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Page A4
August 30, 2006
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O pinion
Anniversary is No Cause to Celebrate
Sadness, one year after Katrina
by Jt ix . e G reg
and w ith good reason. When those
levees broke and water started rush
ing in to the c ity , we realized that
at least, to the reality o f urban pov
erty. People were saddened and
outraged; support and promises
residents in need is,
M athis
The city o f New Orleans has
canceled plans fo r a comedy hour
and a firew orks celebration, o rig i
nally scheduled to mark the one-
year anniversary o f H urricane
Katrina. T hat’ s good news. There
is nothing fun or festive about thou
sands o f people trapped, w ithout
the basics necessities o f food, wa
ter and medical care, in the swelter
ing heat, floodwaters rising around
them.
after all, the biggest
tragedy o f them all.
This is not a time
for New Orleans-or
any other c ity - to
celebrate. This par
ticular anniversary
should be used as
There is no jo y to be found in
mass devastation or in mass ne
glect; the federal government’ s fa il
ure to q u ickly respond to those
city.
W hile Katrina affected other G u lf
Coast cities, it was New Orleans
that we paid the most attention to.
an op p o rtu n ity to
remember and re
flect and to reaffirm the com m it
ment to rebuild this cu ltu ra lly rich
According to the Brookings In need. Jazz funerals, a New Orleans
stitution, an independent research tradition, w ith their slow, somber
organization, the c ity ’ s public ser start and their upbeat endings, are
vices are slow to bounce back. a nice - and appropriate - way to
Kent and home prices are at mark this anniversary.
an all time high. There are still
But, to tru ly pay tribute to the
thousands o f c ity residents men, women and children who died
w ithout a permanent place to and suffered, perhaps those that
call home.
failed the residents o f the G u lf Coast,
On the one-year anniver could p u b licly acknowledge the
sary o f 9/1 I, this nation came collapse in leadership and reveal a
to a stands! i 11. 1 n ci ties across plan fo r getting this city back on
Am erica, at exactly the same track. That's a com m emorative ef
tim e, people stopped their fo rt that w ill mean more than any
lives and marked the precise m o poster o r concert ever w ill.
ment the first plane hit the W orld
Judge Greg Mathis is national
Trade Center.
vice president o f Rainbow PUSH
K a trin a a n n iv e rs a ry events and a national board member o f
should mem orialize the loss o f life the Southern Christian Leadership
and m obilize support fo r those in Conference.
Katrina anniversary
events should memorialize
the loss of life and mobilize
support for those in need.
many o f those left behind, w ith no
means to evacuate as ordered, had
tw o things in common: they were
black and they were poor.
On Aug. 29, 2005, the nation's
eyes were opened, fo r a short time
came rushing in. New Orleans, we
were told, w ould be rebuilt.
A year later, the city is showing
signs o f rebirth. But it ’ s slow going.
T oo slow. A nd more needs to be
done.
Lebanon
Looking a Lot
Like Iraq
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New thinking needed to
avoid similar failures
by C hristopher H e m m a n
As Israel's army withdraws from Southern Lebanon,
m ilita ry analysts and politicians in Tel A v iv are already
asking, what happened?
The Israelis sustained heavy casualties and fought to
an unsatisfactory draw against a num erically inferior
and outgunned enemy.
The United States faces a parallel debate over our
continued in a b ility toquel I the sectarian violence-a c iv il
w ar to most — in Iraq.
One o f the most significant causes is the m ilitary's
failure to adapt to the changing nature o f warfare,
despite extensive experience in previous decades in
dealing w ith post-combat operations that are not easily
solved by bullets or bombs.
The unfortunate experience in Somalia, where a num
ber o f American soldiers were kille d in intense urban
combat, make the m ilita ry reluctant to take on additional
peace making, peacekeeping and stability operations.
The most advanced m ilita ry machine in the w orld
does not easily deal w ith c iv il conflict.
Yet it is these kinds o f missions, w hich the m ilitary
refers to as "Operations Other Than W ar," that it w ill
increasingly be called on Io perform rather than the
traditional form o f conventional war fighting that has
dominated Pentagon thinking since W orld W ar II.
As a practical matter in Iraq, the m ilitary's u n w illin g
ness to acknowledge the shortcomings o f its methods
and tactics has stymied its a b ility todevelop an effective
strategy against a grow ing insurgency in Iraq.
