Reply #60: As an African-American female, I feel the pain too. [View All]

[Tatiana]

Actually it's a type of rage/depression/fear-type pain.

You know the feeling you get when something is so hurtful, so painful that you get this feeling of nausea in your stomach and your mouth opens wide, but no sound comes out?

What really got me was the elderly and older survivors. One older lady, she could have been my own "Big Mama" was in tears outside the Superdome. This may have been Tuesday or Wednesday. She had tears in her eyes, but there was something more. There was shame. She kept saying, "We're not animals. We don't live like this here, this is not how we live." All I could see was chaos. At the time, I didn't know about the horror she had faced in there. I didn't know about the smeared feces, the dead bodies just left there, the assaults on the victims... God, I'm crying all over again.

That woman could have been my own grandmother. Some of those men could have been my grandfather, my great-uncle, my pastor. I think Oprah made an important point yesterday. These people deserved some dignity. Regardless of their status, whether they were poor or middle-class, they deserved not only to die, but to live with dignity.

This administration, specifically Bush, will account for their lack of human compassion -- indeed, their lack of love for these brothers and sisters; aunts and uncles, cousins, friends and neighbors. They not only left thousands to die, but humiliated and damaged in an almost-irreparable way the ones that managed to survive.

I say "almost" because we are nothing but a people, much like the Native Americans, of survivors. We'll make it through and we'll rise again at the end of the day. New Orleans will be rebuilt and our Nation will never be the same again.

Those survivors will regain their dignity and know that in spite of their best effort, the evil ones did not destroy them.

I'm reminded of Matthew 25:

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."