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Conversations
with Miriam
How we go about
rebuilding New Orleans?
& the Trauma of Being Displaced
& Government Neglect
Hold
the United States Accountable
Rudy, those are good
(essential) questions. Apparently, a survey was done of
evacuees in the DC area recently and 43% of them said that they
would remain in the area and not return to N. O. I wonder
what impact the decision not to return will have on the
reconstructuring of the city. It looks like a half of the
people will not relocate. – Miriam
do the displaced want to go home?
Miriam, I'd like to have
more information on this kind of information. I don't know who's
doing the counting, who's doing the polling. Who's doing the
asking? What game is being played with this kind of response.
Like E I want to know what is rumor and what is real.
These networks are
important. With speed and precision we can sift thru
what is being said. And said by people in truama. I'm constantly
changing my mind about things just depending on my moods. And
they're constantly here and there, all over the place. There was
a time I didn't want to go back to that VA country house I was
raised in that didn't have running water, and an indoor
toilet, and no telephone. And no nothing for too much of a good
time.
But, my god, that house,
that place means so much to me, now. When I'm laid to rest I
want to be buried there with my folks.
Stick a microphone in the
face of a traumatized person, what do you get? Talk to her next
week after she has had a sedative, some food, some water, some
conversation. Relaxed a bit. And she might have a different
story to tell.
That someone wants to make
political hay out of these kind of sentiments can't be lost from
sight – Rudy
*
* * * *
240,000
want to go home
Rudy, I, too, took
it with a grain of salt, but we have to realize that there are
people who have been too traumatized to want to return.
And return to what? After all, Kalama announced in his
first report that he was not going to return, because, for him,
New Orleans is the people and not the place. I suspect,
though, that he'll probably change his mind. I do, every
day, about every thing--as I get more information, reflect some,
and sit on it a while. For one thing, some of the evacuees
are being treated like heroes--being given food,
apartments/houses, jobs, health care--no substitute for
dislocation and all the trauma they've been through, but they're
things some of them have never had because for the first time
many of the poor and Black are VISIBLE and have VOICES that
others will listen to. I try to put myself in their shoes
and I know there will be all kinds of choices that they'll make
and have to make--some of which you and I wouldn't agree
with--but, hey, that's their right. – Miriam
I'd lived in New
Orleans
If it were different, I'd
be there. I'm not at my country VA home, either, because
there just ain't no way for me to make money there. They ran me
away from my home. The wise guys. I had to be away from my
family. To do anything
But we have two
issues, here. One, Building New Orleans for a Black New Orleans,
which means "living wages" or $10 minimums; and Two,
supporting individual choices of people to make their homes
where they will. I ain't against that, Two. Let's say that 40
percent is halved to 20 percent which might be a more reasonable
number. Let's say New Orleans had 300, 000 black residents. That
leaves 240,000 Negroes who want to go home -- who want to be out
of shelters, out from under the military -- free to return to
their homes and a better life.
My suspicion is that they
who do these polls do not want black people to have a
say in the rebuilding of New Orleans, and to question the
economics of New Orleans and speak of its need for serious
reform, we still have not talked about the local politics
that created a 30 percent underclass.
This whole emphasis of
resettling New Orleans folks has to do with disfranchising
New Orleans residents, keeping them on the run, like Ellison's
Invisible Man. –Rudy
*
* *
* *
Writing in Madness
I just clicked on to
ChickenBones because you said you were posting various articles,
and oh me, oh my, I saw my photo & words, in dialogue with
you and Kalamu. I am honored to be in yall's company, two
righteous brothers whose views I respect. There are many
other voices there that I plan to listen to. I've been
trying to get back to my work--the book that's been on the back
burner for so long--but I can't focus; someone calls or I
get a long e-mail that deserves response or something else comes
up. How do you write in the midst of this madness?
– Miriam
You don't make bad coffee
Miriam, leaving
New Orleans in mid-July I had many plans. I planned to
write a journal about my six-day trip. Then I got to reading
Tom's Southern Journey and there I came across you. I did write
a review for that book. That was a wonderful experience.
And I was gonna do an anthology THE BEST OF CHICKENBONES. And an
anthology of the writings of blacks who have been to
Africa. And I was learning how to write poetry.
And then Joyce King told me
I had to read THE AFRICAN by Harold Courlander and I just happen
to have a copy of it. And I read it. And my world has not been
quite been the same, since. I was writing a review of that work
when the saga of New Orleans took over all our hearts, souls,
and minds. And so I been living Wes Hunu . . .
My friend Arthur Flowers of
Rootsblog was writing
a novel when this enormity came to be. I told him not to worry
that this work he doing in connection with Katrina would
enrich whatever task he undertook hereafter so he shouldn't
worry that anything will be lost. I do not know whether
this will apply to you or not. For me I relish these times despite
the misery and death brought negligently into existence. This
for me is a wonderful time to do great things, for
great men and greater women to come to the fore, the
battlefield.
Yes, I have become quite
fond of you. And they say there's no love in
cyberspace. Here's a poem I just read by Lansana Sekou, one of
those island writers, "mariposa"
the mornings are fewer /
the nights longer / love is fine and full / and everybody else
but you / makes bad coffee.
So there's how my
sentiments run. It's very important you be in/on
ChickenBones. I am honored. Thank you -- Rudy
posted 16 September 2005 |
