We’re still in the 1910s section of The Commons here.
Watching the State of the Union last night, I again couldn’t help but think about how little I trust my government to be there. When Bush spoke about the work in New Orleans, it was impossible not to feel ashamed at our government’s failure to serve people in a time of great need. Katrina was the tipping point for me. Watching from the god’s-eye-view of the internet, orbital views, from news helicopters, watching nothing happen, watching the state, local and federal authorities unable or unwilling to take action changed things for me. Years now, of radio reports on empty neighborhoods, of a city reduced to mold and waste has given me certain knowledge that when the shit hits the fan, I’m on my own. Not that I’ve ever been the trust in the government camp, but now I know that I’m on absolutely my own. Good thing I have a massive stockpile of canned food (until the next exhibition, anyways…).
Living in Los Angeles, and at this time, I’m full aware that it’s likely to face a quivering, concrete-crumbling Big One during my lifetime, I’m always mindful of a long wait, in darkness and dust, eating unheated beans and drinking toilet tank water. Unlike someone living in tornado alley, there’s no roll of the dice for us Angelenos. It will happen, and it will happen to all of us, simultaneously. So in a way, looking at the photo above is like being given a window into the future.
Flash back to 1912. It wouldn’t surprise me if a few of the children stranded by the 1912 Louisiana flood, caused by the swelling of the Mississippi river, lived to see all they built in their long, long lives during the 20th Century swept away when the levies broke in New Orleans.
At Top: Louisiana Flood – refugees cook government rations, 1912, George Grantham Bain Collection
Technorati Tags: 1912, flood, refugees, Flickr, The Commons, News in the 1910s, George Grantham Bain Collection, Big One, Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, Library of Congress