Take back America
New Orleans is a giant mirror that reflected the ever present heart of darkness whose reverberating beat echoes in the back of our consciousness

S. Pishevar
September 3, 2005
iranian.com

I urge all of you to please listen to Mayor Nagin's radio interview and then read this blog posting by Randall Robinson. It is important for all of you to listen and read those two postings as they will change your view of what is happening right now in a visceral and unforgettable way.

As you will see, the people of New Orleans are desperate to survive without food and water and undiscovered in flooded homes around the city. We have to wait for confirmations of these events from multiple sources before commenting on that further.

Earlier tonight I was driving around the Capitol and was surprised to see that none of the flags at the White House, Congress, Washington Monument and more are flying at half-staff. They could care less about poor African Americans from New Orleans. It is not their constituency - it is not who pays their bills and so they act only when forced by public shame to do so.

Let me say something that is hinted at in the pure pain and horror of Mayor Nagin's voice in the interview and in Randall Robinson's blog.

New Orleans is a wake up call for anyone who considers him or herself a true American. America has been usurped by those who do not truly believe in its highest and lofty ideals. It is up to us the silent majority of decent American to wrest back control of our country from these devious smiling racists who pat you on your back but could care less for you as a human being, let alone a fellow citizen. There are two classes of Americans - those Compassionate Americans who truly care for their fellow citizens regardless of race or religion and those Warped Americans who have come to see themselves as superior either by race, religion or combination thereof, to all the rest of the citizenry.

America is an idea, an ideal, and when it ceases to live by its ideals it ceases to be America. A nation based on an ideal lives and dies by it. America has been blessed in that each generation, each wave of immigrants, has revitalized and kept that ideal alive, regenerated, renewed and strengthened. But at the very moment that ideal is forsaken the Nation risks its meaning and its very soul.

Physical security is not ensured by brute force; it is not the steel of our arms but the steel of our character that matters. It is not ever more forts across the globe that will protect us but our moral fortitude.

Our moral fortitude at home has now been exposed for what it is - a house without walls. The levy's that protected America's famed moral compass broke long ago at some undefined and imprecise moment in our history and we have been blindly drowning in the ensuing flooding. It is us, the true patriots, to recover and repatch our moral fiber and commit to heal our country of the long festering wounds we have too long chosen to ignore.

As I listen to the news radio I am again not surprised that they are not focusing on these events and the shock of what has happend to the poor and destitute of New Orleans. I recall the coverage after other tragic events from the Tsunami to 9-11 and compared to them we now have radio silence. God Bless the Internet where powers that be have no control and where true citizenry is in full bloom.

I am Caucasian but have African American family from New Orleans in my family. They had to be rescued from their home and thankfully 14 of them are on their way to Tampa to start new lives at my sister and her husband's house. They have lost everything, their history, homes, jobs and they are the lucky ones.

The Great Destruction of the City of New Orleans did not just happen. It was a process arching back many generations before and framed by institutional and culture fissures that are an analogy for the rest of America.

New Orleans is a giant mirror that reflected the ever present heart of darkness whose reverberating beat echoes in the back of our consciousness. In our quest for modern achievement and material success we have all, blacks and whites included, chosen to stifle that heart of darkness that casts a looming shadow in the alleys of our morality. 

There is tremendous poverty on the level of some 3rd world countries, right in our back yards, in all of our cities. There is are silent, economic and educational Jim Crow laws that separate and unequally distribute our nations resources to those who have and those who have not.

I urge all of us to take back our country. I urge all true Americans to unite, regardless of color and religion, and take back our country in the 2006 and 2008 elections. I, for one, hope that Mayor Nagin runs for Governor or Senator in Louisiana because amidst all of this tragedy our nation has discovered a true light of humanity that we all would be blessed to lead us into a a future that will never again forsake one kind of American for another.

I am too emotional to continue to writing at this point. If you want to reach me please contact me at shervinp (at) gmail dot com.

About
S. Pishevar is an Internet entrepreneur who has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsweek, LA Times, Fox News and CNBC. He is with Freewebs Corporation (www.freewebs.com), a top 250 website in the world."