"Do you have my momma?"

[suffragette]

This is the plaintive plea that Dr. Louis Cataldie, Louisiana's state medical examiner, is still hearing, months after the flooding from Katrina has subsided.

"Do you have my momma?" Imagine the agony of saying those words, of hoping that the answer will be no to keep hope alive and yes to have closure at the same moment.

"Do you have my momma?" A lifetime of shared love and problems, laughter and tears reduced to five painful, wrenching words.

"Do you have my momma?"

From http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/259165_katrinadead11.html

Nearly six months after Hurricane Katrina, more than 1,300 bodies have been found, but the real death toll is clearly higher. How much higher, no one can say with any certainty.

~snip~

The list of those reported missing to the Find Family National Call Center, run by state and federal officials in Baton Rouge, has about 2,300 people on it.

~snip~

Of the 2,300 on the list, most are from New Orleans, and nearly three-quarters are black. Before Hurricane Katrina, about two-thirds of New Orleans was black. Of the 668 Louisiana dead identified and released by the morgue, three-quarters were from New Orleans. About half were black, and 44 percent were white.

How many mothers are on that list? How many fathers, brothers, sisters are still unaccounted for? How many homeless, lone souls are unlisted? Are their last cries echoing from beneath the crushed houses, in the bayous and in the gulf?

"Do you have my momma?"

[Mnemosyne]

1. Just completely heartbreaking. n/t

[suffragette]

2. Heartbreaking and reprehensible

The injustice done to the people from this area just keeps getting compounded.

Edited for typo

[Mnemosyne]

8. There is no way to ever measure the sorrow and absolute grief

caused here and abroad by this administration and many before it. The oppression and persecution perpetuated by our government being the very reason most terrorism even exists. US foreign policy.

This continual feeding frenzy of the military-industrial complex has used the resources that have been needed in New Orleans and elsewhere in this country for many decades.

I include every single person that has ever suffered because of the gluttony of our government in that measure of sorrow and grief.

The injustice in New Orleans and along the Gulf is but a concentrated example of further abuse of the people by the government. Usually it is more wide-spread and less obvious, but no less heinous and reprehensible. Good word for the evil pricks btw.

:hi:

Still,

In peace and hope,
V

[suffragette]

11. Absolutely agree

:hi:

And hard as it is, we have to keep calling them on every abuse and even with the evil we must face keep on hoping and working toward justice.

[Mnemosyne]

16. You're right suffragette. If we give them even

a centimeter, they'll grab light-years!

:hi:

[Joanne98]

3. This is grounds for impeachment too...........

HIDING THE DEAD!

[SoCalDem]

4. Poor people have little value, alive......

and even less, dead..

The sad part of this whole saga, is that many people "left the city" when the surge subsided, and will never be found.

[suffragette]

6. Yes, both poor and black

since "nearly three-quarters on the list are black."

And by its inaction this administration is saying they aren't "worth" looking for.

[MellowOne]

5. tears your heart out....n/t

[bettyellen]

7. they'll be doing a "last" (or 1st) sweep of the 9th ward later this month

at the coroner's request. unbelievably sad.

[suffragette]

10. A "final" sweep that seems to be the first real sweep

Up is down and freedom is slavery. And the people suffer.
It's just damned wrong and very sad.

A :hug: to you, my friend.

[EFerrari]

9. Let's never forget how these bastards honored the Katrina dead.

Never.

:nuke:

[suffragette]

17. Never forget

and NGU

[bvar22]

12. Reuniting separated families SHOULD and COULD ....

...be a NATIONAL PRIORITY!!!

The Democrats could SIEZE this issue.
The Democratic Party SHOULD finance it if the Republican Controlled government refuses to help its own people!

Lists of the missing SHOULD be published daily in EVERY Paper in the Country as a Public Service
EVERY TV station should devote 1 minute of EVERY newscast to reuniting displaced families, and a 30 minute segment twice per week AS A PUBLIC SERVICE!!!
I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS ISN'T BEING DONE!!!!

After 6 months, the list of those drowned in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast should be adjusted.
There will be MORE names on that list than the victims of 9-11!!!
And after the revelation of this week, it is little wonder that the Republican Controlled Government is ignoring this issue!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. Excellent idea

People down in Mississippi were saying that they thought a lot of people had been swept out to sea, and a body was found in the area just a week before our group arrived.

[suffragette]

14. These are all good ideas

And even if, sadly, the one minute spot could not reunite a family because the person is dead, then it would at least be a memorial to his/her life.

[NobleCynic]

15. Why the discrepency between missing and confirmed dead?

Does anyone have an idea why there is such a large difference between the ethnic make-up of the confirmed dead and the missing?

[suffragette]

18. It's glaring, isn't it?

Maybe one of our more statistically gifted DU'ers could examine this?

My guess is that the answer is the Ninth Ward, since that was the worst hit area and the least searched.