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Today's
Stories
November 5
/ 6, 2005
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Lying,
Law Schools and Executive Power: What Senators Should Ask Alito
Roosa / Nevins
The
Mass Killlings in Indonesia, 40 Years Later
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Missing
the Bus: When Conscience Bows to Calculation
John Ross
The Zapatistas' Otra Campaign for Mexico's Presidential Elections
Mark Engler
Will Big Business Turn On Bush?: the Economic Nightmare Unfolds
Mitchel Cohen
People of the Dome, Revisited
Charles Sullivan
When Courage Fails: a White Southerner on Rosa Parks
November 4,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blood
on the Tundra, Betrayal in the Rotunda: Losing ANWR
Dave Lindorff
A Majority Now Favors Impeachment: If He Lied, He Must Be Tried
Phillip Cryan
Crackdown
in Colombia
Christopher Brauchli
Katrina and Tax Breaks for the Very Rich
William S.
Lind
Exit Strategy: You Can't Stay the Course in a Lost War
Daryl G. Kimball
Of Madmen and Nukes
George Beres
Laurels for Negroponte?
Peter Montague
Why We Can't Prevent Cancer
November 3,
2005
James Petras
The
Libby Affair and the Internal War
Saul Landau
Torn
Families and Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
An Occurrence at Gretna Bridge
Michael Dickinson
Bang! Bang! You're Deaf! Sonic Weapons Over Palestine
Joshua Frank
Sham Behind Closed Doors
Remi Kanazi
Dancing with Perseverance
Reza Fiyouzat
Taxation or Racketeering?
Website of the Day
CIA Leak Investigation: Bigger Fish, Deeper Water?
November 2,
2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Holy
Alito!: Not as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad
Robert Oscar Lopez
Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy
John Walsh
The Philosophy of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby
Brian J. Foley
Why Most Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should)
Ramzy Baroud
Rolling Back Syria
M. Junaid Alam
What Moral Values?
Todd Chretien
Judgment Day for the Governator
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats' Slap Happy Day
Website of the Day
Hands Off Dave!
November 1,
2005
Ron Jacobs
An
Interview with Kent State's Dave Airhart
Gary Leupp
The Plame Affair Leads to Rome
John Ross
Days
of the Dead on the Border
Bill Quigley
Why
Are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town?
Joseph Nevins
From a Boundary of Death to One of Life
Dave Lindorff
Thinking About Impeachment
Linda S. Heard
Bashing Syria: Another Trojan Horse from the UN?
Heather Gray
Thank You, Mrs. Parks
Michael Dickinson
To Di For: Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond
Jeffrey St. Clair
Kent State: Wise Up and Back Off
October 31,
2005
Elaine Cassel
Libby's
Lies
Mark Weisbrot
Pop Goes the Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed
Mike Whitney
Carry On, Patrick Fitzgerald
Norman Solomon
After the Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself
Farooq Sulehria
Trading Weapons While Kashmir Burns
Nicole Colson
Scapegoating Immigrants
Madis Senner
Dhafir Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights
Paul Craig
Roberts
Scooter
and the Neocons
October 29 / 30, 2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Libby Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?
Peter Linebaugh
The
Wedges of Hephaestus
Tim Wise
Framing the Poor: Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media
John Chuckman
Bushspeak: Dark and Garbled Words
Steven Higgs
Green Hoosiers: Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland
Brian Cloughley
The Fifth Afghan War
M. Shahid Alam
Israel and the Consequences of Uniqueness
Nikki Robinson
Crack Down at Kent State
Ralph Nader
Let the PIRGs Begin!: Student Activism Thrives
Joe DeRaymond
Requiem for Bethlehem Steel?
Joshua Frank
Karl's Great Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter?
Laura Santina
Tongue-Tied on Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder?
Fred Gardner
Death of an Organizer
Michael Dickinson
Insult Your Country
Ron Jacobs
Autumn in America
Dr. Susan Block
Fear and Sex: a Halloween Greeting
Vanessa S. Jones
Self-Portrait, 1994. Bronte Beach
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Marbet, Gardner, Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Red State Update
October 28,
2005
Jared Bernstein
Inflation
Up; Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record
Virginia Tilley
Embracing
the Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine
Phil Gasper
The
Race to Execute Tookie Williams
Jennifer Matsui
It's Mardi Graft Time!
