The
Politics of Katrina by Judy Grahn
A Pagan Response to Katrina
by Starhawk
The
Politics of Katrina
by Judy Grahn
Consider
this: in the United States, unlike any other advanced country,
many people fail to receive basic health care because they can’t
afford it. Lack of health insurance kills many more Americans
each year than Katrina and 9/11 combined.—Paul Krugman,
NY Times, September 19, 2005
One of the most striking and compelling facts about the
elaborate rituals of menstruation, especially menarche, and
related male puberty rites, is the prevalence of the feast.
After a number of days, weeks, months or even years, the maiden
or youth emerges from her/his seclusion, a heavily regulated
occasion involving strict adherence to particular rules, self-discipline,
and frequently some kind of ordeal. Then, the young person is
bathed, and dressed elaborately. And then, the community arrives,
and there is a great sharing of resources. Integral to these
crucial, germinal and worldwide rituals has been the feast,
accompanied by talking, healings, music and dance, in which
everyone participates and partakes of whatever bounty exists.
In some cultures the initiates held back their own appetites,
and if the boy had been expected to arrive with a deer he had
killed, he did not eat any of the meat, distributing to others
instead, and learning the lesson of community sharing. Likewise,
if a maiden made a huge cake or bowls of cooked grain, she might
be expected not to eat, or to eat last. In other places with
similar rituals, the men cook, and the women are fed first.
These essential values of sharing in order to solidify
community have continued even into mass culture, through philosophies
and practices. Religions, beginning with temples that acted
as resource redistribution centers for agricultural produce
and crafts, have kept these values intact through centuries
during which the originating, that is to say, germinal, rituals
have been suppressed. These values have been preserved by retaining
ideas of “grace”—usually stemming from the
mother, the female side of religion. When ideas of grace as
bounty of divine love and abundance available to all are replaced
by narrow, purely self-centered ideas of personal accomplishment
and elitist religions, (“we are saved/you are damned”)
community values of sharing begin to disappear.
When a mass society has forgotten even the vestiges of
the germinal rites of sharing, especially those related to women’s
rituals, the philosophy and practice of selfishness (and individualism
to the detriment of the group) begins to prevail. A feudal philosophy
of taking care only of “one’s own family”
to the exclusion of others—those who inherit or otherwise
get lucky in the economic system define themselves as “blessed
by god” and therefore righteous, no matter how they act,
while the poor, dispossessed and otherwise exiled are understood
as “cursed by god”—and abandoned whenever
possible. The self- fulfilling prophecy of this distorted and
selfish righteousness—a form of cronyism—leads the
privileged to hold back assistance even in the face of dire
need. The justifications they use for their “lifestyle”
of extreme privilege leads them to make up blind fantasies about
the poor, such as we have witnessed over the people who did
not leave New Orleans prior to Katrina. The head of FEMA actually
blamed the poor for “choosing” to stay; he seemed
unable and obviously unwilling to absorb the fact that the definition
of poor means no car, no money, no access to airplane tickets
and hired busses—in short, no choices.
As Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times September
19, 2005, confirming the widespread belief among 2/3 African
Americans and 1/3 whites that race is the primary reason New
Orleans and surrounding areas were left stranded for four, five
days following the storm:
 |
But in a larger sense, the administration’s
lethally inept response to Hurricane Katrina had a lot
to do with race. For race is the biggest reason the United
States, uniquely among advanced countries, is ruled by
a political movement that is hostile to the idea of helping
citizens in need.
Race, after all, was central to the emergence of
a Republican majority: essentially, the South switched
sides after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Today,
states that had slavery in 1860 are much more likely to
vote Republican than states that didn’t.
And who can honestly deny that race is a major
reason America treats its poor more harshly than any other
advanced nation? To put it crudely, a middle-class European,
thinking about the poor, says to himself, “There
but for the grace of God go I.” A middle-class American
is all too likely to think, perhaps without admitting
it to himself, “Why should I be taxed to support
those people?”
Above all, race-based hostility to the idea of
helping the poor created an environment in which a political
movement hostile to government in general could flourish.
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A philosophy of selfishness has permeated nearly every
sector of the country, and even across groups whose roots began
in community and equality: labor, civil rights, feminism all
had values of intense and highly effective sharing thirty five
years ago. Now even these communities, whose existence as social
forces depend upon solidarity across differences, are split
by class divisions, in a country led for too many years by right
wing “independence from government” ideology, and
the simple fact that in a market economy in which the tax base
is manipulated toward the wealthy, some folks prosper and some
folks slide downhill.
