August 31, 2014

Remembering the Katrina Memorial That Almost Wasn’t
By Mary LaCoste

During a special anniversary ceremony, Mayor Mitch Landrieu remembers Hurricane Katrina in front of the Katrina Memorial last week. PHOTO: NOLA.gov/Facebook

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Within the old Charity Hospital Cemetery, and visible from Canal Street in New Orleans, La.,  is a little-known memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina. It is also the final resting place of 86 bodies that remained unclaimed after the storm, almost half of them unidentified. Well-designed, inspirational and lovely, the memorial is nestled among the dozen cemeteries clustered at the end of the Canal Streetcar Line. It is a memorial that almost did not happen.

The fact that it became a reality on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, August 29, 2008, was due to the perseverance of many people and an extraordinary final push to completion by the city’s funeral directors and the coroner. They deemed it inappropriate to let the bodies remain any longer in a warehouse. They cared.

One million dollars of FEMA money had been set aside by the city for a suitable memorial and for the burial of unclaimed bodies. Nothing happened until encouragement came in the form of donations including one of $100,000 from the Funeral Service Foundation, an arm of the National Funeral Directors Association. The African-American funeral directors of New Orleans, impatient and unhappy with the delays, took the lead in securing more funds and demanding action. Matthews International Corporation was contacted to design a suitable memorial, secure local input and order materials.

Work began in earnest in May 2008, less than three months before the target date of August 29. Much had to be done. The land in the front portions of the old Charity Hospital Cemetery, which has long served as a potters’ field, was carefully cleared and permits sought and granted. Monies had to be set aside to provide for future upkeep by Louisiana State University, the titleholder of the land.

Six mausoleum-like structures were completed and landscaping begun. A monument symbolizing the eye of the storm was the centerpiece of the design with walks curving out from it like the paths of encircling hurricane winds. Despite all obstacles, it looked as if it would be completed and the dedication would be held on time. As the date neared, Scott Anthony of the Funeral Service Foundation flew in from New York to take part in the ceremonies. He was proud of the role funeral directors from across the United States had played by their support.

Hearses, more than 60 of them, were loaned, free of cost, by funeral homes in and near New Orleans. Men and women from the funeral industry volunteered to drive the vehicles and act as pallbearers to carry the sealed metal coffins into the memorial cemetery. Arrangements were made for speakers, a jazz funeral procession and for the ringing of bells at the exact time of the first canal break at 9:38 am. Reporters from the national and local press were alerted.

Disaster! By August 28, Hurricane Gustav was in the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans was in the projected path! Evacuations had begun. Citizens, their emotions still raw from the terrors of Katrina, were leaving in droves. Would the August 29 dedication have to be cancelled? The planners would not let that happen. Led by the dedicated ladies of the funeral industry, such as Sandra Rhodes Duncan and C.C. Johnson, they pulled it together with some minor changes and an abbreviated jazz procession.

At the memorial site on August 29, the bells did ring at 9:28, echoing faint sounds of ringing across the city. Mayor Ray Nagin led the gathering in prayer as the last bodies were put into place to the sound of Ken Ferdinand’s trumpet playing “Amazing Grace.” There was a soul-stirring hymn sung by Jonti Short and an impromptu trumpet performance by Coroner Frank Minyard as those in the gathering dried tears from their eyes.

Louis Charbonnet remembers the long solemn line of hearses that transported the bodies from the storage warehouse to the memorial, the last one a glass-sided hearse, the kind used in jazz funerals. A rose was placed on each casket as it was interred. The once-neglected remains were, at last, treated with dignity.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honoré was there to address the gathering that included a few members of the general public, religious and political figures, donors as well as the funeral professionals, now relieved that their job was done. One donor was able to return home just before the airport closed in advance of the expected hurricane.

It was expected that the dedication would have full national as well as local coverage, but there was almost none. Reporters had bigger stories to follow. For several days all focus would be on the new hurricane threat. The memorial dedication that should have been front-page news was overlooked, then forgotten — even when Hurricane Gustav went elsewhere. That is why, today, so few New Orleanians know of the existence of the graves or of the beautiful Katrina memorial.

The Katrina Memorial is indeed impressive. Weeks after the dedication, the planned walkway and landscaping were completed. Some say the walkway design reminds them of a labyrinth inviting visitors to stroll and to meditate. The six rectangular structures containing the crypts are faced with black granite that reflects the occasional visitor following the pathways. The large granite stone rising from the “eye” of the hurricane is inscribed with words of inspiration and explanation. Other markers identify the funeral directors and others who played parts in planning the memorial and seeing that it became a reality.

The Katrina Memorial is a suitable place to meditate and remember the terrible losses of the storm. It remains open each day to anyone who cares to reach in and unlatch the iron gates to the Charity Hospital Cemetery on Canal Street and walk a few feet into the past.

