People Get Ready

Who from New Orleans will be in D.C. to carry around a sign to shame George W. Bush with “a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl” for what he has not done to help the entire Gulf Coast recover from hurricane destruction — from Galveston to Mobile — and to prevent future destruction, by acting to help restore Louisiana’s coastal wetlands and barrier islands, and by acting to reduce the U.S. output of global warming gases which is causing sea level rises. Who from New Orleans will take to the streets of D.C. to demand that Barack Obama do more to help than merely quip — as Bush has done — that he can’t help us if we can’t count on state and local officials to do what they’re supposed to do.

Fortunately, we have term-limited presidents in the United States, and the opportunity to vote them out of office every four years. Imagine what it would be like to have to endure an autocratic maniac for fifty years. The Cuban people deserve the right to live in dignity, yes, but to live free as well. One does not have to be sacrificed for the other. Work, health, education, opportunity — these should not be inseparable from the right to choose one’s form of government. Despite mixed progress in earlier years, the example of Cuba demonstrates that in the long-run, the right to productive lives deteriorates when people are robbed of their right to change their leaders. The only people who benefit from the current bi-polar paradigm are totalitarian socialist dictators, or corporate profiteers supported by U.S. influence, all depending upon which one has the upper hand.

In the new year, with a new U.S. president, after fifty years of Cuban dictatorship, and nearly as many years of the U.S. embargo, it’s time for the United States to be a better friend to the people of Cuba — to help them achieve their aspirations for dignity and freedom, by allowing a free exchange of people and goods with Cuba. In the end, people empowered economically will begin to distrust those who attempt to manipulate them politically. Punishing people for the foolhardiness of their governments isn’t a humanitarian approach — nor has it proven to be successful, in Havana, or in New Orleans.

It’s also time for a new U.S. president to stop punishing the people of the Gulf Coast by ignorantly and stubbornly refusing to engage them.

Every American should remember that the United States owes its own independence in part to the contributions made by New Orleans, and Havana. New Orleans was an entrepot for Spanish armaments shipped through Havana in support of American revolutionaries. This was a significant reason why the British later sought to control New Orleans on a New Year’s Day 194 years ago. Barack Obama would do well to remember the importance of New Orleans to the rest of the nation up to the present day, and to recognize the special connection that Cuba has to our freedom by helping the Cuban people to achieve their own freedom.

And when Havana is free again, it too will have special needs for reconstruction which preserves its historic beauty. New Orleans could, and should, play a model role in that worthy endeavor, and it might if Barack Obama doesn’t allow federal, state, and local officials to dictate policy, but engages citizens in transparent processes.

Barack Obama’s approach in the New Year to helping New Orleans, and Havana, should be one of — first — bypassing government officials like Ray Nagin in order to hear the needs of the people. In the end, meaningful recovery, like freedom, can’t be secured without guaranteeing the full political and economic participation of the people.