Dose of Perspective

I am back from Cajun Country after a four-day jaunt with the creole-lovin' folk of New Orleans. My trip started with a humbling tour of the post-Katrina devastation that was inflicted upon the people of the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish. Talk about your dose of perspective.

Remember seeing pictures of Nagasaki and Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped, like the ones in the D-Day Museum in downtown N.O.? Yeah, like that. Miles upon miles of ruination. Cars upended in muddy ditches. Houses knocked off their foundations. Trash piles as big as the houses themselves sitting along the sidewalks, waiting for the City, private contractors, or even another deluge to be taken away. In most cases, nothing remains of these residences but brittle wooden frames without roofs or walls. I saw the place where the levee broke. I saw the look on the residents' faces when we asked them whether these problems have been solved, whether this will ever happen again. All they could confirm was that many people would never again call this city home. Humanity emptied from this place as quickly as it could, and it has not come back.

The sheer lack of anything living in these areas was plain eerie, but it spoke volumes about what kind of progress the City of New Orleans still has to make. I for one was extremely pleased that our conference did not change locations. These people need help from the rest of the union, whether by donations collected in plates at Church, or by travelling down there and dropping some money into the local economy. If nothing else, if you happen to come in contact with a Katrina survivor or their family, take the time to speak with them or offer them kindness of any kind. These people are literally having to start their lives anew, and will likely never return home again. It is up to the rest of us to make sure they can call someplace "home" once more in the future.