Manual Garcia,
Jr.
Is the US Really Against Torture?
Monica Benderman
In the Name of Justice
Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald
Focuses on the Forgeries
Dave Lindorff
Suddenly, Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials
Otober 27, 2005
Saul Landau
The
Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War
Stuart Hodkinson
Bono
and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!
Ingmar Lee
Stop
the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq
Lila Rajiva
License
to Bill: Gates Does India
Ilan Pappe
The
Last Moment of Hope
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Waiting for Fitzgerald
Michael Donnelly
Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury
Ron Jacobs
Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo
Cockburn / St. Clair
White House in Meltdown
October 26,
2005
Kathy Kelly
For
Whom They Toll
Gary Leupp
Dialectics
of the Plame Affair
Mike Marqusee
Empire of Denial
Eric Ruder
War Crimes in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation
Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check
J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of Rosa Parks
Website of
the Day
Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index
October 25,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?
Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the Palestine Hotel
Conn Hallinan
Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the Court Strings
Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros
Robert Day
Talk to Strangers
John Sugg
Judith
Miller and Me
October 24,
2005
Dave Lindorff
Revoke
Judy Miller's Pulitzer
Michael Donnelly
Shades of Iran/contra
Patrick Cockburn
A Nation Stands on Trial
Mike Whitney
Apres Rove
Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not Vietnam, But...
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Palestine
October 22
/ 23, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
When
Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller
Billy Sothern
Letter
from the Circle Bar, New Orleans
Saul Landau
Bush, an Assessment
Ralph Nader
An
Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers
Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve?
Brian Cloughley
Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?
Diana Barahona
Venezuela's National Workers' Union
Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!
Lee Sustar
What the War on Terror is Really About
Patrick Cockburn
Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer
Laura Carlsen
Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake
James Petras
China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness
Joshua Frank
Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them?
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Disasters are Us
Michelle Bollinger
When Abortion Was Illegal
Missy Comley
Beattie
CSI: Iraq
Kona Lowell
Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun
Ben Tripp
Tanks for the Memories
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel
Website of
the Day
Indictment Watch
October 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
The
Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy
Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense
Budget
Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction of the National Guard
Norman Solomon
Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph
Madis Senner
Abusing Katrina
Michael Donnelly
Richard
Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots
October 20, 2005
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment
Comes to NYC
Ray McGovern
16
Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost
Jeremy Brecher
/
Brendan Smith
Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court
Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed?
Ross Eisenbrey
Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment
Randy Shields
James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton
Justine Davidson
Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory
After Lucas
Cranach
Judy and Holofernes
Joe Allen
The
Scandalous History of the Red Cross
October 19,
2005
Christopher Reed
Koizumi and the Rape of Nanking
Stephen Soldz
Bush
and Avian Flu: the Excuses Begin to Fly
Chet Richards
War
and Intelligence
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam on Trial
Scott Richard
Lyons
Multicultural
Columbus?
Ralph Nader
An Interview with Rev. William Sloane Coffin
Website of
the Day
Shocking Video: Why Birds May Be Taking Viral Vengeance on Humans
October 18,
2005
Chet Flippo
Merle
Haggard: "Let's Get Out of Iraq"
Ron Jacobs
Dual Devotions: the Catholic Church and the US Flag
Keeanga-Yamahtta
Taylor
A Tale of Two Cities: From DC to Toledo
Dave Lindorff
Judy Miller: Little Miss Run Amok
Virginia Rodino
A Winter Patriot: Reflections on the Antiwar Movement
Thomas Healy
The Weather in Goshen: Still Radical After All These Years
Ralph Nader
A New New Orleans
Stephen Lendman
The Sorrows of Haiti
Patrick Cockburn
On the Eve of Saddam's Trial: a Divided Iraq
October 17,
2005
Peter Linebaugh
Spinoza
and the Black Limos
Norman Solomon
Judith Miller, the Fourth Estate and the Warfare State
Cockburn /
Sengupta
"If
the Sunnis Don't Like It, That's Their Problem"
Mike Whitney
Miller's Confession: Last Gasp Before Indictments?
