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Katrina’s Aftermath: A Lost Opportunity

By David A. Lash

We recently saw history's shortest war on poverty. Yet the casualties were great and the missed opportunities are haunting. Sadly, no lessons were learned from Hurricane Katrina. Mission not accomplished, not by any means.

Following the devastation of last summer, President Bush promised "bold action" to "confront" the poverty that resulted in death along the Gulf Coast. Indeed, he spoke boldly in confronting the persistent, deep poverty in the region that "has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America."

He proclaimed a will to "rise above the legacy of inequality." By talking so forcefully about poverty in our country, and acknowledging the role of race, discrimination and inequalities in deepening the impoverished lives of society's victims, Bush made statements -- almost radical statements -- rarely heard from any earlier White House.

President Johnson used not too dissimilar language in launching a war on poverty that, in the end, largely fell victim to a war in Vietnam. President Clinton talked about embarking on a "national dialogue on race." After the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, the first President Bush urged the country to explore the underlying causes of such pain and spoke of creating a climate of tolerance that refuses to accept racism and hate. But neither followed through, no national consensus was forged, no dialogue emerged.

Each of these instances has proven to be a lost opportunity of tragic proportions, as the chance for a national conversation was denied. But there has been no lost opportunity greater than the unfulfilled words of vision that followed the naked exposure of poverty's consequences shown on television, for all to see as perhaps never before, in Katrina's wake. Instead of seizing the moment and using it to address the difficult issues raised, politics-as-usual prevailed and bold action gave way to budget cuts that threaten the poor once again.

Katrina reawakened the painful recognition of poverty and showed us that the new millennium brought a rise in poverty, a rise in hunger, a rise in inequality. The poverty population, even before the hurricane, increased by more than 4 million. The concentration of poor people in small, crowded neighborhoods also increased. More than one-third of all low-income adults have to make daily decisions about whether to eat or pay for shelter and medical care, and many of them are employed full-time.

Shockingly, a recent study found that over the last decade, more than 886,000 deaths could have been averted if there had been equal access to high-quality medical care. But the inequality only grows. The number of workers with health insurance has decreased. The numbers insured by government programs has gone up, just as has the sheer number of uninsured. In fact, the number has increased each year for the past four years. At the same time, cuts in the Medicaid program – the program that provides medical care to the poorest children and the most suffering Katrina survivors – are continually on the congressional chopping block.

So in the wake of Katrina, the absence of outrage is outrageous. The absence of public discussion, debate and knowledge is unforgivable. Hurricane Katrina taught us that poverty kills, and that apparently our silence is an evil accomplice.

Even more destructive than that silence may be the indifference. Indignation rose across the country when the media reported that FEMA dollars had been used by an unscrupulous few for travel, tickets and even a sex-change operation. Couched, and rightfully so, as having taken precious funds away from deserving, low-income victims, the number of dollars spent on these fraudulent expenditures likely is dwarfed by the number of dollars of deserved benefits that FEMA has wrongly denied to those in need – wrongful denials that can be challenged, and overturned, but only with the aid of an attorney. But these outrages go unnoticed, unreported and, most sadly, probably un-remedied.

When the images of Katrina-exposed poverty were broadcast to the world, inspiring America's next and shortest war on poverty, an undercurrent of foreboding was present. Months later, when the world's focus inevitably moved on but poverty's power only gripped tighter, would the outpouring of help and awareness save lives, dissipate or disappear?

Obviously, the will to do more is gone. The denial of FEMA benefits, the threatened reduction of Medicaid, the increasing number living in poverty are each testaments to a lost moment.

But silence in the face of suffering, and indifference in the face of injustice can be overcome. The democratic marketplace of ideas can resurrect a moment, if enough people take up the cause.

President Bush began a dialogue that can be seized. If nothing else, let the fate of Katrina survivors springboard a nation into a larger discussion of poverty in America. If a torrent of water can lead to a momentary mobilization in the wake of tragedy, a nation with faith in its principles can at least ask questions before the next moment passes:

•	If national polls continue to indicate that the majority of our country's blacks believe the response to Katrina would have been faster had the victims not been overwhelmingly black and poor, while the majority of whites disagree, can we ever unify to fight poverty in any meaningful way?
•	Do our social benefit programs succeed in lifting people out of poverty? And if so, what does it say when spending on those efforts is equaled by interest paid on the national debt and recent tax cuts? How many lives are we leaving on the table?
•	What role do family breakdowns and the concentration of the poor in small, urban neighborhoods have on the seemingly endless and inevitable cycle of poverty?
•	What role can lawyers play by making it possible for the poor to access the judicial system and ensure that they get the help to which our democracy entitles them?
•	Should Medicaid be reduced or should it be extended in times of urgent need? In states where tens of thousands have already been tossed out of the Medicaid program due to budget cuts, will the magnitude of the next disaster be more than we can handle?

These are questions and conversations worthy of a nation willing to go to war against poverty. Unfortunately, the silence is deafening.

A veteran public interest attorney, David Lash is the managing counsel of public interest and pro bono services at Los Angeles' O'Melveny & Myers. The views expressed by Lash are his alone.

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