Blackonomics
 
Optical Delusions  
By James Clingman        

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Black life, for the most part, has become a myriad of frustration, doubt, hopelessness, desperation, despair, struggle, and fear.  We fear one another; we fear the police; we fear discrimination; we fear racism; we fear injustice; and we fear for our children’s safety on several fronts.  We have news shows that are nothing but “views shows,” that make every effort to drag us into the no-win world of political group-think, while we meander through life looking for the ultimate illusion of equality on various fronts.

Politically, we are bombarded with images, empty platitudes, and impotent strategies to alleviate our many societal problems.  Promises, inspiring messages, and microphone bravado are the tools of today that keep us relatively docile and in a perpetual state of fourth-class citizenship in this country.

Much of what we see is meaningless, but we seem to thrive on useless and shallow responses to our plight; and we settle for the same from our “leading Blacks.”  Amazingly we continue to fall for the same games and head-fakes, the same illusions, and the same rhetoric year after year.  It’s all about the “optics,” as the politicians like to say.

For instance, politicians like to show their concern by doing meaningless things like rolling up their sleeves when they visit a city and come to the microphone.  They like to wash pots and pans in homeless shelters.  They like to serve in food lines.  They like to eat hamburgers in public.  They like to play games to give the impression they are one of us.   They like to dance in conga lines in Africa.  They like to be with celebrities to show they are “in.”  They like to stand beside manufacturing robots to show us they are innovative.  They like to stand on top of rubble and declare their grit and determination to avenge us.

Optics compels our leaders to do dumb and meaningless things to get us to believe they are busy and engaged in the struggles of the common man.  And it works.  Does that mean we are dumb if we accept their empty gestures?  Why do we care if they can play golf, if they can dance, if they ride a bicycle, if they jog, if they can play an instrument or sing, if they eat a cheeseburger, or if they shed their ties and roll up their sleeves as if they are going to do some real work?

Optics is nothing more than an illusion.  A great example is what took place immediately after police shot and killed Kajieme Powell in St. Louis.  The Mayor called his staff and they conducted an impromptu job training sign-up right there at the site where the man died.  I truly hope those who signed up, all 80+ of them, will not only be trained but receive jobs—but I kinda doubt it.

When civil unrest occurs, the solutions are mainly centered on placating the offended group with more recreational opportunities, job training, diversity and sensitivity training, and other shallow remedies that are only supported by the optics of it all.  After a brief period of time, everything usually goes back to normal, especially when it comes to the economic side of things.

Most politicians are, indeed, just political.  They have their go-to guys and gals who will calm the masses but fail to neither offer nor implement economic solutions to the problems many of us face on a daily basis, including Black people being killed by other Blacks and by police officers.

I long for the day when Black people will stop falling for the optics and the antics, and start getting down to the business of economic solutions, not as a panacea, but at least as a tried and true way of making real progress when it comes to our survival in this nation.  If we continue to use the same tactics in response to our ultimate demise, we will never be respected and we will continue to be the least regarded and the least protected people in this country.

If we keep spending the overwhelming majority of our $1 trillion annual income with businesses other than own, with no reciprocity, there will be no reason for those in charge to change.  If we maintain status quo when it comes to crises, we will continue to get optics rather than substantive change.  If we rely on optical illusions to control our direction we will end up in an even more dreadful place than we find ourselves now; and our children will have absolutely no hope at all.

Optics and optical illusions are mirages and pipedreams that keep us from using our economic means in pursuit of our safety, our progress, and our liberation.  And we are delusionary if we believe otherwise.

August 31, 2014
Black Children Murdered by Other Blacks: A Non-Issue for Too Many Leaders
By Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After the celebrity politicians, press and preachers leave the glare of the cameras in Ferguson, MO resulting from the murder of Michael Brown, 18, by a white policeman, they should focus national attention on the constant slaughter of the innocents:  African American children being murdered most often by black males.

When whites kill blacks, it’s an important racial and political issue.  But when blacks murder each other or black children, most of the loud, passionate voices fade to a shameful silence.  Is it no less a crime when the gun used to kill is held by a black hand or a white hand?

The next site of mourning or protest should be Chicago, then onto the Washington DC, area and scores of other cities where parents are grieving, kids are afraid and the elderly can’t sit on their porches in broad daylight because bullets are known to come careening through the air.

On August 20, nine-year-old Antonio Smith, is the latest child gunned down, assassinated, executed-- whichever word you want to use-- near his home on Chicago’s troubled predominately black Southside. Police reports show that he was not a gangbanger, nor was he running from the police; he was just walking along in the wrong place at- the wrong time.

When will city officials finally realize that black lives, especially kids in Chicago, are vital enough to be protected and call out the National Guard?  During the Fourth of July 85 people were shot in Chicago. Two of them under 15 were shot by police.  Some teens there are saying they plan their funerals along with their proms because it is uncertain which will come first.

Despite these alarming statistics, when I was in Chicago recently, I did not get a sense that the police are up in arms about the chaos.  There is a perception that blacks dying violent deaths are normal, not warranting the police protection extended to whites.

From Chicago, the celebrity troupe should camp out in the district and in some Maryland communities to see how toxic things are for little children so close to the power center that provides security to many parts of the world, yet can’t properly protect bullets from killing kids in their homes or playgrounds.