Uri Avnery
Iraq Now: What Awaits Samira?
Harold Pinter
Torture & Misery in the Name of Freedom
Website of
the Day
Al Joudi v. Bush
October 15
/ 16, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ayatollahs
of the Apocalypse
Patrick Cockburn
"This Constitution Won't Get Me a Job"
Saul Landau
Two Terrorists and a Lush: Osama, Posada and Bush's Drinking
Neve Gordon
"Beyond Chutzpah": Exposing Grave Moral Distortions
Moshe Adler
Poverty in New York City
Christopher Brauchli
Lynndie England's Burden
Diane Farsetta
The Emperor Doesn't Disclose: the Fight Against Fake News
Sam Husseini
Notes on Current Reporting About Judith Miller
Monica Benderman
From Chaos to Conscience to Peace
Mickey Z.
POW Abuse by US: Nothing New Going On Here
Douglas C.
Smyth
George W. Bush, the Honorius of Our Time
Lee Sustar
Will Delphi Bust the UAW?
Fred Gardner
Cannabinoids Arrive in Realm of Established Fact
Elizabeth Schulte
A Former Panther's Georgia Campaign: an Interview with Elaine
Brown
Joshua Frank
Will the Democrats Save Harriet Miers?
David Vest
Down with Formalism! Up with Values!
Ben Tripp
Epistle II: the Reawakenign
Poets Basement
Engel, Albert, Ford and Louise
Website of
the Weekend
The
Hidden Canyon
October 14,
2005
Farrah Hassen
A
Somber Ramadan in Syria
Ron Jacobs
The
Black Panthers: They Haven't Forgotten; Neither Should We
Sasha Kramer
USAID
and Haiti: the Friendly Face of Imperialism?
Katrina Yeaw
The Student Struggle in Italy
Nicole Colson
Bird Flu: Militarizing Health Care
Raúl Zibechi
Survival and Existence in El Alto
Nikolas Kozloff
Hugo
Chávez and the Politics of Race
Website of the Day
LA Filmmakers Cooperative
October 13, 2005
Jeremy Scahill
Mr.
Bush Goes to Tikrit (Sort Of)
Jeff Birkenstein
A
Thoreau for Our Time: Why Cindy Sheehan Matters
Brendan Smith / Jeremy Brecher
Harriet Miers: Bush or the Constitution?
Stan Cox
Did You Know This About Iraq?
Anis Memon
The Curious Case of Russ Feingold
Gary Leupp
Miller, Libby and the June Notes
Dave Zirin
A Tribute to August Wilson
Matthew Koehler
America's Endangered Forests
Werther
The
Two-Headed Monster
Website of
the Day
Hurricane Song
October 12, 2005
Omar Waraich
Britain
and the Quake: Mean and Stingy
William Cook
Voices
Behind the Entombment Wall
Phil Gasper
Countdown
to a Legal Lynching
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment Now and Then: Clinton, Bush and the Polls
Matt Vidal
Capital, Power and Class
John Gautreaux
New Orleans will Never be the Same
Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica
Revisited: Using War as an Excuse for War
Mark Weisbrot
The IMF Has Lost Its Influence
Brian J. Foley
Gitmo Tribunals Endanger Public Safety
Website of
the Day
Columbus Day Lies
October 11,
2005
Roger Morris
/ Steve Schmidt
Strategic
Demands of the 21st Century
Lila Rajiva
Live from New Orleans: Abu Ghraib
Bill Quigley
New
Orleans: Leaving the Poor Behind Again
Paul Craig Roberts
Natural Born Liars
Dave Lindorff
Recruiters in Schools: No Lie Left Untried
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Suspect Thy Neighbor
Mitchel Cohen
Showdown at Chuck E. Cheese
Tariq Ali
Pakistan will Never Forget This Horror
Website of
the Day
L'Heure Americaine
October 10,
2005
Cindy and Craig
Corrie
Rachel's
Words Live
Joshua Frank
Washington's War Dems
Gideon Levy
The Beautiful Life Without Arafat
Alan Wallis
The Fight for Free Speech at Union Square
Mickey Z.