The Israelis have discovered in Lebanon what the
United States has learned in Iraq: a conventional m ilitary
force, not matter how strong, cannot by itse lf defeat a
g u erillaarm y,quell an insurgency o r rehabilitatea failed
state.
The security com m unity in this country, and in fact
around the world, must start thinking much more broadly
about viable solutions to such problems i f we are to
avoid sim ilar failures in the future.
Christopher Heilman is a military policy analyst
with the Center fo r Arms Control and Nonproliferation
in Washington. D.C.
The Unequal Treatment of Women
Somehow we've all
been taught in this
country that race
discrimination is wrong,
but a little sex discrimination
here and there is okay.
Men Stil1 Get the Advantages
by
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V W e fill p r e s c r ip tio n s — in c lu d in g a n tib io tic s ,
h ig h b lo o d p r e s s u r e m e d ic a tio n s ,
a n ti- d e p re s s a n ts , b irth c o n tr o l, a n d m o re .
W e h a v e k n o w le d g e a b le , frie n d ly p h a r m a c is ts
w h o h a v e th e tim e to s h a r e in fo r m a tio n .
O u r p r ic e s a re c o m p e titiv e W e a c c e p t m o s t
in s u r a n c e p la n s a n d a re a d d in g o th e r s a s
re q u e s te d
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M el o d a H u ile r
Y O U R L O C A L L Y O W N E D . N E IG H B O R H O O D
P H A R M A C Y AT ARBOR LODGE
M artha B i
rk
Q uick - what did we celebrate on
Aug. 26? II your answer is “ uh-h-
h,” you're not alone. M ost A m e ri
cans don’t know it was the date in
1920 when women won the vote.
Christened Women's Equality Day
by Congress, it's usually marked by
flo o r speeches on C apitol H ill, w ith
women's history buffs and fe m i
nists, but few others jo in in g in the
com m em oration. And indeed we
have come a long way since women
couldn't vote, attend universities,
hold professional jobs o r even have
ownership o f their own earnings o r
inheritances.
But are we really there yet when
it comes to equality? W orldw ide,
the answer is a resounding “ no.” In
the M id d le East, women are still in
the veil o r head-to-toe burqas and
g irls' schools are burned to the
ground. The Japanese are praying
fo r a male heir to the throne so the
country won't face the "c ris is " o f
an im perial granddaughter as the
only one next in line. A ID S is ravag
ing the women o f A frica, most often
because husbands are contracting
the disease through other liaisons
and then forcing their wives to en
gage in unprotected sex.
Here at home, it's still big news
when a woman is appointed CEO o f
a large corporation. And in the "N ew
Y ork T im es," we learned that a new
kind o f school is d rillin g children
ages 7 to 14 fo r nine hours a day,
even in summer, so they can memo
rize the Quran. The director o f the
Jamaica M u slim Center says the
children w ill not only become re li
gious leaders, but doctors, and
engineers (even though they do
not study math and science) and
they w ill bridge the gap between
the M u slim w o rld and American
N IN T E R S T A T E A V E N U E & P O R T L A N D E3LVD • 5 0 3 . 4 6 7 . 4 8 4 8
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t
society. A good goal - except fo r
one tin y flaw . The students are all
male. Male supremacy is part o f the
culture, and these kids are getting
the message.
It's no surprise that one student
says his favorite video game in o ff-
hours is Grand Theft Auto. Players
get points fo r having sex w ith a
prostitute, then rack upeven higher
scores when they k ill her to avoid
paying fo r her services.
O f course we can't blame our
national misogyny on this school
o r these boys and their parents
alone. W al-M art, that bastion o f
fa m ily values, also peddles Grand
T heft Auto, which m illio n s o f non-
M u slim kids buy. And the U.S.
Department o f Education is prais
ing single sex schools as a way for
boys to get ahead academically.
“ The Education Innovator," a
D OE official publication, gushed
about Albany, New York's Brighter
Choice Charter School for Boys and
the companion schixil for girls, which
have "the unique distinction as the
first elementary charter schools in
the nation to educate boys and girls
in separate classrooms.”
Isn't this what we fought against
foryears when girls were consigned
to home economics w hile boys got
star treatment in accelerated sci
ence classes?
Somehow we've all been taught
in this country that race discrim ina
tion is wrong, but a little sex dis
crim ination here and there is Okay.
Can you imagine A lbany separat
ing students by race and then g iv
ing the w hite kids a new school?
E quality day? Not yet.
Martha Burk is the author o f
"Cult o f Power: Sex Discrimina
tion in Corporate America and
What Can Be Done About It. "