Can't isn't Won't

There seems to be some confusion surrounding the state of affairs down south. Some people don't seem to understand that it is, was, and always will be impossible for certain socio-economic groups to flee a city in the threat of disaster. These people don't even have money for homes, so how is it possible that they would have cars or the means to put gas in them? How could they afford a bus, train, or plane ticket out?

When a media report says Ida Mae Soandso from New Orleans wouldn't leave her home and was stranded on the roof for four days it seems they're pointing blame. But what they really should say is that America couldn't be arsed to rescue her and everyone else like her. I guarantee she would've left, as it's preferable to being drowned in your own backyard. She's paralyzed by poverty... a poverty so dire that most of us can't begin to conceive what it's like, much less recognize how often it occurs in this land of opportunity.

Yeah, OK-- if you pray, pray for victims of Hurricane Katrina. But add to that a prayer for our leaders to be leaders: decision-makers who look beyond class and color into the heart of this disaster to see what is human and humane in every person.