In Defense of Liars
CounterPunch News Service
Vermont Independence Convention
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Police State is Closer Than You Think
Website of the Day
Dylan's Chronicles
October 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Rhetoric
and Reality in the Business of Getting Rid of Black People
Ralph Nader
Katrina
and the Growls of Greed
Jennifer Van Bergen
New American Law: Legal Strategies in the Dharfir Case
Saul Landau
An Oily Religious Dream
Jeff Halper
Setting Up Abbas
Lenni Brenner
The Millions More Movement and Zionism
Nikolas Kozloff
Bird Flu and Bush
Brian Cloughley
Training Soldiers in Iraq
Alice Slater
A Nobel Prize for Chernobyl?
John Gautreaux
A View from Cajun Country
Fred Gardner
Does the Controlled Substances Act Mean What It Says?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Leveethan Approach
M.G. Piety
Rot in the Ivory Tower: Collusion, Cover-Up and Kierkegaard
Tom Gorman
The Hitchens Doctrine
Mike Whitney
Bunker Days with George
Aseem Shrivastava
Beyond the Wasteland: Lessons from Afghanistan
Ben Tripp
Religion, an Epistle
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel and Ford
October 7,
2005
Larry Johnson
The
Plame Case: the Real Issues
Will Youmans
Why
Do We Hate Our Freedom? Recruiters and Thugs on Campus
Dave Lindorff
Bird Flu: Evolution or Intelligent Design?
Judith Scherr
Haiti's Children's Prison
Russell D. Hoffman
Nukes for Peace, Revisited?: Nobel Prize Debacle
Jared Bernstein
Katrina and Jobs
Jennifer Van
Bergen
New
American Law: the Case of Dr. Dhafir
Website of
the Day
FBI Witchhunt
October 6, 2005
P. Sainath
"Take
That, Tom Friedman": Indian Masses Reject NYT's Neoliberal
Idol Again
Scott Parkin
When Antiwar Activists Get Mugged
Paul Craig
Roberts
Blundering
into Syria
Andréa Schmidt
Haiti's Biometric Elections: a High-Tech Experiment in Exclusion
Dave Lindorff
Easy
Money in the Big Easy
Joshua Frank
In Defense of Lew Rockwell
M. Junaid Alam
Jackboots at George Mason
Matthew Koehler
Cock and Bull on the Bitterroot
Robert Pollin
Is
the Dollar Still Falling?
October 5,
2005
Heather Gray
Militarization is Not an Answer for
Reconstruction: the Case of the Philippines
Robert Jensen
Is
Bush a Racist?
Ramzy Baroud
Bush's Final Choice: America or
the Empire
Col. Dan Smith
Keeping Promises to Iraq: "Everything
is Bad"
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds Laughs Last
Paul Craig Roberts
Liberal Guilt? How the Neocons
Took Over
Alan Maass
Doing
the Right Wing's Dirty Work
October 4, 2005
Nikolas Kozloff
Shocking the Two Party System:
a Political Opportunity for Sheehan and the Antiwar Mvt.
Mike Roselle
Houston,
You've Got a Problem
Joshua Frank
The Scoop on Harriet Miers
John Chuckman
War
Porn: What the Gruesome Images Say
Alan Farago
Storm Warning for Jeb: Developers,
Hurricanes and the Keys
Mickey Z.
An
Interview with Thaddeus Rutkowski
Christine & Ethan Rose
Home Depot Exploits Hurricane Victims
Gary Leupp
An
Earlier Empire's War on Iraq: a Lesson from Roman History
Website of the Day
Rodney
Crowell on Bob Dylan
October 3,
2005
Vijay Prashad
Desperation at Holyoke
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
Rice: Gunslinger
Joshua Frank
An Interview with Cindy Sheehan
Seth Sandronsky
The
Hiring Crisis for Black Teens
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Great Green Scare
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November 5 / 6, 2005
In
the Wake of Katrina
Return to Louisiana
By ZACHARY RICHARD
October
12.
The first thing that strikes
one upon entering the hurricane zone is the odor. A stink upon
the world and everything in it. Even a blind man would know there
is a problem. The houses are filled with mold and mildew, the
fields with rotting vegetation and the marsh lands, normally
full of wild life, are curiously silent, the water nearly black
and the smell the worst of all.