Last week I met three year old Kodie Brown.  Her father shot and killed Selina, her mother on a DC bus.  Selina was holding Kodie then 20 months old as a bullet tore through the little girls face.  She has gone through several surgeries to correct the injury and has become a local celebrity as a survivor.

Kodie deserved better than to be disfigured but at least her grandfather, Derrick Ferguson, a DC police officer can still hold her in her arms. Some parents will never hold their children again because of the senseless violence that claimed their lives.

August has been a deadly month for three African America toddlers in Maryland and the district, which began on the first day of the month. Three year old McKenzie Elliott was playing on a Baltimore porch when a straying bullet ended her life. The shooter is still at large

On August 10  Knijah Bibb was playing in the bedroom of a Landover Maryland home she was visiting when a man started shooting after a fight.  A bullet killed the three-year-old. The shooter is also still at large.

The next Saturday another three year old died tragically at the hands of her father. Police said Frederick Miller, a 38-year-old Marine Corps veteran, was locked in a years-long custody battle over his daughter, Laila Miller. He shot the girl’s maternal grandfather and great-grandmother, then shot his child at close range and slit her throat before he drove off — her corpse in the back seat — and died after a gun battle with police.

These child tragedies unfortunately are not unique to Maryland.  The Children’s Defense Fund tells us that in the USA a child or teen is killed or injured by a gun every 30 minutes.  That is 50 children and teens every day, 350 every week.

Not unique, but not normal either. It is mind-bogging that leaders who care about black people –including President Obama---do not come up with a strategy to help stem the violence in our streets that are claiming our children.

“Why would someone shoot a little girl like me?”  That was the soul-searching question posed by a little African American girl recently after being shot on a playground in the district.  She is now undergoing surgery and physical therapy. The shooter described as a  black male is still at large.

So far there have been no answers and promises that adults will work as hard to focus national attention on little kids shot by black men as is done when white cops shoot black men.

And until black on black murder is taken seriously, we are left with the heartbreak of the slaughter of the innocence.

August 31, 2014

Through the Eyes of Others
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) —There’s an old saying, "There is none so blind as (s) he who will not see."  My initial understanding and the evolved significance of that statement have come to shape how I view and interpret many of the events that impact my life, community and country.  That admission rings more than true as I reflect on the events of the last several weeks and many others in my lifetime of experiences.  I speak specifically to the value I see placed on the lives of others and the value of life that’s seen and acknowledged when others look at me, and those who look like me.

If history shows us nothing else, we have been provided numerous examples of how easy it is to brutalize any group of people and justify the brutality once they’ve been dehumanized in the mind and perception of the brute.  The history of this nation's inhumane treatment of enslaved Africans, has been justified with their being characterized as sub-human or biblically as descendants of Ham who are obligated to be servants. During this nation's westward expansion, the treatment of Native Americans was made acceptable by characterizing them as "uncivilized savages". The killing of Japanese and Vietnamese opponents in war became easier by calling them "Nips", "Zips", "Slopes" or "Gooks".  If we listen closely enough or pay attention, contemporarily, we will hear our Arabic adversaries called "Rag-head Niggers" or "Sand Niggers."

As I evaluate unfolding events in Ferguson, MO; Dayton, OH; NYC and an ever increasing list of places, the value perceived in the lives of Black males is minimal and, seemingly, grows less in each passing generation.  The answers to the why of this are many, but I believe that until these questions are routinely and continually addressed in the national dialogue, chaos at the treatment of people of color, Black people in general, and Black males, specifically, will continue to be the norm.

The volatile reaction of Black residents of Ferguson should not be unexpected when we assess the history of their community policing or hear reports that residents were commonly referred to by those responsible for "serving and protecting" them as "animals" and "savages."  I am at a loss to think that anyone could not understand the righteous indignation of the Ferguson community to being occupied by a quasi-military force of oppressors which embraces that mindset.

In the eyes of the oppressor, however, mustering that type of response to the community's outrage over the murder of one of their own was a natural first response and the correct method of maintaining proper "control”. Therein lies the crux of the problem. Those who oppress or commit acts with racially-based disparate impact don't see the wrong in what they do.  Those who traverse life in judgment of others using stereotypes and false characterizations based on their limited experience seek no understanding beyond what they already know. Those who hold conscious or unconscious racial animus can only see life through the lens of their own correctness.  Most evil are those who clearly understand their own aspirations for health, peace and happiness for for themselves, their families and friends; yet refuse to accept that others not like them hold similar aspirations.

If we’re to survive as a nation, we must quickly reject notions that have separated us into US and THEM and seek community. The abiding principle that makes a community is the individual's ability to look beyond self-interests to options that enfold the common good.  Community is looking beyond what we singularly understand to objectively evaluate, not accept, beliefs and value-systems that exist outside our present understanding. To paraphrase Matthew McConaughey's character in the movie, A Time to Kill, "Look through someone else's eyes and imagine it was you."

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President/CEO of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc.  www.nationalcongressbw.org)