George Bush recently answered a question at his press conference about Katrina, referring to the sheet in front of him, citing the billions of dollars that had been appropriated for this and that purpose.
  
While I could cite them, that is besides the purpose when compared to the gross inaction by the administration, given the urgency the situation demands. Now one year later, 100 million cubic feet of debris remains on the ground that could have been removed; 50,000 families that were displaced are little closer to having the facilities in their communities of electricity, waste disposal, usable water, and other basic things; jobs are being in-sourced to immigrants, while evacuees cannot return to take them; and the Army Corp of Engineers still is not committed to rebuilding the levees to withstand a force greater than a category three hurricane.
  
All in all, the city of New Orleans does not appear to have a workable reconstruction plan in place that would give displaced citizens the confidence that if or when they return, they will be secure from the ravages of events like Hurricane Katrina.
  
One year later, we still ask where the government of the United States is, with the troops that should be deployed to control crime, to pick up the debris, to supplement the administrative competence of FEMA, still a nightmare agency for people to work with?    The answer is that the federal government appropriated the money and walked away to let the states handle the burden, making a liar out of Bush, who came to New Orleans and said that his goal was to move “quickly,” “with bold action,” that he would “do what it takes” to make people whole.
  
The administration’s priorities seem to be in the Middle East, where they not only appropriate money, but send the troops…so many troops that they don’t have enough troops or money to fix the problems posed by Katrina. Doing something about the problem of Katrina seems to be related to stopping the flow of resources into the Middle East in a failed military adventure.
  
This failure of government to address the urgent crisis of Katrina is now on George Bush’s shoulders.
  
But this fall, Democrats are positioned to win the Congress, but they don’t have the Katrina crisis as their priority, either. Their six-point campaign agenda features issues such as: national and homeland security, energy independence, health care, jobs, college access and retirement security–but they do not address the human crises involving displaced people and damaged property and lives caused by Katrina.
  
But what if we said to candidates running on the Democratic party line, “no votes unless you pledge to fix Katrina?” Holding an election this year, where a party is depending upon the votes of millions of Blacks, where hundreds of thousands of them have been uprooted, and not demand that they address it in return for their votes is a sellout of the power that was to come from the Voting Right Act.
  
People campaigned to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. But for what, just to vote? The power of the vote comes not from just voting, but instructing those who win election on the strength of the Black vote to do something that makes the Black community whole. How can we answer Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers and the others who gave their lives for the effective citizenship if we simply give that power away?
  
I am aware of the quasi-sophisticated view that if we demand, we could lose. But I also know that many Whites who voted for George Bush are caught up in the throes of this crisis, need the help of government, feel sold out and badly want change. In fact, their loyalty to conservative, anti-government politics will be tested now that so many Whites in the gulf need government assistance. They now know what it means to be ignored, subordinated, and treated as second-class citizens in their own land.
  
So we must do as we have always done: lead in a progressive direction, and others will follow. Demand that the damage of Katrina be addressed, and don’t vote for candidates who will not pledge to see it happen.


Dr. Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, Director of the African American Leadership Institute and Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland-College Park.  His latest books are: “White Nationalism, Black Interests” (Wayne State University Press) and “Freedom Is Not Enough” (Rowman and Littlefield Press).