[Editor’s note: The following article is based on excerpts from an address delivered by Minister Farrakhan on Sept. 27, 2005 during a town hall meeting with survivors of Hurricane Katrina held at Bethel AME Church in Chicago, Illinois. Click here to order CD/DVD of t his message.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
Nothing that the survivors of Hurricane Katrina have suffered was in vain because what they have suffered has brought our people together in a way that I have not seen in a long, long time. I heard gratitude in the voices of the victims–who were not just victims of Katrina because, while Katrina came from God, the flooding was man-made. No matter what they lost–and they lost a lot–I heard praise of God, thanks to God for having spared their lives through the horror of their experience and bringing them through, even though we lost many lives.
This is not a time for weakness or cowards. This is a time for strength. I say humbly that the sacrifice of life is necessary for the advancement of human beings towards the perfection of God. There has not been any advancement in science, medicine, technology or engineering that has not been accompanied by the loss of life. There has never been a bridge built over a wide expanse that somebody did not die to produce that progress. There has never been a tunnel built underwater to connect two bodies of land that life was not lost to give human progress.
When I was a little boy, tuberculosis was a scourge among Black people. But the more people died from tuberculosis, the longing became stronger and stronger for a cure. So it was death that produced a baby that would end the scourge, by discovering a cure. Out of the wombs of women come children who will answer the longings of people.
When we go to Mecca during hajj, there is a time for the slaughter of animals and every pilgrim has to sacrifice the life of an animal. Before the Kingdom of God can be established; before the scourge of White Supremacy and racism can end, and a government of peace, freedom, justice and equality can be established, there must be a sacrifice of life.
The chicken that we eat wanted to live; but we are the superior life. So the lesser life is sacrificed for the greater life. All living things struggle to keep its life; but the supreme life is the human being, so the lesser life is sacrificed for the benefit of the supreme life. God is the Supreme of beings. So all of our lives are for a purpose bigger than our life.
Many people questioned how God could be present in such a tragedy. God is always present. Whether it is during a tragedy or a triumph, He is present. The tragedy in life is a trial for us. The triumph is also a trial. The tragedy of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is a trial for the mayor, governor, president, his cabinet, FEMA, Red Cross, United Way, Salvation Army, B’nai B’rith, and all those who lost their lives and their possessions.
But it is also a trial for us because their suffering presents us with a question that we have to answer: How much do we love our people? How much of the love of Jesus Christ that we talk about is in our hearts? How much of the love of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) that we talk about is in our hearts? When we hear the cry and pain of our Brothers and Sisters, it is not enough to send money, clothes or food, because those are things that many of us can part from. What is required is to open our hearts and doors and let our family come in.
They have given us a reason to live, organize and maximize our power and deal with the enemies that put them in this condition. If we fail them in this hour, I will pray that Allah (God) will bring upon us the worst chastisement that He has ever brought upon a people in the annals of history. We will be worthy of death if we do not rise in this hour for the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. We must rise for all of our suffering people, but our focus should be on them. They have given us a cause. They have given the Millions More Movement a reason beyond the general reason why we were coming together. They gave the Movement specificity.
Katrina destroyed a lot of property with wind and rain, but while it was building up in the Gulf for a long time, FEMA and the government could have been ready. It did not just rush on New Orleans, Louisiana and Mississippi all of a sudden. It was a Number 12 tropical storm when it touched Miami, the southern part of Florida. Then, it became a Category 1 hurricane. What is the difference between a Number 12 tropical storm and a Category One hurricane? It is the degree of organization within a storm. As a storm increases its organization within itself, it progresses in category. When Hurricane Katrina grew into a Category 3 hurricane, it stayed awhile to give people a chance to move. When it became a Category 5 hurricane, its degree of organization was so great that it became the most powerful, destructive force, even that of megaton and atomic bombs.
The organization of Katrina made people leave what they did not want to leave. Its organizational power struck fear in people. This is why the number one denial objective of our enemy is that Black people must never be allowed to organize.
We are so filled with fear, distrust and envy that the enemy can control us because, either we are afraid to stand up like men and women; we distrust our leaders who will stand up for us; or we are envious because someone is doing something that we think we should.
Enemies are very close. I see too much hypocrisy in those who claim that they want a movement. Although they claim to be working with us, they are the agents of the enemy working to destroy a movement.
But I warn you: I will call you out and sing a lullaby at your funeral. We have to examine the people who are up close around leadership, as Jesus was not betrayed from a distance. Some of our leaders do not want a movement. While on my recent tour organizing for the Millions More Movement, members of the press asked me what happened to the movement, since I am saying some of the same things that I said 10 years ago when I was mobilizing for the Million Man March. It started great, but all of a sudden it petered out. They asked me how the Millions More Movement would be different.
I said the difference this time is what is written in the scriptures. You have heard all the teaching you are going to hear; you do not need any more teaching or preaching. You need a whipping and it is on the way. We have been playing with God and marketing Jesus like a product, but no one is walking behind him. You think praising his name will get you into the Kingdom of God? If you are not willing to walk the walk, then you should keep his name out of your mouth, because you are nothing but a lying hypocrite.
You either are going to do or there will be a lot of death–not the few that we saw in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, but death is in the house now. The Wrath of Allah (God) has entered America and it is not going to stop. One calamity after another will hit America until America is laid low.
How dare you say that Black people are American citizens! When did we become citizens? We should stop talking foolishly. If we were citizens, we would have the rights of citizens. We have to accept reality. We are nothing but the same slaves that our great grandfathers were and this country is a plantation.
