TOLD YOU SO....(*)
Little said about the victims of Katrina
By Shaila Dewan The New York Times
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2005
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana In a country that cherishes the names of the dead, reads them aloud, engraves them in stone and stitches them into quilts, it is odd that Hurricane Katrina's victims remain, more than a month later, largely anonymous.
Their age, sex, race and number are not evident, or how they died or where they were found. As for how they lived, it is difficult to find even a Web site paying tribute to individual victims. With 972 deaths confirmed and the search for bodies declared complete, Louisiana has released only 61 bodies and made the names of only 32 victims public.
In contrast, of the 221 dead in Mississippi, 196 have been identified, a state official said.
Like any silence, the one blanketing Louisiana's dead is ripe for interpretation. To some, it is further proof of bureaucratic bungling or a lack of regard for the poor blacks who doubtless make up many of the victims. To others, it is a deliberate attempt to shield an embarrassing truth.
[...]
iht.com
(*) Message 21695053
(last sentence) |
