians have come to know and despise.
The Hatians will not be "Katrina" caged. They know better. Haitians are much like people in the US were during the great depression in large cities. They have no trust of their own authorities, forget foreigners. Their survival skills put any US person's to shame. They can live on less water and food than we spoiled US folks can. They are descended from African tribes that were far more independent and hostile than the tribes shipped to other parts of the western hemisphere.
Do you really want to know why Gates didn't air drop MREs and water? Because the Haitians would immediately organize "gangs" at the drop points and give the people just enough to get by and sell the rest. Gates and his capitalist chronies just don't want anybody else making some capital, period. It doesn't matter to him that some Haitians suffered. That has no bearing on the issue of CONTROL. So the gangs would gain some power for a while, so what? Our military is the most destructive gang around but we still consider them human. The Haitian gangs would probably have made less money percentagewise by acting as middlemen with the MREs and water than Goldman Sachs or Halliburton. Who cares more about Haitians, a Haitian gang or the US corporate kowtowing military?
No, this is just more bullshit from our military. At any rate, that "phase" of this clusterfuck is over and aid is flowing pretty well now.
The Haitians are no fools.
It's a mixture of race and poverty. Haiti is not only black it's poor. I heard someone on CNN say the other night something to the effect of "We need to stop being afraid of poor people." And he was right.
Thing is, you know damn well that all of this "fear" of violence will be used by contractors to make money. Haitians will be sold water. Government contractors will go there for security, to rebuild. It's disaster capitalism as Naomi Klein would say.
If Haiti wasn't poor and was self sufficient, the elites couldn't make any money off of the country. Acts of Satan like these are the jackpot. The media tries to justify it by dehumanizing the poor, as if they're wild animals that need to be coralled.
There's a notion that showing dead bodies is "hard-hitting" journalism. But what would really be "hard-hitting" is an expose on U.S. meddling and why Haiti is as it is.
The gore is a distraction.
Nancy Snyderman on Rachel Maddow's show talked in detail of rotting bodies and rats eating corpses.
Why do we need to know that?
Because it takes our minds off of imperialism.
Why do people watch horror movies? Not only to be scared but to escape from things that are really disturbing.
PEACEFUL SLAVES ---- DEADLY SLAVE-DRIVERS
When plantation owners went down to the slave market, top dollar were they willing to pay for the slaves with the most pacifist, agreeable and gentle spirit. A fact well known by slave traders and in selecting their next boat load of victims, virtually all were smiling and friendly until put in chains and packed like sardines below deck.
And as evidence by most all in Haiti being most smiley and friendly, this aspect of our mind, character and personality passes from father to son.
So, the police in Haiti that have since the CIA coup dictatorship of 2004 been executing over 2,000
Aristide supporters a year, they are the aggressive sons of the aggressive slave-drivers of old.
And so, if we want freedom for the slaves in Haiti, organize we must and get down to Haiti in force, as the gentle slaves of Haiti have no desire to oppose anyone.
In spite of the sloppiness of the aid effort there has been some good luck for Haiti in that the earthquake occurred in January, when it is the coolest. By the Ides of March, the tropical sun will be blazing down mercilessly and later the rains will come.
So far, there is no indication of what type of housing will replace that which was destroyed and when it will be put up.
Maybe domes are the fastest way...no, not superdomes, but geodesic domes about 30 meters in diameter that would come in kit form and be put up by the Haitians themselves in a day or so. Each one could house about 50 people. Being round on top, they could also stand up to hurricanes.
Thank you Michelle. I'm afraid the London Times and Fox News are already on the demonize bandwagon.
From the London Times and Fox articles which declares "Criminals in Haiti Raping Quake Survivors" I get that 'some panties were found on the ground', a U.N. official fears child trafficking, and a Police Chief makes a statement without backing it up with specifics.
I was a tourist trapped in the Superdome during Katrina. And yes, rumors and fear controlled our lives and we believed the stories of murders and rapes in the Superdome. Trouble was that there were no murders, and months later Police and Security on the scene could not substantiate any rapes.
The effect of this is that certain people can simply discount the need to assist a country because of those "wild savages" who go crazy. And years later people comment on such stories perpetuating the lies. Many conservative friends of mine admitted to me after Katrina that they had less compassion for New Orleans because they believed all the exaggerated reports.
I'm not naive and I don't doubt that crimes are taking place, but the media got it quite wrong during Katrina. I know, I was there. So please media, let's be a little more responsible in backing up these reports. I'm sure Fox News is having a field day with this story.
Paul Harris
Author, "Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina"