When did it become safe to stop talking about Katrina? It’s been just two years since the sixth strongest atlantic hurricane blazed a path of homewrecking destruction through New Orleans. People died. People were displaced. People were lied to. I’m wracking my mentals trying to recall the last time I viewed any content resembling what’s being done to reshape that part of America. TRUTH? I do remember the week long coverage leading up to Anna Nicole Smith’s funeral. And the mystery over her baby-daddy. And the recap of her pretty unentertaining life.
A lot of cats are running around this country actin’ like the taste of Katrina has been smacked out of their mouths (and treating the whole scenario as if that’s a good thing™). Ask yourself — why is that? A serious disconnect has happened. The phone is off the hook forreal. Out of mind, out of site? If it’s not hitting you at home, it doesn’t matter? As a human being I’m trippin’. The most powerful country on the planet, or so the pundits of mass miserablism tell me, and little has been done to address this particular hell on earth that exists within our borders. As a Black man, the systematic destruction of Black people in this post-Katrina age has me wondering if we aren’t straight up living in a Birth of a Nation styled era .
Bill Quigley’s article on urban removal about how to destroy a Black American city is effective in deconstructing racial inequality as it relates to the Katrina aftermath. He hasn’t stopped thinking about Katrina. Neither should you. It’s not clear how to utilize my own hustle & flow to address the collective racism and ignorance that clouds the whole scenario, but one thing is clear — I’ve got to do something. TRUTH? There’s no justice Black folks, just us.
My brother has organized at least 3 groups from church that have gone down and helped remove garbage (and some pretty nasty, rotting, moldy shtuff), build, remodel, cook, etc…
‘Course, he doesn’t have any celebrity babies, so “who knew!”
It’s true the topic is no longer ‘in the news’ but I think waiting to hear about it on the one-way radio known as ‘the news’ will never assuage the feeling that it is being forgotten. But, people are doing stuff. It’s just no longer news. Now, we have to wait for Oprah or Extreme City Makeover Edition to cover a particular story and then We, the nation at large, can feel good that at least something has happened down there.
As far as getting involved - there are lots of ways. I just googled (apologies to Google for ‘verbing’ their name) Katrina Relief and received a lot of options, eg. http://www.emergencycommunities.org/
There are so many people in need from Hurricane Poverty, Hurricane Power & Prejudice, Hurricane Racism, Hurricane Homelessness, et al, that trying to help can appear daunting, overwhelming.
My tactic is to choose something that I am passionate about, and find a group at my church, or in my community (or start one) that addresses the situation in an effective, systematic way where I can either participate or support financially, etc.
This IS the world we’re talking about.
Thanks for the reminder!
Does anyone know if it took them two years to clean up Ground Zero in NYC? I seem to recall that the clean up of that toxic site was done in less time than scheduled. There was lots of news of the intensity of the workers and their efforts to clean it up. And no reports of absent money, supplies, etc…
Meanwhile the folks in New Orleans have an entire news chanel dedicated to “post-Katrina” news. I watched it one morning and the bulk of the reports were on trash and trash removal. By the time they clean up this trash it will have rotted back into the ground. Trash talk is distracting everyone from talk of rebuilding.
If you want to help, a great organization to check out is ACORN http://www.acorn.org/. This is a grassroots organization working to rebuild the region as the residents intended. Also, watch When the Levees Broke, A Requiem in Four Acts.
Dear 42:
Thanx for leading me to your blog, which is impressive. You are sharing good points I myself have been frustrated with & have also thought about.
How can we smack it back into the public eye? I agree that it is frightening how we’ve moved on and somehow have forgotten that things have NOT gotten better down there. Whenver the news does cover the fact that people are still dislocated an there are still hundreds of homes just laying there it hits a spot deep in side.
This talk of a PodCamp happening in New Orleans I think is a great idea and I hope and pray it’s got a strong community angle. Do it all outside? Somehow teach and empower people to get their voices heard? Straight up volunteer work and donation?
I’m not sure what the right answer is, but there seems like so much that new media can do. We’ve got a lot o smart and passionate people. How to focus it into a collective solution is what we need to figure out.
Host the PodCamp in the park that Bush spoke in days after the hurricane. It is lovely and near the Cafe DuMond. You can all snack on cafe au lait and beignets and glance out at the river. A great conference venue is Hotel Monteleone. http://www.hotelmonteleone.com/ It is a family owned hotel and stayed open during the entire hurricane, hosting both guests and employees and their families. They claim to have a few ghosts but I have never seen one there.
I’ll inquire at that hotel for their conference rates. I just bought the domain names tonight.
You should check out the last issue or the issue before that of National Geographic. It’s all about Katrina and the issues confronting the rebuilding.