Jackson Free Press

Let us not forget those that have no home.

The depth of the suffering and the height of the courage of South Mississippians is an incredible story that the American people must know. But, in the shadows of the New Orleans story, the Mississippi Coast has become invisible and forgotten to most Americans.

If the people do not know, they cannot care.

We believe if they are shown the extent of the devastation and the suffering, they and their representatives will respond.

So the coverage matters. A lot.

The problem, to some extent, is that you have to be here and see it for yourself to comprehend the utter destruction that is so much like Berlin or Tokyo after World War II.
We would like to invite our news colleagues from across the nation to come and view the Coast with us. It is impossible to comprehend this disaster from afar. A television can display only a single screen of the damage. When you have driven mile after mind-numbing mile and viewed the complete nothingness where cities and homes and businesses once stood, only then will you begin to understand what has happened here.

Then you will begin to wonder, where are all the people who used to live on this beautiful shore? What has happened to their families and all of those shattered lives? That is when you will understand that the story of Katrina in South Mississippi isn't over, it has only begun.

God Bless

Previous Commentsshow

All, Ali is quoting here from a very powerful editorial last week in the Biloxi Sun-Herald crying out for more attention for the Gulf Coast. This is akin to the one they ran days after the storm hit, begging for assistance from both state and federal officials, even as popular myth was that officials in Mississippi were doing a stellar job while New Orleans was falling apart. We have to be very careful here in Mississippi not to play into the national political Republican v. Democrat (Barbour v. Blanco) rhetoric that started right away to make it sound that Republican territory was handled much better than Democratic territory. Our real problems get obscured in such rhetoric, whether it's spread by the governor of Mississippi or a bunch of bloggers with an agenda to excuse an inept federal government. It is also a divide-and-conquer strategy, as you can see by comparing this editorial with in the Times-Picayne. And in many ways it is working as people on the Gulf Coast feel pitted against people in New Orleans -- and they should not. The truth is, both the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans were devastated, and poor people were hit the hardest in two of the nation's poorest states. Here in Mississippi, we have to watch the tendency to think that everything is so much better on the Coast because everyone--from the federal government to our local Republicans--started telling us how much better our state government reacted. The truth is, the Mississippi Gulf Coast was not prepared, either. The Sun-Herald had run pieces prior to Katrina begging for more preparedness from MEMA. Thus, the myths are dangerous. But equally as dangerous is this tendency to play politics and try to demonize one disaster zone vs. the other. The truth is, neither the Coast or New Orleans was adequately prepared.

DonnaLadd

Dec 19 2005

That article gave me goosebumps. I have many friends in Mississippi (I'm in Texas) and I have said this from about August 30th..."What about Mississippi?!?" Here in Dallas, all I ever heard and still hear about is New Orleans. It's all sad and devastating, but I have a personal connection to Katrina and Mississippi. One of my best friends is in Purvis and I had to wait and wonder for over a week to know that she was OK. Luckily, she was. But not the case for so, so many. I hope that article will raise people's awareness of the fact that the MS Coast has been all but been forgotten.

Melissa

Dec 22 2005