"Only Connect." Part 2

From DemocracyNow!:

(Amy Goodman): International donations have been pouring in for victims of hurricane Katrina. Countries across the political and economic spectrum have responded. Germany and Italy have sent food, Canada and Singapore have provided planes and helicopters, and Greece is sending two cruise ships to house evacuees.

Afghanistan and Armenia both offered $100,000. Sri Lanka, a recipient of U.S. aid, is offering $25,000 cash. And on Sunday, the United Nations announced the US had accepted the UN's offer of assistance. But the United States has not warmly responded to all donations. The US was slow in accepting offers from Venezuela. Yesterday, Venzuela's ambassador to Washington said boatloads of gasoline are being shipped to the US. It will be sold on the market rather than donated.
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(Phyllis Bennis): On the other hand, it is an amazing admission for the United States that has, for this administration, that has consistently attempted to describe the United Nations as irrelevant, to undermine everything the United Nations is trying to do, particularly with the role of the new U.N. Ambassador from the United States, John Bolton, for the United States to now admit that it needs assistance from the United Nations, and for John Bolton to admit that, as he put it, there is no -- that sometimes the rugged individualism, as he put it, of the United States might not be enough. That's a huge admission of the failure of unilateralism of this country, that what all of the people of this country have been saying, the war in Iraq is not making us safer.
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So, the international acknowledgement by the United States that the most powerful, wealthiest country in the world is unable to support its own population in this dramatic moment of crisis for the poor and impoverished and overwhelmingly black community of Louisiana and Mississippi is a very stark reminder of the price we pay in this country, particularly the price being paid by the poorest and the communities of color for a war in Iraq and for the efforts of the United States to prove to the world that it doesn't need the rest of the world. We have seen that proved as a lie.

The entire story is worth listening to/reading, even though there is more about bungling by FEMA (bureaucrats are blocking water treatment system and cell phone system on a plane from Sweden), and offers simply being rejected. But just think for a minute: John Bolton, forced to acknowledge that the U.S. being the "Lone Ranger" is not always such a good idea. And Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, is donating $1 million.

To realize the world cares about us, even when we don't care about them, even when we don't, as a nation, care about our own. People in the Astrodome are telling local news this is a second chance for them. It's like they didn't realize how bad the slums of New Orleans were, because they never had a hope of leaving them. In the same way, we never realized how much the rest of the world would help us, if the need ever arose. Now it has, and while it is still "God be with those who are suffering, and those who are helping them in their need," it is also our national wake-up call. This is our chance to take a long, hard, national look at our "independence" and "rugged individualism," and begin to recognize the danger in our American mythos, and what we have done in its name. It is to our national shame that people feel better treated in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, than they ever did in the neighborhoods of New Orleans, Louisiana. But despite our shame, the world still wants to help us.

That, alone, should make us feel hopeful. That, alone, should make us realize another part of the American mythos may yet serve us well: that it's never too late to correct your mistakes, and make amends, and start over. And this time, get it right.