We began our visit in south
Vermilion parish. The region was inundated by the storm surge
and the towns of Delcambre, Erath and Henry were devastated.
Never in the memory of man has salt water from the Gulf penetrated
so far inland. In spite of the evacuation order, many people
remained in their homes, convinced that they were out of danger.
Once the water began to rise, they were completely isolated.
Hundreds had to be rescued from their roofs by a make shift flotilla
of sheriff deputies and volunteers, their mission complicated
by the fact that their flat bottom boats continually ran into
submerged objects, fence posts and farm equipment. Others residents
were stranded in their cars, caught by the raging water unprepared,
and had to been picked from the roofs of their vehicles or from
the trees in which they were cast.
Miraculously there were no
human casualties, but the salt water flood killed thousands of
cattle and countless numbers of wild animals. The region will
be years recovering. For farmers and cattlemen, the inundation
of pastureland and fields represents a catastrophic loss. Luckily
the first rice crop had been harvested. There will be no second
crop, nor a crawfish crop this year. It will take months or even
years of rain to wash the salt from the fields. The sugar cane
crop is ruined and the recuperation of the cane fields complicated
by the huge amount of detritus scattered hurdy gurdy. Refrigerators,
trees, entire houses will have to be removed, a task impossible
for tractors. . Much farm machinery was lost as well, ruined
by the salt water. And no work can be done by hand until the
winter chill brings on the hibernation of the poisonous snakes
which lie under the reeds
In a mobile trailer, the mayor
of Delcambre works to keep hope alive in his small community.
He tries hard to convey a feeling of confidence, but deep in
his steel blue eyes there is a hint of fear, the fear of losing
his town. "Better wind damage than a storm surge,"
he repeats. We follow him outside to the old city hall, a line
drawn chest high on the wall to mark the height of the flood.
In the street, four steel drawers full of paper folders lie drying
in the sun, the only municipal records to have survived. The
Red Cross trailer serves three meals a day in front of the church.
The residents of the town will come to eat. They are hungry explains
the mayor. But they are too proud to accept the clothes that
have arrived by the truckload, afraid of what their neighbors
would say. They come during the day to clean out their houses
returning to wherever they sleep at night, once the light begins
to fade. Lining the street in front of each house is a huge pile
of refuse, carpet, furniture, appliances, all unsalvageable,
whole piles rotting in the sun, each one containing everything
that the residents owned.
In the surrounding countryside,
the scene is repeated. In front of each house lies a huge jumble
of stuff, the entire contents of the ruined homes waiting for
someone to come and pick it up. We travel the country road toward
Bayou Tigre, the hardest hit neighborhood in the area. Entire
houses are laying yards, in some cases hundreds of yards off
of their foundations. The fields are brown, the late summer grass
rotting. Some fields are completely stripped of any vestiges
of vegetation, the earth a drab grey color and cracked like the
desert. The sugar cane, normally ten feet high and bright green,
is laying on its side, its lush color faded to brown. The edge
of the storm surge can be clearly seen, a line of detritus with
green to the north and brown to the south. On one side life and
on the other, death.
October
13.
We arrive early in the morning
at the court house of Vermilion parish in Abbeville. There to
meet us is Daly Broussard, farm bureau chief for the parish.
He introduces us to the sheriff and to the commander of the national
guard. But the most interesting meeting of the morning is when
Daly introduces us to a small group of men sitting under the
veranda of the courthouse. They are timid, talking amongst themselves,
men in their 50s and above. They seem to be part of the local
decor, local yokels with nothing to do but hang around the town
square. They joke and laugh. Theses are some of the farmers who
have suffered the most. Normally they would be out in the fields
or busy with some project, but the hurricane has put their lives
on hold and they sit waiting on the courthouse steps for some
bit of information, looking like a pack of stray dogs not knowing
what to do with themselves. These are not men who are in the
habit of asking for help. They are not comfortable with their
new status as hurricane victims. Helplessness shows in their
faces. Since the hurricane, the world, and their place in it
have changed.
The cattlemen and farmers of
southwest Louisiana are a special breed, proud and independent.
