E-mail written by a paramedic details conditions in New Orleans.
Accounts that purport to be first-hand reports from people on the scene in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina continue to pop on to the Internet and go on to enjoy wide circulation as they are passed from inbox to inbox. This particular one, which presents itself as a letter from a paramedic serving in New Orleans to his father, first came to us on 9 September 2005. Brian White, the originator of the message, maintained to us that the e-mail he sent his father on 8 September 2005 included only the last few paragraphs found in the widely-circulated version, and the remainder was added by someone else:Subject: RE: glad to hear you're helping... Hey Pop, Just finishing another long night, and heading to bed. Email has been hit or miss for a while with Cox, so yes this is a better way to chat. Not sure how much of this you want to pass along &mdash... so feel free to edit. Yesterday the Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up in Baton Rouge, I wished he would have showed up in Sheriff Harry Lee's office as we would have NEVER heard from him again. He said, 'Bush has NOT appointed a Single Black to head up this Katrina Relief, the Black Caucus and Black Leaders all over America are upset with him putting the Black Folks on the side and it is OUR people who are sitting on their roof tops waiting for Rescue, OUR people who are standing in line at the Superdome waiting on Food, Water and a Ride to a safe place, OUR people who have been locked down in Poverty...' and so on. George Sell the Anchorman for TV 9 news responded to Jesse, 'Rev. Jackson, the Mayors of New Orleans and Baton Rouge are Black, the Police Chief's of New Orleans and Baton Rouge are Black, the Head of the LA State Police is Black, the Head of the Army conducting the Army's operation on the Ground in New Orleans is Black, the Congressman from New Orleans is Black and for the last 40 years, the leaders of LA have been members of the Democratic Party, YOUR Party, don't blame us like you are doing, look in the Mirror, you pull the Race Card any time you don't get your way, we are in a Terrible Crisis and right now we need to come together and here you come to Louisiana and holler Racism, just like you do, it is NEVER EVER your fault, ALWAYS someone else, but here you are sitting High and Dry, why don't you go out in to the waters where they are shooting at the Rescue personnel and help in the Rescue???'' Hats off to George Sell for putting him in his place, Harry Lee would have put Jesse in his place and then some! This is a time to come together and work together, not the time to pull the race card! BrianAs to the claims made in the piece about Green Berets shooting looters and rapists when they come out into the darkness to transact their business, overweight patients being left to drown in hospitals because they were too large to make it up the stairs to dry floors, citizens with open wounds on their legs from exposure to the toxic soup of the flood waters, and a crack dealer who wouldn't be transferred to another hospital because he couldn't conduct his business there, at this point those have to live as unsubstantiated stories because they have yet to beconfirmed.The one item in the e-mail that does lend itself to confirmation or denial is its closing anecdote about a newsman who supposedly answered Jesse Jackson's assertion that no African-Americans had been appointed by President Bush to head up relief efforts with a laundry list of the names of African-Americans directing various aspects of the struggle to reclaim the city and its people from the disaster. The Rev. Jackson had made such criticisms of President Bush's appointments while visiting Baton Rouge on 2 September 2005; George Sells (not Sell, as the e-mail would have it), a news anchor at WAFB-TV, the CBS affiliate in Baton Rouge, says he did offer as a reply to the Reverend's assertions the comment that the Mayor of New Orleans and the commander of Army forces, Russell Honore, were African-American. (Russell Honore is head of the military task force overseeing operations in the three states hit by Katrina, and his task force is aiding search and rescue efforts, providing medical help, and sending supplies to three states in support of FEMA. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, was elected to that position well before the onset of Hurricane Katrina.)But that seems to be where the e-mailed anecdote and the truth part ways. George Sells asserts his response began and ended with mention of those two African-Americans, and that the rest of the lengthy list of blacks prominent in relief efforts and the suggestion that the one so quick with his charges of discrimination should go aid rescue workers as they were being shot at were added to the online-circulated account by an anonymous author.Barbara 'short sells' Mikkelson
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