Zeitoun hit me like a ton of bricks.
When it was over, I was really, really sad. Not necessarily sad to stop reading the book, but sad because I knew that the events described within were real, actual, factual events that took place in my own country. To people that could have been me, or friends.
I remember being in college at the time that Katrina hit, and I was entering my senior year. I was busy thinking about where I was going to end up after school was over; what would I do? Where would I live? Would I be able to live near Matt? What would happen to all my friends? I was attending mock-interview sessions, and even talked to (gasp) someone at the career center once or twice. I was asked at a Walgreen's to contribute to Katrina rescue efforts by adding an extra few dollars onto my purchase. I think I did, but I can't really remember.
I can't believe that I didn't know the reality, the REAL reality of Katrina, until Zeitoun. I think, until this book, I had someone shielded myself from the pain of knowing that people are capable of such horrible cruelty. I shielded myself from the racially charged, uncomfortable media circus surrounding the hurricane. Reading Zeitoun opened my eyes to the reality of what really happened after Katrina, and what that means for America, and our futures. The fact that it's been brushed under the rug as it has is shocking. The neglect, the rage, the de-humanizing, the numbing to the suffering of thousands of people.
Read the book and you'll know what I mean.
The book quotes, I believe, Mark Twain, who says: "To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I believe this is true - and this is resurfacing now, and could resurface in a very ugly way at any time. Zeitoun was the nail, the scapegoat. What will happen in the next huge disaster? I can't help but wonder who will be the next nail, and who will be the next hammer.
I need to stop reading such heavy books.
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