White citizens received help during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while the Black so-called citizens were denied help by the government. There are sick-minded Negroes who want to be accepted by our former slave-masters and their children, rather than be accepted by God.
You are like the prodigal son depicted in the Bible, who left his father’s house, squandered everything that he had at home and tried to join on to be a citizen in a strange land. He was given cheap jobs, husking corn and feeding swine. When a famine came in the land, the prodigal son was down; after he remembered his father’s house, he realized he was attracted to the strange land.
This is that strange land. You are attracted to this land because of the wealth of this land and the false promise that America is good for everyone. But you are nothing more than a mannequin in the window of democracy, wearing the garment of democracy to sell the lie to our people that this system works. It does not work for us and it never will work for us. It must be destroyed and something new and better brought in its place.
The prodigal son said he came to himself, because he was other than himself–like you are. With all that you claim to know, you are not yourself. When he came to himself, he said, “I think”–he started thinking again–“I think I will arise and go to my family.”
What is the Millions More Movement about? The Movement is a journey. The journey is not to make you a citizen. I don’t want to integrate into this filth and abomination. Do you want democracy or the Kingdom of God? What are you praying for? Why do you recite the Lord’s Prayer? “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth…” That is not democracy; that is the Kingdom of God and you are not going to get any joy or peace in this world. Your joy and peace is in the Kingdom of God when it comes to the earth. Then, all of humanity will never have to suffer like we have suffered and continue to suffer.
The flooding of New Orleans was a conspiracy. Hurricane Katrina was the cover for some dirt. The winds blew. The rains came on a Monday. By Tuesday, they were gone. People were standing in the French Quarter. There wasn’t any water in the Ninth Ward after Katrina left. Then, the levee broke. How did it break? The homes that we saw in the Ninth Ward looked like they were intact, but water came all the way up to the top of roofs. The hurricane did not blow them away neither did the water come when Katrina came. The water came after Katrina left.
God is challenging us by this tragedy, to see if we will stand up for our people. When you stand up for them, you are standing up for yourselves. We are angry at what happened to our family, but today they know that they are loved. The brotherly love level among us, which was not there before Katrina, has increased–like there was no unity between the Democrats and Republicans on Sept. 10, 2001, but after Sept. 11, they found a reason to come together. Hurricane Katrina is our reason. We must channel our anger into a constructive energy to mobilize and build a movement.
There is a subtle undermining of the spirit to mobilize. On the surface, our leaders look good, but underneath there is rotten behavior and character. I was with Kathy Hughes recently at Radio One/TV1 and she asked me who were the co-conveners of the Millions More Movement. She looked at the list I handed her and said that there are four people on that list who have told her they have nothing to do with the Millions More Movement. I did not ask her who they were, but we simply have to deal with that kind of hypocrisy. Everybody does not want this Movement to be successful.
President George Bush is upset over the Millions More Movement. It is good that he is upset, but it is bad that he can get upset and make anointed people into his magicians.Pres. Bush acted irresponsibly and it was not until New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin cursed him that he visited New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. But why did he bring Bishop T.D. Jakes? He knew he had messed up with Black people and he knew Black people respected T.D. Jakes, so he wanted T.D. Jakes to clean him up in front of a people that he was negligent towards.
Mayor Nagin said there was a 25-foot crater under the levee. He did not say a bomb. I read that some of the scientists at Louisiana State University (LSU) disagreed with the report by the Army Corp of Engineers that it was the water that topped the levee; the scientists at LSU said that did not happen. Later, they said, “We don’t know what happened, but that did not happen.” Then, I received another bit of information from the Hal Turner Show, saying that a member of the Army Corp of Engineers saw burn marks on the concrete of the levee, took some of the concrete and spirited it away in his vest and sent it to his friends in the Armed Forensic Laboratory, and they found two different explosives that were used that citizens could get, for they were underwater explosives from the military.
Maybe, this is a rumor, but residents of the Ninth Ward said that they heard explosions. The enemy was quick to say it was gas explosions in houses–but when the water came, they did nothing.
One of the evacuees who spoke, charged that it was a conspiracy. She is right. It is a conspiracy to drive the poor Blacks out of New Orleans. Why would they put the evacuees on a plane, without telling them where they are going? Then, they end up in Utah, California or Colorado, only to be surrounded by armed guards? In Georgia, the mayor of Macon visited me and told me that there were 600 evacuees in his city, but you cannot get to them without permission and they cannot leave without permission. It is like they are in a detention camp. Some of the evacuees are even housed in discarded prisons.
The Millions More Movement has no validity unless the Movement uses the man-made and God-made tragedy as the centerpiece for the Millions More Movement. If reparations is our main focus, then these Brothers and Sisters, and the horror that they have been through, have to be healed–not just with money and homes. FEMA and the other charities are not culturally sensitive to the needs of our people or the psychological and emotional traumas that they have suffered.
So on October 14 in Washington, D.C., at Howard University, 25 major Black organizations will be meeting, including Black doctors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists, to prepare a plan to adopt families and put them under the type of care that they need to make them whole and wholesome. In trying to make our Brothers and Sisters whole, we will become whole in the process.
So let us organize a movement and let us turn our anger into a protest. Let us start moving toward Washington. Let them know that we do not appreciate what the government has done, and then lay out before our people a plan of what we are going to do to challenge this government and heal our condition.