Since the arrival of the first Acadian exiles in the territory
nearly 250 years ago, a tradition of self reliance is an fundamental
aspect of the local culture. Before the Civil War, the residents
of the prairies, unlike their cousins along the rivers and bayous,
did not own slaves. Slaves would have only been a bother to cattlemen
who could tend their herds with the help of their families. Unlike
the plantation country, the prairies never knew the fabulous
antebellum homes of the sugar and cotton aristocracy. Out here,
a man's wealth was measured by his herd, Descendants of those
early cattlemen, like the men on the courthouse steps are fiercely
independent and very proud, and uncomfortable with having to
rely on others for help.
Daly introduces us to Pat Ménard,
age 66, who agrees to show us his farm. In a metal shed ripped
open as though by a giant can opener, Mr. Ménard shows
us his rice combines and tractors, $150,000 of farm machinery
completely ruined. His crawfish ponds are dry, the earth scorched
and crackled. He, like most of the local farmers, had no flood
insurance and is facing a total loss. We ask him what he intends
to do. Speaking French with the rich accent of south Louisiana,
Mr. Ménard replies, "At my age it will be hard to
start over, it took all of my life to build up my farm, but what
choice do I have?" Fortunately the first rice crop was good
and at least he will have that money to help him along. His herd
was relatively small, less than 50 head. He was able to save
a dozen cattle but was forced to sell them at distressed prices
not having enough hay to keep them alive.
We accompany Mr. Ménard
to his home in the nearby village of Henry. A Red Cross truck
is serving hot meals in front of the church. The three workers,
all ladies are cheerful. We refuse their offer of food, choosing
instead to eat the sandwiches that we brought along. Under the
porch of the Catholic church, we eat silently, the only people
in town apart from the Red Cross volunteers. The church benches
are all outside, drying in the sun, the water line visible above
the seat. They are ruined and will not be salvaged. The church
itself will likely be abandoned, as will the school and most
of the town. The houses, like that of Mr. Ménard, will
be bulldozed.
We accompany him to his home.
From the outside, the house seems normal enough, a modest brick
bungalow. The yard is a mess, but the structure seems sound enough.
The interior of the house however, is a vision of the apocalypse.
Everything is lying in the greatest disorder, furniture, appliances,
canned goods, photos, clothes, all covered with dried mud. The
carpet is still wet with inches of thick black smelly mud. The
smell is overwhelming. Mildew climbs the wall. "My wife
can't come back," says Mr. Ménard, "All she
does is cry." Like most of the people here, they will move
out, leaving behind the memories of a lifetime and the sad souvenir
of this storm.
Once we finish our lunch, we
head south. Ron Gaspard, friend and cameraman, leads us on a
visit of his home town, Forked Island. We leave the main road,
Hiway 82, and head into the village. Everything is quiet, the
sun is shining, but the atmosphere is very strange. In all of
the yards, the grass has disappeared, giving place to naked earth,
grey and crackled. In front of each house is the ubiquitous pile
of garbage, rotting in the sun. Ron escorts us up to a house
about one hundred yards back from the road. There are two old
Cajun men under the car porch, sitting up like two turtles. One
of them, aged 76, spent the hurricane in a tree. Fleeing his
house when the water began to rise, his pick up truck was swamped
and he was forced to swim. For 24 hours he was stuck in a tree,
surrounded by floodwater. Somehow he survived the hurricane winds
until a rescue boat found him. "I'm too good to die,"
he chuckles. Most of the fauna, however, was not so lucky.
According to the first witnesses
to return after the hurricane, the entire area was infested with
the corpses of dead animals: mink, muskrat, raccoon, deer, cattle,
rabbits, nutrea, all swept up and killed by the surge. Not to
speak of the alligators and snakes. The water moccasins pose
a continuing danger. Angered by the intrusion of salt water,
they are everywhere, in any nook and cranny, underneath the broken
reeds, hiding from the sun. Extreme care must be used while simply
walking about.
We continued our journey, crossing
the Intracoastal Canal headed toward Pecan Island. From the top
of the bridge, the scene was one of desolation. To the north,
the detritus line of the surge was visible, going up as far as
Hiway 14. The disappearance of the levee contributed to the destruction.
