by Jean Hardisty & Carol Schachet

The largest disaster in US history–the devastation of the Gulf Coast by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita–is fading from public attention. This is a common phenomenon known as “compassion fatigue.” But for anyone living in the US, compassion fatigue is not a moral option in this case. This disaster fell disproportionately on the backs of low-income people, many of whom are people of color, who were left for days without help, and since, have been left to languish in poverty, often far from their homes. For this reason alone, progressive activists need to remind anyone who will listen (and even those who try not to listen) of ongoing conditions there, and the national neglect of the struggles of those displaced by the hurricanes.

An equally compelling reason for highlighting the Gulf Coast is that the federal response to the hurricanes presents valuable insights into the Bush Administration’s ideological agenda for low-income people, its conscious incompetence, and its sycophantic relationship with corporate interests. In fact, we would say that the pattern of federal response to the Gulf Coast is a blueprint for other regions of the country, were they equally vulnerable to predatory privatization and the defunding of public housing and other aspects of the social safety net.

The hurricanes’ aftermath in the Gulf Coast continues to reveal a callous neglect on the part of the federal government toward US residents. They have been called “refugees” or “displaced persons,” common terms for people forced to leave their countries of origin. However, refugees are often accorded more rights and more assistance than our own fellow Americans. The true disaster of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina is not from water or wind, but from intentional governmental policies of public neglect and private interests.

Just as Eastern Europe after the breakup of the Soviet Union became a playground for the Right to experiment with free market capitalism, so New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are a neoconservative stalking horses for a vision of privatized cities that are “free” of poor people. All of us, everywhere in the country, need to be aware of what is happening there and join in the ongoing mobilization to hold the federal government accountable.

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Jean Hardisty is a longtime RESIST supporter, founder of Political Research Associates and currently a Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Research on Women at Wellesley College. Carol Schachet edits the Resist Newsletter.