From Scout at First Draft:
The facts of Katrina have been recounted many times over--90,000 square miles of damage and destruction, 300,000 homes damaged or destroyed, 80% of New Orleans flooded, over 1700 dead--a breadth and depth of sorrow and suffering that when viewed first hand leaves most to recall the scenes of bombed out WWII Germany and think only a Marshal Plan could begin to bring healing and rebirth.The people of the Gulf Coast have not had a Marshall Plan to help their recovery. The money dribbles in very slowly to the homeowners - if at all. A great deal of the progress that has been made is due to the determination and work of local people and to volunteers, who come from everywhere to help out. In the richest country in the world, is this the best we can do?
Perhaps it is harsh but when members of the UK show Top Gear traveled through the Gulf Coast and saw the shocking devastation they asked: "How can the rest of America sleep at night knowing that this is here?"
A word from Scout, who does not live there, to the rest of us who do not live there:
For not only should we know but we should care and we should act. It's quite a responsibility to say the least. One which we each try to strive to meet in our own way. Mine has become to write of New Orleans and I harbor no illusions on that front. Most days I don't know that it does a bit of good but I could no more stop than I could stop being an American. For it is in New Orleans that I have truly realized the meaning of America.You can continue to read Scout's "A Tale of Two Blocks--Part 2" at the link above.
Scout is from Wisconsin, but she has made it her mission to tell the story of enormity of the destruction wreaked by Katrina and the federal flood and the meager and shameful response by government officials to the plight of the people in the area that was destroyed.
Thanks to Ray in New Orleans for the use of the picture. You can find tales and pictures of the many houses Ray has gutted here.
My experience was similar to Scout's; the city teaches you things that you need to know, but may not want to learn.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you.
Kirstin, you've worked in New Orleans. You know the lessons.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Grandmere, you were not inept, you did great that day. I was watching. Sometimes I had to get out of your way you were going so fast.
ReplyDeleteSecond, as Karen pointed out in my blog comments, sometimes even though we don't get a family back into their house, our gutting it does help the rest of the neighborhood. A gutted house is less of a health hazard, less likely to harbor rodents, less of a blight on the neighborhood, and it makes it easier for those people who did move back in next door to live next to it and to feel better about their neighborhood.
Remember the neighbors who bought us all that fried chicken? They knew the chances of that house being reoccupied were slim, but they still could not stop heaping praise on us for what a wonderful thing we were doing.
We did good work there that day, and though it may not have the exact miraculous happy ending that we imagined in our heads, life seldom does. Good works are little micro things that nudge the world in the right direction a few inches at a time, and as a group we gave it a good shove back onto the path.
I want to share with you what has been my favorite quote since I moved back here. I first read it on a big banner at Ye Olde College Inn, an Uptown eatery that was destroyed by the flood and rebuilt and which still has the best oyster po-boy on earth. It's Teddy Roosevelt, but it could be anybody who has worked in New Orleans:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. "
You did good. You should be proud. This city will come back.
Where in NC were the students from?
ReplyDeleteLJ, the students were from Elon University. They were a great bunch of kids. After we finished our work, Scout went with them on their bus to give them a guided tour of the destruction, because they did not really know where to go to see the worst places. The trip and the volunteering was part of their credit for a class.
ReplyDeleteShe had a funny moment when one of the students asked her why Bush hadn't done something or other that he obviously should have done to help, and, Scout said, "Because he's a dick," and then popped her had over her mouth and said, "Sorry about that".
Ah, Grandmère Mimi. I don't know what to say, so I'm gonna be a dork and quote Bruce Springsteen (he used to say this when he was campaigning with John Kerry):
ReplyDelete"The country we carry in our hearts is waiting."
We're gonna put it all back together, somehow.
PJ, I hope you and Springsteen are right.
ReplyDelete