What I Can Do

There has been no shortage of pieces in blogland over the past week about Hurrricane Katrina, who screwed up, What This Says About America, who screwed up, white guilt, what it means to be poor (in general, but mostly in the United States), liberal guilt, rich guilt, and who screwed up.

Enough with the handwringing already.

I can

a) give money to Habitat for Humanity and Heifer International, programs which will help people long after the Red Cross has moved out

b) make it known in my dealings with folks I work with, or talk with, or stand next to at the grocery store, that I do not consider the word “looter” an acceptable synonym for “African American.”

c) put pressure on my elected officials to ask hard questions, and not relent until they’ve been answered. They need to ask some easy questions too, like when is Mr. Brown going to get fired from FEMA.

d) seriously examine my lifestyle and curtail the ways in which it is wasteful, unmindful, unthinking. The ways in which it might, with or without my knowledge, exploit others. Focus on low impact environmentally, high impact socially. This will take some time.

e) offer to make it easy for someone whose skills might be put to good use in hurricane relief efforts to get there, like looking after their pets. UC Davis is giving employees who wish to volunteer paid leave. I think this is laudable and I’d like to support it however I can.

f) support community efforts on the ground to rebuild New Orleans and surrounding areas according to the needs of the people who live there, rather than according to the wishes of the government, developers or speculators, corrupt officials, and the rest of the corporate looting mob.

I’m still thinking, but this is a start.