During Hurricane Audry (1957) the storm surge was probably as
strong as that of Rita, but back then, the recently dredged canal
offered a wall of protection. Over the last 50 years, the levee
has been washed away by the continual wave action of the tugboats
and barges which ply the canal. When the storm surge from Hurricane
Rita arrived, there was nothing to prevent it from rolling miles
inland.
Approaching Pecan Island, we
encounter our first military check point: young soldiers, weapons
at the ready, looking very serious. They ask me several questions
and note my license plate number and the number of my driver's
license. Once the formalities finished, however, they relax,
and we have a short conversation, joking under the crystal clear
sky. They must be much more at ease here at home than they were
in Iraq.
In Pecan Island, the nature
of the destruction changes. Only a few miles from the actual
coast, the town received the full force of the storm. Many houses
are tossed about as though by a gigantic and evil child. Many
others have simply disappeared, the foundation pillars are the
only evidence that they ever existed at all. The amount of detritus
is astounding and the army engineers are piling it up and hauling
it off, work rendered hazardous because of the snakes.
Pecan Island is but a ribbon,
the houses lining both sides of Hiway 82, the only street in
town. It is built on a chenier ridge rising only a few meters
above the surrounding marsh. There are many hunting camps, the
area known as a hunter's paradise. Today, however, it looks more
like hell. I wonder what the water fowl, millions of ducks and
geese, will do this winter once they arrive to find their feeding
ground completely destroyed by salt intrusion.
To the west of Pecan Island
lies the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. For miles and miles, there
is nothing but marshland stretching in all directions. The smell
has become much stronger. The water is black. We see a few nutrea
rats, about the size of a big cat, climbing out onto the road,
in a pitiful state, head down, their normal brown color turned
to black. Normally the marsh would be alive with birds, but we
see only a few moorhens and a flock of grackles. I am surprised
to see brand new electricity poles, installed, evidently since
the storm. The older poles are still in place, bent over, some
nearly touching the road.
The farther west we travel,
the worse the destruction becomes. The Wildlife Refuge headquarters
is a shambles. The Smith Ranch house, a beautiful raised cottage
in the Louisiana style, survived well. Built on pillars twenty
feet off of the ground, the house offered little resistance to
the storm surge. The out buildings and fences, however, are gone.
The scene is all the more desolate because the cattle have disappeared.
Normally there would have been hundreds of black angus grazing
near the road. Today, not a single cow is to be seen. Were they
moved to safety or destroyed in the storm?
It's in Grand Chenier that
we see the worse. Of the small town, only the water tower and
part of the church remain. There is not a single house standing.
The foundations bear mute witness to their existence, brick steps
leading up to nothing. Out in the field are the scattered the
remains, strewn about in great disorder, here a refrigerator,
there a television set. Around several trees, the frames of mobile
homes are knotted like neckties. Although stripped of their leaves,
the live oaks (quercus virginiana) remain, throwing their shade
upon the empty yards. Palm trees also survived which is surprising
given their shallow roots. I walk through the ruins and begin
to cry.
Cameron is worse still. Downtown,
the bank, the fire station, the wharf, are nothing but ruins.
The steel frames of the buildings are still in place, but nothing
else remains. The only building to have survived is the courthouse.
It was built after Hurricane Audry and was designed to resist
an atom bomb or a tidal wave. Its white shape can be glimpsed
through the desolation from just about anywhere in town. We stop
the car and walk around. Here and there are vestiges of the life
as it used to be: a bathtub, a ceiling fan, a tool set, a little
girl's doll. Out in the field, a stray cow approaches, drawn
to us, thinking, perhaps that we will save her. She eats the
few remaining leaves on an oak tree, something she would never
have done a few weeks ago. Without pasture or fresh water, she
will not last more than a week. Unable to help her, we leave.
As we walk back to the car, the setting sun just above the horizon,
I begin to cry. I have been crying a lot this year.
Zachary Richard is one of Louisiana's most acclaimed
musicians. He is an environmentalist, human rights activist and
defender of the Acadian culture and language. Called the Cajun
Mick Jagger for his unique blend of rock and old-time Cajun music,
Richard's cds include: Snake
Bite Love, Cap Enragé and Silver Jubilee: the Best
of Zachary Richard. This journal appears on his website.
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