Yet the impulse and ethic of sharing with those in need
runs through our common humanity like a strong spine, an axis
of practices passed down through our ancestral lineages. We
survive as a species in large part because we know how to share
in times of need and we know how to share to prevent times of
dire need and crisis. Ordinary, everyday people know how to
pour out our hearts in sharing.
The ethic we inherit from ancestral rituals calls for
celebration of abundance through sharing with those less financially
fortunate, and to do the giving in structurally effective ways.
That is, not with the dependency strings and manipulated stipulations
so characteristic of the patronization of liberals and democrats,
nor with the seedy hypocrisy of republican promises for “compassionate
conservatism” while meantime siphoning off resources for
already rich buddies. Societies look out for the needs of all
citizens not because people are occasionally struck with bouts
of compassion (or guilt), but simply because it is the right
thing to do, the right way to live: it is an appropriate and
balancing method of economic exchange, to give back from a place
of prosperity, to share from a place of common humanity, and
as a way of paying for services received outside the marketplace
(such as the arts, spiritual leadership, past benefits of underpaid
labor, the inestimable value of diversity) in an economic ethic
of gratitude for our lives in society. Sharing is the single
most effective method of homeland security.
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A Pagan
Response to Katrina
by Starhawk
As Pagans, as worshippers of nature, how do we respond
to an event like Hurricane Katrina, one of the most destructive
natural disasters in the history of the United States? What
does it mean to ‘worship’ something that, with one
breath, can wipe out a major city? Do we see this as punishment,
retribution for some Pagan sin? As an object lesson in the reality
of climate change and global warming? As an overheated Goddess
batting away some of the oil rigs contributing to her fever?
Of course, no one can speak for all Pagans. There is no overall
Council of Pagan Thealogy to hand down an official dogma. But
here is my own answer, as a priestess, teacher, writer, activist
and thealogian.
Pagan religions are not punishment systems. We
don’t worship Gods of retribution, but a Goddess—or
Gods and Goddesses—of mystery, in many aspects. The Goddess
has immense power, both creative and destructive: the power
that pushes a root out from a tiny seed and sends its shoot
reaching for the sky, the power of the earthquake and the volcano,
the rain that feeds the crops and the hurricane. We respond
to that power with awe, wonder , amazement and gratitude, not
fear.
The great powers of nature have an intelligence,
a consciousness, albeit different in magnitude and kind from
our own. Everything in nature is alive and speaking: the deep,
crystalline intelligence of the rock heart of the planet, the
fungal threads that link the roots of trees into the nerve-net
of the forests, the chattering birds and the biochemistry of
plants and mushrooms are all communicating. Our spiritual practice,
the practice of magic, is about opening our eyes, ears and hearts
to be able to hear, understand, and communicate back. And those
powers want us to communicate with them. The Goddess is not
omnipotent—she is co-creative with human beings. She needs
human help to create fertility and regeneration. The elements,
the ancestors, the spirit beings that surround us want to work
with us to protect and heal the earth, but they need our invitation.
Nature is also human nature. Our human intelligence,
our particular, sharp-pointed ability to analyze, think, draw
conclusions and act, our esthetic/emotional capacity to thrill
at a beautiful sunset, our deep bonds with those we love and
our empathy and compassion for others, are all aspects of the
Goddess Herself. Indeed, she evolved us complicated, contradictory
big-brained creatures precisely to experience some of those
aspects. Or to put it simply, she gave us brains and she expects
us to use them.
As a Witch, as a priestess of the Goddess, I make
daily time to meditate and listen, ideally in some place where
I have direct contact with nature. I rarely use an indoor altar
any more—instead I sit in the woods, or at least, in my
garden, quiet my thoughts, open my eyes, look and listen. And
what I’ve been hearing lately, in company with every other
person I know who is in tune with the deep powers of the earth,
is anguish, distress, deep rage, and dire warnings. The processes
of environmental destruction, in particular, the overheating
of the earth’s climate, are already underway. A few weeks
ago, when we were preparing for the Free Activist Witch Camp
that Reclaiming, our network of Witches, offered in Southern
Oregon, I asked, “Is there any way to avert massive death
and destruction.” The answer I got was an unequivocal
‘no’.
