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Subject: "i had to put my editor on blast (KATRINA POLITICAL ACTION POST)"

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poetx
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42557 posts

Fri Sep-02-05 12:39 AM

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"i had to put my editor on blast (KATRINA POLITICAL ACTION POST)"
Fri Sep-02-05 12:56 AM by poetx

(Katrina Political Action Post. we are gonna use this to discuss what we can do to channel our outrage and concern about this shit).

and my first 'act' is to write about it in the paper where i have a column. we need to educate and mobilize and sensitize people around this country to put our elected officials on notice that this shit is NOT ok and that someone has to pay for this gross incompetency. but i had issues even being able to do that.

1st e-mail to my editor:

On 9/1/05 2:56 PM, "me" <me@my day job.com> wrote:

hi ________?

when is the next column opening? i was gonna ask that anyway, but i'm
really, really, really itching to write about the aftermath of
Katrina. if there's space, i could even have something to you by
tomorrow morning (give me a word count and i'm there).

it seems most of the folks who were hit hardest could not afford to
go. that's a tragedy AND travesty. (also, money to fix their levees
was cut due to iraq war and war on terra, AND 35% of their nat'l
guard is in iraq). president cut his vacation two days short, though.
gotta love it.

washington post has started to write about this. ny times has called
the pres on his tepid response, and hugo chavez has ante'd up $1M and
called our vacationing leadership to task.

i would REALLY, however like to delve upon what this says about our
society. and (from various blog and msg board postings) a column or
shorter commentary is just a cut & paste away considering what i've
already written on it.

thanks,

d.

--------------------------------------------

he wrote back:

09/01/2005 05:34 PM
Subject - Re: Next Column Openings/Katrina coverage?

hey there. Thanks, but I may not have a spot for a few weeks, I'm afraid.
And I agree completely with your take on this, and we may need to run it if
the political issues aren't being addressed by the mainstream media (and
believe me, being from new orleans and having edited our big fema story
last year, I know you're right). Otherwise, when we write about the
hurricane or any big issue, I want it to be local, special or very
different than what anyone else is doing. Let's see how it goes and email
again next week.

Thanks,

------------------------------------------

after i had a chance to actually read more and watch more coverage, i was incensed, and fired this back.

From: me @ my day job
Sent: Thu 9/1/2005 8:30 PM
To: my editor.

Subject: there is NOTHING more significant than this right now in my estimation.

nothing.

these people are dying because they are poor and because they are black.

this is bullshit. the director of fema talking about he just heard today
that the people in the shelters had no food or water.

there is NO way that they can not do something for these people. and all
the headlines are about looting and fucking gas prices.

the director of FEMA is on cnn blaming the people for staying when 27% of a
485,000 population is under the federal poverty level, and the median
income is 27,000, so up to 200,000 are in the same boat. and they are
talking about people who CHOSE to stay behind. it is absolutely infuriating
and disgusting.

the richest nation in the world. and they herded those people into the
terror dome with NO thought about what to do with them, and no sense of
urgency after the fact.

you have the national guard turning back and not evacuating thousands of
people because of small arms fire? when their brethren are in iraq getting
blown up by bombs? THATs an excuse not to go get people?

i have NEVER been this pissed about anything that has happened in this
country. never. every single person who died yesterday, who dies today, and
who dies tomorrow has died needlessly, and this government needs to be
accountable.

THAT story is not being broadcast and reported, other than sporadically,
and never with any analysis that explains WHY.

tv talking heads (aside from occassionally on cnn) are still couching this
whole things in terms of people who CHOSE to stay behind. the general
populace takes its clues from whatever the headlines of the corporate news
provide them. they are not getting that this is a monstrous and
unconscionable abrogation of responsibility by the government towards its
citizens.

people are jumping off the overpasses to their death out of despair because
they are baking in 97 degree heat with no food or water and there is no
communication and no indication of when if ever anyone will come for them.

and news agencies choose to televise looped coverage ofpeople stealing
sneakers and tvs, and the rest of the country (including the triangle) sits
in judgement, as if these insane actions by a few warrant these people
being treated like animals, worse than prisoners. in prison at least they
get meals and showers and food and water.

of EVERYTHING that is on my mind to write about nothing even comes close to
matching the intensity of feeling that i have about this.

---------------------------------

i was fuming when i wrote that. didn't expect my editor to be reading late, but he called me on the cell at 10:30pm and was like, "i thought about it and you're right. i'm gonna move some other stuff out of the way. go ahead and write what you have to write and don't pull any punches. i think this will HAVE to be a national story by next week--"

i cut across to say that yes, it will have to be. but it will NOT carry the correct analysis and put this in larger context. he agreed. said, 1400wds would be great, but if i need to go over, do what i gotta do.

in ten years of writing and several different editors, i have NEVER gone this route of demanding to write on something. (i've called up and strongly suggested, but they usually ask my opinion on major ish). but this was worth it.

what people read frames how they interpret and how they act. i want people to ACT based on this info.

btw, my editor pointed me to a blog on washingtonmonthly.com, which encapsulated how bush's systematic fucking up of FEMA set the stage for this. and our paper did an expose piece last sept on FEMA, including how bush appointed people to head it who had NO background in disaster management (the first director was bush's press secretary in texas, and the leader now, michael brown, was allbaugh's attorney).

as i am writing i am asking y'all to help brainstorm on finding sites where we can get congressman's emails, phone, etc. i'm committing to doing ALL of that shit.

peace & blessings,

x.

sigless for the summer, y'all.