America is listening to New Orleans, they just don’t want to do anything about it. On the heels of our own anti-crime march on City Hall, a recent topic of discussion on Radio OpenSource wonders if the American protest form of marching may become extinct. Read and listen to Marching Towards Obsolescence.
In a time when at least 60% of the populace opposes the war in Iraq and disapproves of the response to Katrina, who is speaking out ” or acting out? Where is the spirit that launched the Boston Tea Party or teetotaling Carrie Nation; that ignited the draft cards, the flags, and the bras? Are we burned out ” or have we just Move(d)On?
Also pay attention to the Extra Credit section which shows that apathy towards or after marches may be induced by citizen laziness, government discouragement or both.
I think it’s just good ol’ post-modern ennui. We live in a time when simply the act of stating a grievance (i.e. participating in a march) is so convoluted with doubt about one’s moral standing to do so as well as doubt about whether one’s message will be understood.. or even noticed.. that it makes action of any sort feel futile. Of course laziness and censorship play into this.. but I think the ultimate “failure to communicate” comes from something larger and endemic to a moribund society.
Open Source may have hit on something: perhaps, for some, the venting of one’s displeasure on the web eases outrage to the point where public display feels redundant.
The protest in New Orleans wasn’t aimed at national leaders as much as local ones, nor did it have anything to do with the federal response to Katrina. I specifically remember hearing that this was “not a Katrina problem,” right? There has never been a mass protest here over the slow recovery–aimed at any combination of leaders–to show Americans outside of the city what people here are thinking. There has only been a protest aimed at local leaders regarding crime.
Make of that what you will.
Blair, this is why we have to step away from the pigeonhole of Bloggers and to a more open-minded Multimedia Citizen Journalists.
Ray, my question starts at the national level: Given that Americans know of injustice in this country and abroad, why don’t they do anything, i.e. march, about it?
Then, I bring it to the local level: Now that we have marched on City Hall, what? I’m concerned that our leaders, be they federal, state or city “know that once a protest is peacefully held and concluded, the protesters simply go home and sit on their asses until the next protest or the next election.”
There is a danger, even here in NOLA, that our leaders don’t take the march and our crime problem seriously at all. As for aiming the crime problem at someone, we took anyone who would listen.
OK, got it. Otherwise, it’s agenda-setting 101.
You must have contacts on the inside or influence among those who can do anything about a particular problem, and specific proposals about what can be done, etc. Then an interest group has to present a united front, have a coherent set of issues its behind, all that.
There is a problem in comparing our reaction to that of an Eastern European nation’s, speaking of the above, in that our system is set up in a way to make quick action extremely difficult. (The bueaucratic response immediately after Katrina is a different story, but holding hearings to get to the bottom of it all is a different story–I’m talking about getting stuff through or done by Congress here, not implementation of an emergency response. Again, who’s in power to investigate? What individuals must be placated, etc., etc.?)
At the local level, it’s easier to hold leaders accountable, or to find someone to blame. But in an urban area you still have factions, a diverse constitutency. And you haven’t had a clear ruling elite class of leaders and opinion-makers here in recent years, from what I’ve read, one whose complaints are immediately taken to heart by Nagin, et. al. ‘
The protests were loud, but were those taking part in them united in what they believe can be done about the problem? I read about the Marginy organizing meeting where people booed calls for more police, but last week came news of a Central City survey showing that citizens there wanted more police, even while believing the NOPD to the area’s greatest problem. Do all protestors have solidarity with all Central City residents, just because they say/will it so? Or is the opinion among NOLA constituents so diverse as to make anyone’s decision on how to respond as good as another’s, as far as leadership is concerned? Or is doing nothing better, given that doing something is bound to upset one faction too much?
Sorry to sound random, if I did. Just throwing out some ideas.
Don’t be sorry for bringing up good ideas. Perhaps the NOPD can benefit from the spirit of our city planning exercise – figure out individual district/neighborhood policing needs and provide accordingly. There isn’t a blanket solution – to anything.
Ray, I don’t think there is that level of apathy. Certainly the Enough people from Central City aren’t a splash in the bucket. I know that recent events have galvanized the Mid-City neighborhood group toward meetings with First and Third district officers, and toward trying to kick-start the neighborhood watch organizations that were washed away with everything else.
Maitri, I think some of us can still be bloggers who don’t have the free time to be true citizen-journalists, as long as in the free time we do have we are active citizens of New Orleans and of our neighborhoods. The most important thing to come out of the Federal Flood was the galvanization of neighborhood-level organization. If we don’t keep that alive, something precious and critical to the future of our city will be lost. It’s clear that our government is almost as much in collapse as that of Iraq or Afghanistan, and we have to provide a new framework for governance up from the neighborhoods. We have to answer the Kerenskys on Perdido Street with a call for all power to the Soviets of the streets.