“The process has gone too far,” was
the answer. The image that came to me was river rafting and
shooting the rapids. There was a point where we as a species
could have chosen a different river, or a different boat, or
a different channel. But now we’re in the chute. We can’t
turn back. We can’t stop.
There’s a command in river rafting, used
in extreme situations: “Paddle or die.” If you paddle,
you have some power—not enough to change the flow of the
river, but enough to steer a course and avoid crashing on the
rocks. If you give up, the river will most likely flip your
boat, and you will drown.
When we emerged from the woods, a little-reported
item in the news media, hidden away on the back pages, informed
us that vast stretches of the tundra were melting in Siberia.
If we were collectively using even a minimum of our human intelligence,
this news should have been trumpeted on the front page with
all the alarm of a terrorist attack, for it is far more dangerous.
Global warming increases the intensity of storms.
Turn up the fire under a pot of water, and the bubbles will
be bigger, faster and stronger. Hurricanes draw their energy
from the heat in seawater. The Gulf of Mexico is abnormally
warm—and hurricanes have doubled in average intensity
in the last decade and a half. Hurricane Katrina was a natural
phenomenon, but Katrina’s progression from a Category
Two up to a Category Five as she crossed the gulf was a human-caused
phenomenon, a function of our choices and decisions, our failure
to steer a different course.
The forms and names we put on Goddesses, Gods,
and Powers help translate those forces into terms our human
minds can grasp. And so the Yoruba based traditions that originate
in West Africa have given the name ‘Oya’ to the
whirlwind, the hurricane, to those great powers of sudden change
and destruction. Santeria, candomble, lucumi, voudoun, all include
Oya in some form as a major orisha, a Great Power. Offerings
are made to her, ceremonies done in her behalf, priestesses
dance themselves into trance possession so that she can communicate
directly with the human community.
No city in the U.S. has more practitioners of
these traditions than New Orleans. On the night the hurricane
was due to hit, I made a ritual with a small group of friends
to support the spiritual efforts that I knew were being made
by priestesses of Oya all over the country. We were in Crawford,
Texas, at Camp Casey, where Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan,
whose son was killed in Itaq, camped near Bush’s ranch
to confront Bush with the painful reality of the deaths his
policies have caused. Many of the supporters there were from
New Orleans, worried about their homes, their friends and families.
The overall culture of the camp was very Christian—we
found no natural opening for public Pagan ritual, although a
number of people did indicate to me quietly that they were ‘one
of us.’ But our little group gathered by the roadside,
cast a circle, chanted and prayed.
We prayed, speaking personally in the way humans
do: “ Please, Mama, we know what a mess we’ve made,
but if there is any way to mitigate the death and the destruction,
to lessen it slightly, please do.” That same night Christians
were praying and Orisha priestesses were ‘working’
Oya, and the hurricane did shift its course, slightly, and lessened
its force, down to a Category Four.
And New Orleans survived. Not without loss, and
death, but without the massive flooding and destruction that
was feared. We all breathed a sigh of relief.
And a day later, the levees failed, and the floods
came. They failed not from an Act of Goddess, but from a lack
of resources. The Bush Administration had systematically cut
funding for flood control and for repairing and increasing the
strength of the levees. The money went to Iraq. Much of the
Louisiana National Guard was also in Iraq. FEMA, the Federal
Agency responsible for responding to natural disasters, had
been gutted, defunded, refocused on terrorism, and its directorship
given to a Bush political crony with no experience in disaster
response.
Now, weeks later, New Orleans remains under martial
law. Official efforts at relief have ranged from inept to brutal,
and the lack of planning and concern for human life, the punitive
quality of the official response, seem deeply linked to prejudice
and racism which devalues the lives of the poor, especially
if they’re black.
But ordinary people of all faiths have responded
to this disaster with caring and compassion, with massive donations
and relief efforts, and with shock and rage at a government
which so completely fails to embody the values of human decency
and respect for life that it claims to represent.
The Goddess does not punish us, but she also doesn’t
shield us from the logical consequences of our actions. Katrina’s
destructive power was a consequence of a human course that is
contemptuous of nature. A Native American proverb says, “If
we don’t change our direction, we’re going to wind
up where we’re headed.” Katrina shows us a glimpse
of that awful destination.
