orleans Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Doctor in New Orleans cleared of murder charges

It is nice to sit back in our air conditioned comfortable houses, sip Green Tea and point fingers at people in New Orleans who did this or that during Katrina. Everyone would like to think that they would perform heroically under those severe circumstances. The bottom line is that we aren’t as noble and civilized as we would like to think. Basic needs of live were in question. Food. Water, clean, drinkable water. These things were hard to come by that Wednesday after the storm. Basic creature comforts that almost all Americans are used to were gone. There were no showers or baths. There wasn’t a change of clean underwear for some of these folks. So for me to sit back and criticize the life and death decisions that doctors made under these extreme conditions is wrong and hypocritical.

Anna Pou is the New Orleans physician who was charged with 2nd murder. A grand jury found her not guilty on Friday. Newsweek has a very long interview with her. It is excellent. Unfortunately, Dr. Pou’s legal troubles will be continuing. There are many civil lawsuits sitting in the hopper. I’m not sure that she will ever be able to practice again. It is hard if not impossible to get staff privileges once you have been nationally labeled as she has been.

I’m not judging what she did or didn’t do. I just don’t think that we can apply our normal standards to New Orleans during that time period.

By ecthompsonmd|2007-08-26T22:05:17-04:00August 26th, 2007|Katrina|Comments Off

Dean? Let's not forget Katrina and New Orleans

Bill Moyers continues to impress me. I will continue to sing his praises. I think that he is the premier thoughtful journalist in America. He is covering issues that others either gloss over or do not cover at all.

This week, he brought Melissa Harris-Lacewell, quickly becoming on of my favorite people, Princeton University Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies, back on the show to discuss Katrina. Bill Moyers adds Mike Tidwell, author of Bayou Farewell in 2003 and Ravaging Tide and environmental activist, to discuss Katrina 2 years later. This is an excellent discussion.

Here’s just a little piece –

BILL MOYERS: What have you learned, the two of you, about politics, American politics from the Katrina disaster?

MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well, I often say that Hurricane Katrina and it’s political aftermath is the 2006 win of the democrats in the mid-term elections. And it–

BILL MOYERS: How so? (more…)