A New Volunteer Is Inspired

We arrived today in New Orleans. I rode in the minivan and was able to observe some of Katrina's damage. As we drove past the 9th ward, houses were gutted, abandoned; businesses boarded up and left out of operation; and entire neighborhoods resembled a ghost town. Two and a half years have passed since Katrina and many areas have been left untouched. Corporate empires have left some of their franchises because so many residents have been displaced and reopening would not produce profit.

I'm amazed how much damage there was and is, how much work and recovery still needs to be done and how much little attention the whole situation receives. I do not watch much television, but every so often I check out the local news and I don't think I've heard more than two comments on the 'progress' of handling the situation. I started to think about all the non-sense reality shows, celebrity obsessions, and sports fanaticism that is ubiquitous among American culture. I started thinking about the constant presentation about Clinton versus Obama and their rhetorical speeches to grab the nation. People know things need to change in the country. But to elect another president will not solve the many problems in the country. To live in a democracy means to be active in many realms. Democracy isn't only about voting. Voting provides an extremely minute effect. Real change happens in devotion of your time and a change of your lifestyle.

What about the city of New Orleans and the lost and altered lives of the residents? Why don't more people know that stuff is still messed up? Why aren't there public announcements everyday about the need for volunteers? I think about the concept of memory and forgetting---what the general public absorbs and how people go about their daily lives. Cultural amnesia appears to increase as attention spans minimize and concerns gain a fluidity to move focuses from one pleasure to another. We live in a redundant smoke and mirrors reality, which promotes poverty, racism, and oppression, stalls efforts to live as a collective and hides truth. Fed the dominant ideology that promises progress and advancement for human beings, we are blinded by the increased discrimination, poverty, and unjust in the world. Human beings are social beings. We need each other. We don't need more 'stuff', more entertainment or more pleasures.

Response on a local and national level was delayed severely for New Orleans. The politics of Hurricane Katrina break my heart, cause frustration, and anger me. After our orientation tonight, a local resident named Joyce, an elderly white haired rosy-cheeked woman, started to tell me about her home being engulfed with eleven feet of water. Ten months after the storm three feet of water remained. She told me about a man named Peter who volunteered later that year to clean up the debris and gut her house. A year later Peter came back and remembered her house and story. Her joy and appreciation for Peter is in endearing to a new volunteer.

Phil Bratta

March 24, 2008 @ 10:56 PM