And she also shows us hope. We can change, and
if we truly awaken to the need, maybe we will, before it is
too late. The outpouring of concern and efforts to help, the
hope, determination and vision of some of the citizens of New
Orleans who remain, the grief we feel for the dead and the losses
and the compassion that a huge tragedy evokes are the tools
we need to set a different course, one that honors nature and
human life, that uses our human intelligence to restore and
regenerate the natural world, awakens our compassion, and kindles
our passion for justice. When we set a new course, all the powers
of life and growth and regeneration will be flowing with us.
And when we ally with those powers, miracles can happen.
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Some Pagan Resources:
The Pagan Cluster—the
group of Pagan activists I work with, will be sending a team
to the area in October. For information and donations, see:
www.pagancluster.org
The Blanket
Project is an ongoing spell of compassion with
the goal of providing handmade blankets to survivors, symbolizing
the intention to blanket the country with compassion and caring.
For information, see: theblanketproject.com
or email info@theblanketproject.com.
E-Witch Pagan Auction
Look for items marked NOLA PaganRelief
I will be donating an original manuscript and a limited edition,
signed, numbered leather-bound 10th Anniversary Spiral Dance
Housing board
for Pagan hurricane survivors and those who can offer housing.
Officers
of Avalon
An organization of Pagan police officers and emergency service
providers, they have already made one supply run to Mississippi,
reports are on their webpage as well as information on how to
donate.
Temple of Diana is accepting financial donations
to be sent to the best
organizations involved with hurricane relief efforts. Send your
donations in any amount, and payable to Temple of Diana, with
"hurricane
relief" in the memo, and send to:
Temple of Diana
p.o. Box 6425
Monona, WI 53716
Some general places to send aid:
rebuildgreen.org
Hurricane survivors who have remained in the Algiers neighborhood
of New Orleans are determined to remain, rebuild their city
with environmental awareness and a social conscience. They have
set up the first functioning medical clinic for ordinary people,
and have other projects in hand. They desperately need funds.
Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated
Children are doing intense work among the shelters
and prisons with displaced youth, mostly African American. Believe
me, the Red Cross and the Christian charities won’t be
pouring out relief to this group! They can also use some volunteers
(especially African American) and many gifts in kind.
Send a check to the “FFLIC Hurricane Relief Fund”
to 920 Platt
Street, Sulphur, Louisiana, 70663.
awakenprogress@yahoo.com
kd.higgs@yahoo.com
The
Veterans for Peace bus that was at Camp Casey in
Crawford, TX has now gone down to Covington, Louisiana to do
relief work. They also need donations of money and computer
equipment.
Make a donation to Veterans For Peace Chapter 116 www.vfproadtrips.org
Tax deductible cash donations can be send to:
Contact:
Veterans For Peace Chapter 116
28500 Sherwood Rd
Willits CA 95490
pjtate@sonic.net
Cell PH 707-536-3001
Food Not Bombs will be providing food for refugees.
They can use volunteers to prepare and serve food, and, of course,
donations.
www.foodnotbombs.net. You can make a financial donation on line
or mail checks to Food Not Bombs, P.O. Box 744, Tucson, AZ 85702.
Please call (1-800-884-1136) or email (katrina@foodnotbombs.net
) us if you can join them on the bus or help with gas money.
Starhawk
www.starhawk.org
Feel free to post, forward, and reprint this article for non-commercial
purposes. All other rights reserved.
Starhawk is an activist, organizer, and author of The Earth
Path, Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, The Fifth
SacredThing and other books on feminism, politics and earth-based
spirituality, including the co-authoried Pagan Book of Living
and Dying. (All are available at www.starhawk.org).
She works with Reclaiming, a network that offers training in
earth-based spirituality and ritual, www.reclaiming.org.
She teaches Earth Activist Trainings that combine permaculture
design and activist skills, www.earthactivisttraining.org
and works with the RANT trainer’s collective, www.rantcollective.net
that offers training and support for mobilizations around global
justice and peace issues.
Donations to help support Starhawk’s trainings and work
can be sent to:
ACT
1405 Hillmount St.
Austin, Texas
78704
U.S.A.
To get her periodic posts of her writings, email Starhawk-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
and put ‘subscribe’ in the subject heading. If you’re
on that list and don’t want any more of these writings,
email Starhawk-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net and put ‘unsubscribe’
in the subject heading.
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