Letters to the Editor: Still a time for action, not reflection on destructive effects of Katrina

It is funny that America has taken time out to remember us. For us New Orleaneans, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was just another day. On that day, a year ago, more than just homes were destroyed. I am telling you LIVES were destroyed, shattered, dismantled, chewed, spit out, chewed again, and thrown to the winds. How can we look back and reflect when the turmoil and chaos that Katrina has caused is still going on every day? People are still waiting on FEMA trailers, filing lawsuits with insurance companies, stuck in whatever city they were evacuated to, and grieving the loss of everything they worked hard for.

We are a city whose culture is built upon remembering our pasts. My family can trace back their roots to just about the beginning of our city’s long history. I cannot begin to described just how attached we are to our home in this short article. The only thing that I can compare our loss to is the loss of a parent: We all feel like orphans lost in a country that does not seem to care about us or want us.

I spent a short amount of time at home in this tiny apartment my parents are occupying while we fix our house. Unfortunately, we are not the norm since we are lucky enough to have the funds to rebuild. Many people have no way back home to even begin to rebuild. Quite frankly, the trickle of charitable help has not been enough to even scratch the surface of the clean-up, let alone complete rebuilding.

Development is sporadic and uncertain because there is no plan and the victims are running out of funds. I am sure you are asking, what about the billions of dollars that the federal government gave to the Gulf Coast? Because of red tape and political B.S., we are still waiting on the applications to even see if we “qualify” for the money that we were promised.

To add to the frustration, those of us who are able to rebuild are doing so without the promise that the levees will not break again. The current goal of the Corp of Engineers is to repair the levees to “pre-Katrina standards.” What?! Besides the fact that there is no clear plan about building better levees, the scary part is that hurricane season is in full swing and we don’t have adequate protection for even a minor hurricane.

Recently, I asked my mother what we would do if our house were damaged again. There was silence on the phone because we really don’t have a “Plan B.” We can’t have a “Plan B” because our local and state governments are disorganized and are too incompetent to draw up a “Plan A.” The humid, swampy air at home is full of the suffocating sentiments of frustration, exhaustion, and fear.

For us, it is too soon to have a “time of remembrance and reflection.” The fact is that we are being neglected and forgotten. To suddenly be remembered at this time is a joke. One can’t look back on an event when they are still living it in the present. I wish that the students at Vassar could be as passionately upset about what is happening to my city and its people as they are about perceived injustices on this campus. Our complaints here pale in comparison to what is going on in New Orleans. Seeing my family suffer so much has made me value the doers more that the talkers. It is time for action and not remembrances.

—Kesia Brown ’08